For Derrick Ward, the Bay Area never became home

He was one of three running backs who had 1,000 yards for the NY Giants. In fact, he had the highest Yards Per Carry Average out of them. He came to a team whose starting tailback had just shot his 2nd knee, after spending the entire last offseason PLUS the first half of the next season rehabbing the OTHER knee. But Cadillac Williams overcame his injuries, and captured the starting job. Ward got his carries too, but he did not make the best of them like Cadillac did, and so he did the worst thing you could do on a Raheem Morris coached team; He Pouted. He refused to talk to the media, which came off to Morris as a problem. Then he shows up this year at camp coming out of one of the most expensive cars a player has, showing off his contract, instead of his abilities. His contract wasn’t the only fat thing in Ward’s life. Sluggish and out of shape, he caught Morris’ ire after the very first preseason game for making excuses, something forbidden here in Tampa Bay under the culture created years ago by Tony Dungy. And so now he is gone, and with him any doubt that the Bucs front office is all about money. They do not care about the money, they will not sacrifice the future of this team, and its chemistry, for a dollar bill. Kareem Huggins will take over as the second stringer, and the funny thing is, if he takes Ward’s number, (and gets a hair cut), you might think the reincarnation of Warrick Dunn had reappeared at one Buc Place.