It’s a story that needs to be told: Far too many fans don’t full comprehend what has happened here. This is unprecedented in BUCS history; A football team of professionals compeltely shut down on their head coach, owners, fans, and themselves, and went from 4-2 to 4-12. And I’m going to tell you how it all happened.
PRELUDE: “Remember this name…Raheem Morris”
Who the heck is Raheem Morris?
“He’s the Bucs defensive backs coach who left after ’05 and is back now, he’s why the Bucs secondary is so good this year”
That conversation happened during the 2007 season between a friend of mine. When the Glazers named Raheem Morris as head coach in 2009, MY phone rang off the hook! “OMG I cant believe you said years ago remember the name Raheem Morris”. Because I knew what Morris was.
He was a young raw talent; he came to the Bucs in 2002, the year the Bucs won the SuperBowl. He was a Go-For for Mike Tomlin, an assistant to the defensive backs coach. He grew with the Bucs, and in time, Bucs assistants started getting opportunities around the league because of the fame of the Tampa Two. Raheem got a chance to be the Defensive Coordinator for Kansas State. He took the chance.
But then Mike Tomlin decided to leave to become the D.C. of the Minnesota Vikings. Morris was asked to come back by the Bucs, but he gave his word to K State. He followed through because it was the right thing to do. The Bucs were stuck with hiring a new comer, and he had a bad year. Bucs D backs tuned him out. But after one season at K State, which vastly improved K states defensive stats for a few years to come, Morris came back as D backs coach. The Bucs secondary improved dramatically, the Bucs pass defense went from 17th to 2nd!
But after a 4 game losing streak, Jon Gruden was let go. Morris was interviewing for the Head Coaching job with the Denver Broncos, who wanted a young Up-and-coming coach. Raheem fit the bill. The Glazers wanted Morris as their Defensive Coordinator as he had been promoted to, but Denver was serious because Raheem wowed them in Denver. The Glazers figured they couldnt let a talent like Morris get away, so they made him Head Coach.
CHAPTER ONE- Morris has been accused of being unready for the job. At the press conference to announce him as head coach…Morris almost sounds like he has won the lottery rather than hired as Head Coach. Sure sign he wasnt fully ready.
Watch the Raheem Video in your browser
“My team….wow, this is my team” and when a reporter says “As head coach of the Bucs, will you…” and Morris cuts him off “Wait, say that again please…”. But this accessable head coach and new GM were liked by the media. They gave him a shot-
The Glazers meanwhile didn’t. They figured as a rookie young head coach, they would choose his offensive and defensive coordinators for him. Jim Bates and Jeff Jagodinski were brought in, but both were fired by Morris in their first year. Instead of letting him pick, he had two forced on him, and the Jim Bates pick has never sat good with me. Why keep a Tampa Two guy, then completely shelve the Tampa Two? Eventually, with a defense that could stop no one, Morris had to take over by himself. It worked at first, but just as they replaced Jags with QB Coach Greg Olsen, no proper replacements were ever hired. With the smoke and mirrors success of 2010, there was no reason to change it. The Bucs fought hard for Morris in 2009, they bought in to what ever he said, and those young players played at the top of their game. The season ended on a bright note, but no one could know what the next year would hold in store for the franchise: the greatest turnaround in one season in history.
Chapter 2: 2010
It looked like 2010 was going to be just as tough as 2009; the Bucs opened against the Cleveland Browns, and their new QB, Bucs thorn in the side Jake Delhomme, who was ahead 14-3 and driving for more points just before the half. Thats when it happened; thats when 2010 became the season that it was, and it was an old vet who accomplished it. Ronde Barber stepped in front of a Delhomme pass and ran it back inside the Cleveland 5 yard line. Thats when Mike Williams scored his first TD on an amazing tip up and tip toe catch, and instead of 21-3, it was 14-10 at the half. Freeman nestled a pass into the arms of Michael Spurlock and the Bucs won their first game of the season, and that kept going as the Bucs got more and more confidence as they easilly handled a disoriented Carolina football team.
