Father Dungy’s Team? Chucky’s? Try McKay’s
June 14th, 2010
Some eight seasons after the Bucs won their first Super Bowl, the debate rages:
Father Dungy’s devoted parishioners claim the Bucs won with Father’s Dungy’s players. This is usually uttered in hushed tones while making the sign of the cross, clasping a rosary in their left hand.
Somehow, the Father Dungy acolytes seem to conveniently forget that Father Dungy couldn’t win with Father Dungy’s players, and that Chucky had five and sometimes six different starters on offense when he led the Bucs to professional football’s Holy Grail, a Super Bowl title.
Chucky supporters, when they hear the Father Dungy followers’ chant, simply smile, point to the photos of Chucky hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory, and say, “Scoreboard.”
Derrick Brooks has a slightly different take. While he deftly dodged the question from electronic sports media czar J.P. Peterrson during Sunday’s broadcast of Tampa Bay Sports Central, seen locally on WTOG-TV Channel 44, Brooks had a different view.
Try Rich McKay’s team.
Brooks actually pointed to the then-Bucs general manager as the man who should get the credit for the Super Bowl, not Father Dungy or Chucky.
“The one constant was we still had Rich McKay as our general manager. He had a lot to do with building this football team. We had the pieces here [to win when Chucky came]. People forget [McKay] kept the defensive staff.
“I don’t think it’s fair to Coach Dungy or Coach Gruden [to say whose team won the Super Bowl]. But the fact is Coach Gruden was the coach when we won. That obviously gives him the right to say it was his football team.”
Previously, Brooks lauded both Father Dungy and Chucky for making him the player he became. Per Brooks, Father Dungy challenged Brooks to be an All-Pro player. Chucky challenged Brooks to be a Hall of Fame player.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Yep, I agree with Brooks, Rich was a huge part of it.
And don’t forget Sam either!
Or Monte!
June 14th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Lol – it certainly is the offseason.
Well played, Joe. Well played.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Hmmmmm…. I thought Dungy and Gruden won inspite of McKay
June 14th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Joe:
What did Brooks say about this:
“Peterson says Brooks opens up about his disgust and disappointment about the way his Bucs release was handled”
June 14th, 2010 at 11:01 am
He didn’t. That comes in two weeks Joe believes. It’s a two-part series.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Thanks.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:08 am
He said nothing about his release. Nunch of BS to get everyone to watch. JP is a tool.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Rob:
It’s a two-part series.
As for as getting people to watch, what, JP is supposed to bust his ass to get an interview, sell the ads and then tell people NOT to watch, really??? In what world?
Joe suspects more people locally would rather listen to Brooks count backwards from 100 than to listen to anything that twerp Mike Lupica has to say.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:48 am
So tell me, how again did McKay build his team to become Super Bowl Champions?? Build a core team with the draft, get some opportune FA when you have some available and when your core is beginning to become a team, keep drafting for support of the core, and adding FA with special Talents that fit your need area, again when available.. Oh yeah did he sign many FA just to sign them? or was there a “plan” in place…? HMMMM
June 14th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
McKay was around for the Bucs Super Bowl and was all too willing to manipulate the media into allowing him to tell anyone who’d listen of what a wonderful job he was doing. He’s going to be the next commissioner or didn’t you know that. Wyche selected Brooks and Sapp and already had Lynch…thus giving the organization a tremendous running start into building the defense which would dominate through last year. McKay is also all too willing to take credit for that situation as well. His drafts beyond that were better than those under Allen as Dunn, Alstott and Barber were all chosen during that time but he also deserves some criticism for the decline of the team as well as once you get past ’98 there wasn’t anything much coming in from the draft and there were some poor signings as well. Rich McKay is a great self promoter who had the media down here wrapped around his finger.
June 14th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Am I the only one who is amazed by the preoccupation with which individual gets credit for a victory in a team sport? How many cogs could you replace and still get there? One injury to a key player and you’re screwed. One bad move and you miss. It is a game of inches (deference to Any Given Sunday) and that year we added them all up.
Everyone involved deserves credit. They were all contributors to a great run. I just wish people realized how amazing it is (and unique) rather than focus on who should be lauded (or vilified).
June 14th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
RustyRhino:
Ah, someone sees the trees in the forest.
June 14th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I give pappa Glazer the credit for the superbowl. He was the one who changed the front office, coaching staffs and support for a team to build a winner. alot of support comes from all different areas of the team. But if you do not have a dedication to winning from the owners, then the team is out of running for serious success
June 14th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
dungy , gruden debate. i guess you could say gruden had two teams raiders and bucs, or allen like mckay had raiders , mckay had bucs anyway i go with gruden he had two teams bucs and raiders. ha ha gruden haters
June 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I disagree with everybody. It was JimBuc’s team. Yea JimBuc!!!
June 14th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
BigMacAttack — Curious why you keep attacking me? If that is how you wnat to do it, then I will just keep copying and pasting your outlandish slur over and over again. Is that really necessary? I know Joe does not want us taking up his space with such nonsense.
Now, let me post some commone sense courtesty of Rusty Rhino:
“So tell me, how again did McKay build his team to become Super Bowl Champions?? Build a core team with the draft, get some opportune FA when you have some available and when your core is beginning to become a team, keep drafting for support of the core, and adding FA with special Talents that fit your need area, again when available”
Uh . . . . huh.
June 15th, 2010 at 11:47 am
its a team everyone had a hand in it