TAMPA, Fla. -- At a breakfast for luxury suite holders last week, Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano said the Buccaneers were the laughing stock of the league when he was hired.

On Monday, Schiano took an opportunity to clarify his comments.

“Sometimes you say things in context,’’ Schiano said. “That statement was really about kind of the discipline and the issues that were going on. It wasn’t the on-field football. I apologize if I offended anybody with that, but that was certainly not the purpose. That was our suite holders and the question was in regards to some of the discipline. As I’ve shared with you guys, I had to be a little over the top because of the adjustment from how far the other way things had gotten. That’s really want I meant.’’

I don’t think Schiano even needed to clarify his comment. The fact is the Bucs were the laughing stock of the league in the final year of coach Raheem Morris’ tenure. The 2010 Bucs went 10-6 and seemed to be a team on the rise. But I remember multiple people around the league being skeptical about Tampa Bay’s lack of discipline as the Bucs got ready for the 2011 season.

The skeptics turned out to be right. The 2011 Bucs took advantage of Morris’ loose style and had to deal with several off-field incidents as they went 4-12 that season.

Schiano has a reputation for being disciplined and that’s a big part of the reason why he was hired.