Most people assume the Bucs won 10 games in 2010 because of an easy schedule, and no doubt it was. The Bucs played the NFC West, a division that produced the NFL’s first ever sub-.500 football team in the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks. Tampa Bay won all four games. But it was so much more than just an easy schedule, the players were riding an all time high. They were energized with Josh Freeman and Mike Williams. They were enamoured with the discovery of LeGarrette Blount, who perhaps was responsible for the whole mess that would become ‘youngry’. If you going to realize that the Bucs players underachieved enourmously these last ten games, then you have to understand they OVERACHIEVED in 2010. Yes, against a weak schedule, but it was a snowball effect, and the wins kept coming in amazing fashion, and they fed each other over it. Imagine if Blount gets that first down against Atlanta in Georgia, or if Erik Weems doesnt return that kickoff vs Atlanta here at Raymond James, and Kellen Winslow doesnt get called for Pass interference; a call apologized for by the NFL a day later. The Bucs would have been 13-3 with the best franchise record ever. No matter though, because in the end we saw it for what it was- smoke and mirrors; overachieving.
Chapter 3: Youngry
With the success of LeGarrette Blount, the Bucs front office started to pat itself on the back, and we all helped. We pushed for Raheem Morris to be ‘Coach of the Year’, praised Mark Dominik for his talent sniffing ability that seemed to find so many players where no one else wanted them. The Bucs own Media Guide boasts of how this team has 20 players that were never drafted by anyone, and we all looked over that without batting an eye. Twenty Players…that no one else wanted. A diamond in the rough is one thing, but expecting it to hit 20 times? Thats just wishful thinking; and wishfulness was what drove the offseason during 2011, because there surely was no football to be heard of. People say ‘every NFL team was without an offseason’ and that is true, but which players are most affected by the loss of it? First and second year players, basically the entire Tampa Bay Buccaneers team.
The Glazers drank the Koolaid, WE drank the Koolaid, heck the Bucs even poored themselves a few glasses. No one saw the approaching storm, no one questioned the validity of what was accomplished. Young was the way to go..you get young guys, they fly around like crazy animals! And it all works when your winning; everything is glossy and shiny when your winning. But what about when your losing?
The Bucs were 4-2 having beated the New Orleans Saints at home, and few people stopped to realize what a monumental thing that was. The Saints had blown away the Bucs in Raymond James the last two years, but this Bucs team actually took it to them, and the Atlanta Falcons, the team that swept the Bucs the year before. The Bucs were tied for first place in the NFC South, and were 2-0 in the division. And then it all fell apart. But what actually happened?
LONDON.
The Bucs took a bunch of kids with them on a field trip, a bunch of impressionable pl
ayers who were in first place, held onto everything their head coach told them as gospel, and believed that by going out to London and staying for a full week, they had an absolute advantage over their opponent, the Chicago Bears, who arrived only two days prior to game day. The day before the contest, Bears players appeared in press conferences looking hung over, still asleep. It was a no brainer, the Bears were fools. Just like the Detroit Lions who before opening game decided to stay up in cold Michigan to practice instead of coming down to Tampa where it was hot as July. Lions coach commented “We’re not going to worry about the heat”. Lions players looked more accustomed to it than the Bucs, perhaps because they refused to make a big deal out of it? The Bears refused to worry about the supposed lack of time to get accustomed. “This is a business trip, were here to do business” while the Bucs practiced, but used the week as a vacation, sight seeing. All the while, the biggest NFL team fan club, the BUCS UK head by Paul Stewart had its members 350 strong filling their ears with “You’re Great, you’re amazing, you’re the Best”!
I dont blame the Bucs UK members, if Manchester United was my favorite soccer team, and they came here to Tampa to practice and play, Id be all over them too. Its what fans do. But it seemed no one in the Bucs organization thought that this was a bad thing, filling up these young, immature, impresionable men, with inflated greatness. It all came crashing down..the Bears started the game as if THEY were the team who spent the team in the UK for a week, while the Bucs were still sleeping in their hotel rooms. Only a frantic comeback attempt which ended on a Josh Freeman interception made the game look interesting.
