The Buccaneers

With the Buccaneers season over there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about, hence my absense. The biggest news at One Buc Place is probably the resigning of David Boston who was released last year due to there being some doubt about his recovering knee.  The Rumor Mill however, says it had more to do with his failing the NFL substance use test.  Whatever.

I would also like to share some comments from my favorite Buccaneers message board.

“This game would probably have been a blow out had the conditions not been so bad.  The rain clearly effected the Colts ability to go down field and they ran a ball control offense and let their defense win the game.  It was similar to the way the Bucs played although the Bucs never had a Peyton Manning or Dungy would have won Super Bowls with Bucs.

CBS’s coverage was terrible, bad and unacceptable.  Yes they are the AFC network but they anointed the Colts champions before the game was played and all that was discussed was Peyton Manning.  Its a disgrace for a national network to be so blatantly biased to one team and to discuss one individual from a team as much as they did.  I don’t know what it is about Dan Marino but his commenting doesn’t do anything for me.   Him doing that interview with Manning was  like sending your worst English student to Oxford.  He can’t talk and his questions were trite, Manning clearly wasn’t pleased when Dan asked him “how many more commercials are you going to do”?

Shannon Sharpe is awful  He and Marino just aren’t up to Super Bowl professionalism.  Phil Simms is an ex-athlete who has become a fine commentator, you can see he has worked at it. 

Fox clearly is a far superior broadcaster for the NFL.  CBS is second rate in comparison. Give me Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman, Howie Long, Mike Ditka, John Madden, but please keep Dan Marino and Shannon Sharpe away from doing Super Bowls.  What a weak broadcasting team that was except for Phil Simms.  Jim Nantz, ok, he was alright.

Dungy was all class and I love his humility and strong ethics.  I do have some issues with some of his religious statements.

In my opinion I felt his religious comments were more appropriate for a church gathering amongst his flock.  He  mentioned that the Lord helped him and his team and I took those comments as him downplaying his contributions to his team  and his players and as a nod to the Higher Power .  He also mentioned he is a Christian coach.  Nothing wrong with being a Christian, but isn’t that a personal belief that is his own?  What if a Muslim coach won, what if an atheist won, what if a Jewish coach one, what if a Buddhist coach won?  Would it have been appropriate to mention if a Muslim coach won that it was Allah that was motivating the coach?  How offended would the average American been if that was the situation? 

As a religious person myself, I feel such comments are  personal and should be kept within yourself as those feeling are your own and others may have different beliefs.  I think Dungy and his team and their organization won the game.  God may have inspired them but Human Free will and  Human strength from the players won that game, not God.  Dungy did give credit to his team and his organization and it is they that deserve the credit, not God.  God didn’t coach the Colts, God didn’t make any interceptions, those were manmade deeds..  Tony’s  beliefs may have  driven him to accomplish his goals but it was the jobs done by humans and the work that was done by Tony, his staff and his players.  I believe it would have been more appropriate to leave the religious stuff out of the public eye. 

I love Dungy and his dedication to his beliefs but I’m also a believer that your spiritualism is your own and to try and evangelize your religious beliefs on a podium like the Super Bowl isn’t the proper time and place.  I can however see that in his moment of excitement and exhilaration that he was in he probably could not control his personal feelings.  Not a misspeak or a bad thing, just football isn’t the right stage for spiritualism, its entertainment and a way for people to take their minds off of the hard realities of life.  Please Tony, save your prayers for the people that need it, the weak, the sick, the poor, your family.  Religion belongs to you and your family and but there are other Christian sects, Jews, Moslems, Hindu’s, Buddhists and many other religion’s that enjoy their own spiritualism.  Its bad enough religion is being distorted in the Middle East for violence and being used by many for political gain and repression.  Please lets keep religion out of football, its caused enough problems over the past 5,000 years in terms of people not being able to get together because they are of different religions and cultures. Football brings many of us together on Sundays.so lets leave the religious stuff to churches, mosques, temples, and other places of worship.

On the other hand I felt his comments on him being the first Afro American coach were very appropriate.  He mentioned those coaches before him that weren’t given the chance because of their color and that they had paved the way for him.  I really though those were great comments and agreed with him.  There have been many people of color that could have been coaches in years past had the NFL establishment not been racist and its an honor that Dungy mentioned that as well as a disgrace that the National Football League wouldn’t also mention those coaches that were held back because of racism.  Its the same with black quarterbacks.  How many years did the NFL establishment hold back the black quarterback.  You can say what you want about baseball but there were black pitchers in the major leagues in the 40’s yet it took until the 1980’s for black to start getting the opportunity to play in the NFL.  Shame on the NFL for that.”

Thanks and a tip of the Buccaneer helmet to ECO for his astute observations!