Josh Freeman was ousted by Tampa Bay because he didn’t play well and wasn’t going to get a new contract. Everything else is just circus noise.

Joe sees a very similar bottom line for Greg Schiano, barring a stunning 2013 turnaround. The head coach has lost nine of 10 games and is routinely outcoached. Everything else is just circus noise.

But a renowned NFL writer sees Schiano as a man getting a bad rap — courtesy of a bad quarterback no better than Tim Tebow.

Olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve,baseball box score-reading Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame, issued a passionate backhanded endorsement of Schiano yesterday during a radio interview on WEEI-FM in Boston.

“I think that we’ve only gotten one side of the story — the side of the story that says Greg Schiano is a total nincompoop, idiot, you know, just a bad human being, spy, all that stuff. I just am going to tell you this right now: I think about two-thirds of the stuff out there about Schiano is absolute bullcrap,” King said. “I think that Greg Schiano, I think he’s a good man. I really do. And I think that given a chance, a fair chance, he’s going to win. But I see this snowball rolling downhill right now. This everything against Greg Schiano.” “And I just will make this point, over his last 10 games, Josh Freeman is 1-9, and over those 10 games he has a lower quarterback rating through those 10 starts he has a lower quarterback rating than the last 10 starts of Tim Tebow’s career. At some point we can talk about, ‘Oh, [Schiano is] invading the privacy. He’s this. He’s too hard on these guys. He’s coaching them like they’re in high school.’ At some point, you’ve got to perform. And Josh Freeman is a 50 percent passer over his last 10 starts in the NFL. I’m sorry if I’m not getting in the violin line for Josh Freeman. And if I am not quick to shovel dirt on Greg Schiano’s NFL career. Because he cast his lot — at least for the first two years — with a quarterback who, for whatever reason — maybe coaching is part of it, it probably is — but he cast his lot with this guy. And regardless of why it happened, how it happened, to me, I think it’s pretty unfair to absolutely kill Schiano in this thing and paint Josh Freeman as some sort of wronged saint. End of sermon.”

Here’s what doesn’t make sense about King’s assessment of Schiano. If Josh Freeman was so bad, then why did Schiano stick with him in 2013?

Schiano had the full respect of the Bucs organization last winter and could have told his bosses Freeman wasn’t the guy — his guy — and ordered a trade of Freeman and rolled with Mike Glennon or whatever QB the Bucs could have gotten on the market in March and April. Please don’t try to sell Joe that anyone twisted Schiano’s arm after a 7-9 opening season and a franchise overhaul that he was hired to lead.

That absolutely must factor into the evaluation of Schiano, who adamantly claimed a few weeks ago — and repeated recently — that he has the “components” in place to win now.

Again, Joe’s trying to keep his head clear of the circus noise. Schiano has to win. Plain and simple. This is not a rebuilding year.