Get Ready For The 2010 Message
May 21st, 2010
For weeks, the Bucs billboards around town have read, “Unite and Conquer.”
It’s very football-sounding. Something to fire you up to buy a ticket. Not bad.
Now, a new catch phrase apparently has emerged. Raheem The Dream rolled out “lasting contender” during his news conference following the final OTA practice this week at One Buc Palace. And Joe suspects we’re going to hear that compact message quite a bit during the 2010 season.
“Trying to build that lasting contender is what we’re trying to do around here,” the Bucs head coach said unprompted just 20 seconds into his Wednesday news conference.
“Lasting contender.” Remember that phrase. It’s very neat and tidy, and it smells of the Bucs shiny new media relations wizard out of the high-profile Washington political scene, Jonathan Grella.
Joe’s been watching to see what subtle changes would appear under Grella’s regime, and Joe thinks this is a prime example.
Compassionate conservative. … Hope and change. … “Lasting contender.”
If nothing else, the new phrase will save Raheem The Dream a lot of breath trying to explain how the Bucs are rebuilding, and it might keep him from coming up with Bill Belichick analogies to make a point.
May 21st, 2010 at 12:19 am
So Grella is doing his job. Helping the fans understand what Joel Glazer said in March of 2009. The plain language of Joel Glazer gives way to a catch phrase.
May 21st, 2010 at 12:25 am
Grella must LOVE this website. Keep’em on their toes Joe. This site is like crack. i swear.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:12 am
Lol. Nice observation. I can’t blame you for being paranoid about such a
slimeball bunch of green blooded cockroach vultures that the Bucs have
hired to lie as they do.
Yuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
May 21st, 2010 at 2:44 am
I think it’s hilarious that no matter what the Glazers try to do, they get thrown under the bus for it: they dance around the salary cap for years, they get shit for stupid moves and short-term bandaids; they try not to waste money and build through the draft like most perennial competitors do, and they get crap for being cheap, which THEY NEVER HAVE BEEN IN THE HISTORY OF THEIR DECADE-LONG OWNERSHIP. What is wrong with you people? They’re trying to formulate a plan that works. People who complain about it are either too stupid to comprehend what they’re trying to do or just simply not big enough fans to try and understand. It’s pretty simple, people.
I think the most annoying part is when individual media writers try to say they’re cheap… even though they’ve signed huge, overpaid contracts for years before they became smart enough to realize how to build a continuously successful franchise. These people are supposed to be experts.. and yet anyone who genuinely knows better, realizes how ridiculous these overpaid writers sound.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:37 am
“Lasting Contenders”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
May 21st, 2010 at 6:40 am
Anybody know how ticket sales or ticket renewal’s are doing? They did nothing to retain me as a ticket holder, just an offer to spread out my payments, which only delays the un-affordability of the tickets.
Are there plans for a select a seat (or two) like last year?
Just wondering. I just couldn’t afford to go anymore but I wonder how many are not buying because of the product on the field?
As we have seen with clever catch phrases, such as Hope and Change, that can be enought to get you where you want to go, even if you have no real ability or experience to do the job.
May 21st, 2010 at 7:28 am
Stupid ass fans will soon be saying, “Damn, I guess the Glazers did know what they were doing.”
You guys are gonna feel like such idiots trying to climb back on the bandwagon. Cheapskates.
May 21st, 2010 at 7:57 am
The Bucs need only to look across the bay [something that is almost impossible for most Tampons] to see how to build a winner. The Rays hired real “baseball” people to help young management make wise player and coach decisions. They traded for prospects who have bloomed into stars. They kept their eye on the ball and built an organization that has more talent than anyother………WINNERS.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:00 am
Never have so few accomplished so little, and bragged so much.
Here is a time tested PR campaign.
Win the NFC South. Become a contender, THEN talk about how long it will last.
These people are a complete joke. Tick tock “Rah”, September is closing in, and the “Champions of April and May” will soon have to play when they keep score.
Uh oh.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:39 am
Eric — one word: T-H-E-R-A-P-Y
May 21st, 2010 at 8:42 am
Joe here,
TampabayFlyFisher – The Rays analogy is nice, and they’re a heck of an organization, but a lot of the Rays success has been driven by coming in last place 10 years in a row. …
May 21st, 2010 at 8:46 am
@jimbuc
Counter word:
D-E-L-U-S-I-O-N-A-L
As for the Rays, the Big Dog is absolutely correct, that Joe Madden just doesn’t know baseball.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:06 am
Eric,
Seriously man, what will it take for you think the Bucs are moving in the right direction this year? What will you say if we get 6-7 wins? 8? Anything above that is pushing it, even for me.