But something happened here at this point. The Bucs never won another game the rest of the way, and I’m willing to bet in the near or distant future, a hidden truth will come out about this point in time. Maybe there was an argument, maybe there was a fight. Maybe there was a message that wasnt given right, or taken right. But this was the beginning of the end. The Bucs sleepwalked through a visit to New Orleans, and looked nothing like the team that fought the Saints tough a few weeks earlier. Then the beginning of the end happened, the Bucs didnt even look like an NFL team at all taking on the Houston Texans, embarassing themselves in the second blowout loss of the year.
Morris tried to get control of the situation here, but adding another practice to the week is something that can only be done once, and it set up his own critical mistake. The Bucs played the undefeated Green Bay Packers tougher than anyone played them all year. If Kellen Winslow holds onto a two point conversion, the score is tied with minutes left. Instead, Morris choose to commit to another (2nd) onside kick attempt. It failed like the last one, and screamed of desperation to a team that had fought hard all game long. Green Bay scored easilly, and the upset that could have been, that maybe could have salvaged the season, wasnt to be.
No one knows what a ride that could have been had the Bucs gotten their confidence back, some swagger. They went on play another close loss to Tennessee, which would be their last close loss of the year. After that, everything was a joke and a blow out.
The Problem with the Bucs, is they were undisciplined, reports are now coming out that players showed up late to meeting, nothing was done about it. When I visited One Bucs place, we went through a room where players names were on a board showing the fines they got. There was a HUGE list of fines for players, and we were told please dont take photos for privacy. In the Bucs game room, a nice plush poker table had one signature on it, someone had taken it upon themselves to just write their name on it like it was a high school study hall table. LeGarrette Blount.
The Bucs commited more penalties , and turned the ball over more, and Morris was helpless to stop it, because the players stopped listening at this point. But rather than bench them, rather than sit down Sean Jones or Tanard Jackson, and put the young Bucs players (it was supposed to be Youngry right?) like Ahmad Black and Anthony Gaitor, Morris stuck with his ‘guys’. And the losing, and the blowouts spiraled.
The Bucs looked so good in building up a 14-0 lead on Jacksonville, helpless Jaguars that they were. But as soon as the going started getting tough, these young, immature players, who have been coddled their who lives in High school and in college, were left clueless. They selfishly started playing only for themselves, instead of each other, and Morris could not bring himself to discipline them by taking them out.
Brian Price gave everything for this franchise, getting hurt, coming back into playing shape, hearing the ire of fans calling him fat, when he wasnt allowed to burn any calories because of an injury, he was supposed to stop eating too? Price never gets penalized, but he lost it one time. That was the one time Morris chose to call out, but it was Brian Price. It wasnt Aqib Talib, it was Price. That had to alienate even more Bucs players, because it was that point where the players laid down and quit on him. Only once in a few seasons do the Bucs give up 40+ points, and it was becoming regular, weekly. The last game, the Falcons were besides themselves in laughter over this Bucs team, giving up 42 points when they knew they were playing for Raheem Morris job?
CONCLUSION: He had to go.
Was it all Raheem Morris’ fault? No. Mark Dominik, the Glazers, all bought in to the stupidity of putting together a team of college all stars with little to no veteran talent. Domink claims he felt the team had enough of a presense, and I believe him. But no one thought that Donald Penn is not a leader. Jeff Faine is, but how many of him are there to go around, and what about on defense? Ronde Barber is not a leader, he leads by example. There was no one for this team of young players to go to, to help them. To teach them HOW to practice, HOW to play, when the going it tough.
Mark Dominik has been with the Bucs since 1995, the beginning of the change of the Buccaneers. He cant be let go, thats too much experience in the Bucs organization to let go. Dominik made mistakes, and it sounds like he, and the Glazers, have admited to such.
There will be no more London games, there will be veterans on this team next year, and there will be a new head coach, probably one with experience. With the Bucs completely clearing house of all coaches and staff, they are sending a message; losing wont be tolerated. As long as everyone gets that message, the future of this organization will be ok.
QUICK TURNAROUNDS are not uncommon in the NFL anymore. We have the QB, the D Line, and the O line in place, it just needs some fine tuning, and some coaching. Don’t be surprise to find a Bucs franchise with 9 or more wins as soon as next year, if the right moves are made.
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