As anyone who visits this site regularly knows, I’m a Gary Shelton fan. He writes great stuff, and I tend to agree with what he writes on a regular basis. Doesn’t mean always, there are plenty of things we don’t see eye to eye on. Gary said the Bucs win no more than 6 games, I said 8. He is still stuck on his 6, and I see them now winning 9! But that’s what Gary Shelton does, he calms you down when your getting out of control. His medicine? Reality, in moderate doses. We spent no less than 4 days emailing a debate over Tony Dungy and his leaving the Bucs, and Gary Shelton was very passionate about his side. Human beings have a lot of things in common, we as a species have a very steady set of characteristics that make up who we are. Through our debate, it was obvious Gary tends to think highly of Dungy, and for the most part respects Jon Gruden for the work he did, but you could tell from the way he talks he is not a big fan of the man. I may feel that way too if I spent countless sessions in One Buc with those men at the podium for any length of time. Now does that tend to sway the way you feel about an issue, maybe, but more so than ever after our debate I came away with a huge level of respect for the media for the amount of information they have with which to form their opinions. Look, you or I can have a debate on anything Bucs related, but if I know more about the Bucs than you do, my opinion is going to carry greater weight. Well Gary’s opinion is to my opinion as a lead weight is to a pile of feathers. It’s the reason I stress I am NOT media, I am not a journalist, I am a blogger. I give my opinions, nothing more. Gary Shelton’s opinion that Raheem Morris is full of those same feathers and lead weights is his right; free country and all that. Heck I’ve followed the Bucs for 31 years now, and I don’t buy they are the best team in the NFC. I don’t even think Raheem does either. I think Morris’ point is that the Bucs, in the standings, are the best team in the NFC. But as Shelton Points out, the standings are stats too. Am I excited to hear Raheem talk like that? You bet your Bucco Bruce I am! But I also am tempered enough to know this team has a long way to go before it really is the best team in the NFC. I fell into that trap a couple of years ago when I was getting psyched up for a Monday Night Bucs game that could have propelled them into possible second seed in the NFC, and that was SECOND BEST team in the NFC! I’m not going to fall for that again so soon, especially as soon as it has been after last week! Not when half the fans left the stadium the other day because they thought New Orleans Saints came back to Tampa and exchanged uniforms with the Rams. But at the same time, I also know its only a year after that horrible Bucs season that was 2009, which was the worst year in Bucs history since 1991, and even that team had more potential. You just knew the 2009 team needed about 20 more players. So when I hear my favorite coach tell me my favorite team is the Best team in the league, I’m getting even more pumped up to watch the Cardinals game at 4pm than I was before. I’m just a little closer to the ground thanks to Gary Shelton, and that’s a good thing. Besides, when Gary tells me the Bucs are the best team in the NFC, then I know they will be.
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