But your such a hater on every single thing that comes out of the Bucs. Your sound like a whiny little bitch!
May 21st, 2010 at 9:08 am
Don’t think Eric’s a hater. He just wants to SEE it out of the Bucs, who have won 3 out of their last 20 games. …Not just all this lip service and BS and no free agents. …
May 21st, 2010 at 9:14 am
@Gary
Improvement on the field and not in the slogan department would do it.
I guess I am old school “no excuses, no explanations” Tony Dungy style.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:30 am
Here’s an interesting qoute from Raheem:
“You ask anybody on the defense what their job is, they probably won’t know what you’re talking about. But if I ask them they’ll say ‘score, get the ball back.’ Whenever they get that question that should be the standard response.”
Defensive players not knowing their duty/job??? That is not what I want or want to hear. I can understand the “score and get the ball back”. That was something they said and strived on the SuperBowl year. I even believe Gruden asked the D to try and score 10 times.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:50 am
@OAR
Gruden begged his D to score due to his inepth offense’s inability to do so!
May 21st, 2010 at 10:55 am
Eric — you are becoming more and more angry every day . . . hold on my friend, hold on.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
JOe, Fly has removed the VN years from his memory, much like the Culverhouse years. I was talking about the new ower’s approach. I think you will agree that few of the key Rays were Chuck Lame-er’s picks. So, Fly will agree that building through the draft and with smart trades is a good approach JUST AS LONG AS SMART PEOPLE ARE MAKING THE DECISIONS. Fly is not yet sure that MD and RM are smart………….Hope they prove us wrong in a very big way!
May 21st, 2010 at 11:23 am
PS we need a spellcheck feature here!
May 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am
gruss222, You never let me down with your hate for the man, good to see you haven’t lost form or consistency. Keep up “the work”!
May 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
gruss222, What’s Raheem’s excuse/reason?
May 21st, 2010 at 11:59 am
Gotta love this comment Oar:
Here’s an interesting qoute from Raheem:
“You ask anybody on the defense what their job is, they probably won’t know what you’re talking about. But if I ask them they’ll say ‘score, get the ball back.’ Whenever they get that question that should be the standard response.”
Defensive players not knowing their duty/job??? That is not what I want or want to hear.
Could you try any harder to find a negative where there is only a positive. Morris did not say that the guys on D did not know what their jobs were. He just said that if a reporter asked they might not understand, but that if he asked the answer should be score or get ball back.
Man . . . . talk about stretching . . .
May 21st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Jimbuc, You say tamato and I say tomato. Or is it, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure? Like it’s my fault Raheem speaks from his ass? Whatever!
May 21st, 2010 at 12:20 pm
And BTW, No I don’t have to try very hard to find the negatives! It’s actually rather effortless and apparent.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Raheem Morris is an absolute moron. He should NOT be the Head Coach of any NFL team, PERIOD. I wonder how many NCAA athletic directors would even want his diarrhea mouth exploding all over the mic.
@“Lasting contender.”
It sure is a good thing this is the NFL… because in the NFL you have to play the game! And the results will be very difficult to sugar coat… since there is a score, stats and wins and losses. I don’t even know when this clown if ever will win 9 games in the NFL.
This ain’t politics. The media and the liberals can only make excuses for so long before the season starts and reality hits the fan.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Oar — you are a cartoon character. If one were to sum up the article in a single sentence it would be that Morris wants the D to focus on scoring and getting the ball back (the same thought the D followed in the SB year). From that simple theme you extract one sentence, take it completely out of context and turn it into a negative: the D does not know what they are doing. LOL.
Like I said, you are a cartoon character based on the very worst of sports “fans” on meesage boards. Sad to think you spend so much of your time trolling around to post trivial stuff like this.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Wow,
OAR I dont remember you being this stupid when you used to post on the other blog on tampabay.com. You and DR used to go at it. Fun to read. I actually respected your opinions back then.
You are totally reaching for BS in his quote.
Rahdom,
make sure you bow down and slurp on Rah’s dong when he turns this thing around. I would rather have blind optimism than blind hatred. How the hell do you call yourselves fans always proclaiming Rah sucks, bucs will suck, etc. A few things can happen, either you look good when the bucs suc again and your proclaimations are correct, or you look bad when they are ok. Why not want to look good when the team is good also? Doesnt make sense. Seems to me a real fan of a team would rather make positive statements and look bad when that doesn’t happen rather than the other way around.
