Jim Caldwell Not Afraid Of Dungyphiles
February 4th, 2010
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Dungyphiles drive Joe nuts.
The way some of the Dungyphiles talk about Father Dungy, it makes Joe think he needs to fall to his knees, make the sign of the cross and recite the Act of Contrition.
The thing that irritates Joe the most about the Dungyphiles is that they give Chucky zero credit for winning the Super Bowl with the Bucs. None!
They parrot that nonsensical cliche that Chucky “won with Dungy’s players” yet cannot recite the starting lineup for the Bucs in that magical Super Bowl winning season, specifically, the Dungyphiles cannot name the six new offensive starters for the Bucs that season who weren’t on the roster when Father Dungy was coach.
So when Jim Caldwell guided the Colts to the Super Bowl in the first season after Father Dungy left (sound familiar?), Joe was wondering when he would first hear someone babble, “Caldwell won with Dungy’s players.”
Though the Dungyphiles totally disrespect Chucky — even though players like Warren Sapp and John Lynch have long admitted Chucky is just what the Bucs needed to get to the Super Bowl, Caldwell is almost embracing them.
Speaking at Super Bowl media day, Caldwell said he believes he is coaching Dungy’s team and it would not be an insult to him if people thought the Colts were Father Dungy’s team.
“No sir,” Caldwell told Joe, because that notion”would be exactly right. [Father Dungy] is still a part of this program. He helped put this team together. His thumbprints are still here. While there were others that helped” mold the squad, men ” like Bill Polian and our owner Jim Irsay helped put this whole thing together. The players, certainly, can gleam from the fact they all played” for Father Dungy.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:24 am
GREAT article. Straight forward and factual. As the Dallas Cowboys keep proving every year, talent alone can’t get you to a SB. It takes an entire season of grit, great play, gameplanning, motivation, practicing and above all… luck.
The Super Bowl is never a gimmie. Therefore, especially in a league of such high turnover, the SB team can only take credit for that year they went to the big dance. All other seasons are just that, separate seasons.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:08 am
Whose players did the dream win with? Oh, sorry, he sucked at 3-13 thats right………………….
February 4th, 2010 at 6:23 am
You could more truthfully say that “Dungy won with Wyche’s players.” Sam drafted Lynch, Sapp, & Brooks. Everyones seems to forget about that.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:25 am
@Mike J: LOL Mike. You are right.
As for the rest of the article I thought it was spot on. When I first arrived in Tampa nearly ten years ago all I remember on sports radio is that many people were calling for Dungy’s head because he was too conservative when it came to play calling. The last straw for most of the people in the Tampa Bay area was when Dungy hired Clyde Christensen. An overwhelming majority of Bucs fans in this area wanted Dungy fired because he was too stubborn to change. Hell, why do you think the phrase “Dungy Ball” exists?
Honestly, I don’t know what it is about this area. There is a significant number of sheeple out there that wants Joe Maddon fired because one dunderhead with a microphone in his face is sowing seeds of frustration and aggravation. The best coach in the history of the Lightning was ran out of town. The best coach in the history of the Bucs (Gruden) was ran out of town, and now people are clamoring to run the best manager in the history of the D-Rays/Rays out of town.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:36 am
And everyone forgets that the team on the other side in that SB was the Raiders, Grudens Team. So he was the architect of one team and the push for another team in the exact same SB. Callahan wasn’t even coaching the team. He was 100% using the Gruden offense and defense of the Gruden staff from the year before. While I really thought Dungy was a great coach he never had two teams in the same SB. I wanted change from Gruden but not this kind of change. I figured they would add or delete a couple of the coaches on Grudens staff and change there philosophy on the draft and free agency a bit but I didn’t want Gruden Fired without having a coach with a proven track record lined up.