Briefly yesterday, the sports world was aflitter and atwitter, abuzz and agog at the word coming from Tampa that the Buccaneers’ owners, still reeling from the Bernie Madoff scheme, were going to have to sell the team before next season. The rumor seems to have originated from former Buc Dan Sileo on WDAE 620 AM, though according to JOE BUCS FAN, it quickly spread to other relevant media organizations.

(Uh oh, Jasper’s here. And he’s got his paddle. Guys, that’s not a good sign.)

Slight problem: Sileo apparently didn’t check that rumor with the actual team; they’d have quickly shot the rumor down. We know they’d have done that because that’s precisely what co-chairman Joel Glazer did with ESPN’s Adam Schefter later that day, calling the rumors “100 percent false” and “baseless, irresponsible and slanderous.” Whoops. Well, that’s one way to earn a quick vacation.

Spake the TAMPA TRIBUNE:

WDAE, 620 AM, host Dan Sileo has been suspended for claims he made Thursday regarding the Glazer family, owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Dan Diloreto, president and market manger for Clear Channel, which owns the station, said “Dan Sileo has been suspended pending further investigation into this matter.”

Sileo reported this morning that the Glazer family was among the plethora of high-profile victims in the Madoff scheme and is considering bankruptcy. Sileo also said the Ponzi losses have led to the family being $650 million in debt, and he surmised the team may be for sale.

Sileo, who hosts the early morning show on WDAE, quoted a “friend” who works with the Securities and Exchange Commission as saying the Glazers lost $440 million in the Ponzi scheme.

Whoops. The Glazers say they’ve actually never invested a cent in a Madoff scheme, which is just 44 billion cents away from the figure Sileo reported. Ballpark, though, they’re totally on the same page.

This is all so delightfully 20th-century stupid. Communication is instantaneous now, and thus so is verification. For things so easily provable (or at the very least, so specific that the Bucs would deign to comment on them) as “team is for sale” and, according to the Tribune, “team is only spending $2 million per year on free agents” - they may want to tell Derrick Ward about that, since Ward signed a 4-year, $17 million deal - Sileo has got to at least run the rumors by someone in the Glazers once before he puts it on air. C’mon, man.