May 21st, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Jimbuc, Thank you! I have accomplished what I set out to do, turn into a cartoon character. I have finally arrived!
BTW I guess you do as much trolling I as do, to be able to find my every post on the two sports sites I visit and post.
Again its my fault Raheem talks from his ass! And of course I know what he meant. I just found his statement to sound stupid.
“You ask anybody on the defense what their job is, they probably won’t know what you’re talking about.” Tell me how this sentence is supposed to be taken?
May 21st, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Gary, No, I’ve always been stupid, just handled my banter better back then. And thanks for repecting my opinions back then. That’s the funny thing about opinions, they are like a–holes. Everybody’s got one, just some are bigger(and smarter now, I guess) than others!
Glad to see my BS reach is good and lengthy though!
May 21st, 2010 at 4:11 pm
ERIC
“the Big Dog is absolutely correct, that Joe Madden just doesn’t know baseball.” I have NEVER heard Big Dog say that. He disagrees with the pitch counts and couple other MINOR little things, but that is about it.
As far as this hatred you have for what is supposed to be your favorite team, it is borderline psychotic.
It is a slogan, in the offseason to boot. What the hell is wrong with that?
So you don’t approve of how they are rebuilding: good for. Root for someone else, because the complete and total non-comprehension you have for a REBUILDING project is just sad and pathetic.
You throw Raheem under the bus every time he speaks or turns his head. Again, it is sad and pathetic.
I absolutely HATE people who play the race card, being a complete conservative myself, but I would come to a conclusion that you have a problem with his skin color.
There is no other logical explanation for hating a guy who was given the reigns of team that is REBUILDING. There was not going to be 8 wins last year and there probably won’t be this year.
All one can do is give them the rope and see if they know what they are doing over a 3 year period as the REBUILD.
But instead, you would rather bash them every chance you get and every time Ra speaks. You do not care that every player in that locker room plays their asss off for him. You do not look at the fact that the defense improved and they won 2 to 3 to close the season once Freeman settled in and Raheem took over the defense. Those things don’t matter to you.
You just want to trash them and piss on the rebuilding process.
It has gotten REAL old and stale. My gues is you are from Philly or further north.
Go back
May 21st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
RahDomDaBest
Read my last post as it pertains to you as well moron
May 21st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
RahDomDaBest
and
Eric
Question for ya?
I can name a BUNCH of Hall of Fame coaches that only won 5 games or less in year one, but I won’t go look it up.
The point is, if you guys were in charge there are SEVERAL HOFs you would have fired in year 1 based on your comments over the past year.
IDIOTS
May 21st, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Thanks for illustrating my point Oar:
“And of course I know what he meant.”
May 21st, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Jimbuc, Cartoon here. I knew what he meant by this, My problem wasn’t with him wanting the D to score or get the ball back. It was his wording in that paragragh in his statement. It made the D sound dumb!
Dat’s alll foolks!
What no reply about your trolling too? If not, then how do you know about mine?
Better be a cartoon, than a characture, Jimbuc!
May 21st, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Hall Of Fame Coach?????????????????????????????
Hall of Fame Coach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, you people are totally gone……………………..wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy gone.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Hall of Fame coach he is a high school gym teacher at best.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:12 pm
How many of those hall of fame coaches: 1) had no prior coordinator or college HC experience, 2) changed both offensive and defensive schemes in their first year, 3) fired both coordinators in the first season, 4) changed the schemes back to what the prior coach used in their first year, 5) compared themselves to other future HOF coaches?
Answer: NONE!
@Eric, I’m with you. When they start winning, I’ll cut them some slack. Until then, they haven’t proved ANYTHING and their talk is cheap and meaningless.
Also, why is it the apologist are always calling names? They love to throw around words like moron and idiot and a$$hole. But, WE’RE the haters!!!???
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:45 am
@Dave
Seriously dude, I understand the part about giving him another season to get it together, but to use hall of fame coaches as an example of why not to throw him out the door is insane. He’s no Tom Landry, Bill Parcells, Don Shula, Bill Belicheck, Jimmy Johnson, or anyone like that.
Now those coaches I listed above, yeah they had bad seasons sometimes. But the difference between them and Raheem is that they actually had resumes and creditentials to show when they were hired. They had enough experience to know what they were doing and didn’t have to go through two O and D cordinators, make a dumb re-signing, or cut a good kicker and then have a guy who’s 100 times worse screw up their first 4 games of the season. Once again, I know there’s coaches who have had bad first seasons, but Raheem made so many insane mistakes in his first year that i’ve never heard of another first year coach doing. It was embarrasing.
Maybe there was some upside about Raheem, but when he was hired I just didn’t understand why. He hadn’t done anything to earn a position. I mean the guy was recently just promoted by Gruden to d-cordinator. Doesn’t that say something?
I’m really not a Raheem fan at all, but I do hope he succeeds this next season.
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:19 am
Grella is just doing his job and honestly I think the phrase suits where the team and its fan should reasonably expect it to be after a 3 win season. Look at the Falcons before Ryan’s rookie year. Blogs, sports radio, fans, media ripped apart Arthur Blank and the entire Falcons franchise. They made wholesale changes and as shocking as it may seem they had new marketing campaigns rebranding the team whose image was tarnished by both Vick and a season where they were just awful. Let’s stipulate that at the end of the days it’s all about getting W’s and putting a quality product on the field. That being said, media and marketing and branding is a huge part of any business. You ever hear people going ballistic on Coors or Budweiser or Corona for having a clever ad campaign. Jay Leno and David Letterman (neither of which I find very funny) have people come out to warm up the audience and get them in a good state of mind. Actors have P.R. people and make-up artists and so on and so on. So please, let’s not get panties in a bunch (and I suspect a lot of the frustrated posts come from people whose panties are on too tight) over clever catchphrases and marketing. The Bucs appear to be moving in the right direction and for now contender (lasting or not) would be a good place to be after an abysmal season. What do you want them to say: 1) we’re going to win the superbowl this year; 2) we plan on being equally sucky; or 3) I refuse to comment on what the goal is for the next few seasons as I don’t want to agitate anyone by saying the wrong thing. Let’s rally behind the team both on the field and off and have some fun with marketing media P.R. stuff and reserve judging until we’re keeping score. Let Grella help the team sell some Jerseys and tickets and maybe we can avoid a damn blackout. Now exhale everyone….(Sigh)
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:00 am
Baby woke me up early and I had something else to say. if you can’t be with the one you love then love the one you’re with. Yeah, I believe that’s the lyrics (or close to it) of some hippie song I saw on an infomercial for a collection of 70s music but I digress. Raheem, for now, isn’t going anywhere and we all can agree that he did not have the traditional NFL coach pedigree but that also means that there’s nothing tieing him to the organization and management at the hip. If they brought in a Cowher or high price free agent veteran coach they would’ve spent redonkulous money and then there would be complaints that she should’ve spent that money on players. Also, veteran coaches haven’t had the most success over the past few years. Dolphins, Bengals, and Falcons all have built their teams around coaches whose names didn’t carry a lot of cache and are having success. If “the Dream” doesn’t build a “lasting contender” I humbly contend that he won’t last another 2 seasons. He’s got to double the win total this year (minimum). I don’t think improving to 5-11 will cut it even though my trusty calculator tells that’s a 66% increase in wins.
So back to the P.R. thing, riddle me this… Why do teams have cheerleaders? They don’t lead to more wins and if anything serve as a distraction to the team during game day. Could it be that they are used to create interest and excitement for the team and its fans. C’mon now! Why do teams build new stadiums with fancy amenities as it doesn’t improve their offense or defense. Wait, don’t tell me… It improves the overall fan experience at the game separate and apart from how the team is peforming. I won’t even get into mascots and Jerseys. Anyone see a trend here. Outside of the actual games which are 3 hours x 16 weeks or 48 hours (assuming non-playoff team) of actual football playing in a calendar year that is 8760 hours long. So that’s about 1/2 of one percent of the time the team is actually playing football but us fanatics of the game live it, eat it, breathe it, and soak it in 100% of the time. There’s so much more to our beloved team, our beloved game, in our beloved city than just what happens for three hours on Sundays. Allow the team to develop a positive message, a positive vibe, just like we want a positive fan experience at the game. Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy some well spoken press conferences that got people excited whether or not all those words were scripted by coach himself. Are you now going to criticize him for not “keeping it real” and coming up with all of his lines himself. A well spoken coach that is effective in delivering messages to its players, media, and fans is a good thing seven days til Sunday, period. A team that can articulate clearly and cleverly its vision whether or not it uses catchphrases and a P.R. guy (which all teams have) is a good thing. Just like pretty cheerleaders and tasty food at the stadium, and cool team gear are good things ALL THE TIME (and don’t make the team better).