“The Race To 1”
August 14th, 2010
Older than his head coach, Ronde Barber is surely the voice of reason on the Bucs, except when he’s bashing the media like a whiney crybaby.
While Raheem The Dream is trying to fire up his team installing a season rallying cry of “It’s a race to 10 wins,” Barber told the Sirius NFL Radio crew on Wednesday that “it’s more like a race to one or two.”
Barber went on to explain how desperately the Bucs need to rack up a victory on opening day or at least a couple of wins very early in the season, and how the confidence gained from winning is critical for a young roster.
Movin’ The Chains co-host Pat Kirwan pushed Barber to talk about why he often sits alone at practice and how he relates to his young teammates.
Pat Kirwan: I watched you closely to see how you’re running and playing, and then on the breaks I saw you two times take a knee all by yourself. What’s going through the mind of a guy older than the head coach takin’ a knee by himself watching a team full of 20 years olds.
Ronde Barber: There’s very few people, especially on defense, that I can consider a peer. You know, so when [Derrick] Brooks was here or some of those older guys were here, I could sit down and talk ball to them. And I still talk ball with the young guys, but they usually don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. They haven’t seen what I’ve seen. So I take a knee, and I just take it all in.
Kirwan: [Brett] Favre said it one time, that when he was in this position, when he was 35, “I found myself unable to relate to my teammates.’ I don’t think that’s with you, but I was watching you by yourself, and you were definitely daydreaming.
Barber: No, I wasn’t daydreaming, man. I was taking in the practice. You know, I spend a lot of time with Rah, and I give him a lot my input. …
Barber went on to explain that he meets with Raheem The Dream daily, as well as some veteran teammates that he did not name.
Joe couldn’t agree more with Barber’s “race to one” assessment.
The Bucs open the season with Cleveland, Carolina and Pittsburgh, before a bye in Week 4. Cleveland and Carolina won 4-of-5 to close 2009, and Pittsburgh finished 3-2 over its final five.
Joe doesn’t think the Bucs could recover from going 0-3 heading into the bye week.
August 14th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Hey It only took this team 8 weeks to get to one last year! And we did add a few rookies and a 35 y.o. right guard.
If it wasnt for opening against Cleveland, who Plant high school would be favored against, I would say that we may be looking at about the same timeframe for the race to 1.
I am predicting that this team wins an ugly one in the opener, maybe steal one against carolina or Lefty’s steelers – which will cause the sheep to act like we have just won the super bowl, to be followed by a horrible last 12 games winning just one or two more.
Jimbuc and Capt Tim will be elated that we went 4-12 (instead of 9-7 which is unacceptable to them under any circumstances). Consequently, we will have another offseason of: “build through the draft;” “you can’t win with free agents;” “Drew Brees wasnt a valuable free agent addition for the Saints” “Kurt Warner didnt improve the Cardinals” that type of non-sense in defense of these Glazerhouse Kids who forgot that this team got over the hump with: Brad Johnson, Pittman, Keyshawn, McCardell, Rice, Quarles, Culpepper, Christy, McDaniel – all non-drafted vet additions.
LETS START THE CLOCK ON – HOW MANY DAYS UNTIL WE GET A HEAD COACH? It will be in less than 1 year.
August 14th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
The Bucs better win at least 8 games this year for me to really feel good about the direction that they’re going in. I can’t see how another double digit losing season is acceptable. How laughable! 6-10 is ok when we’re playing awful teams like the Browns, Rams, and Lions???
August 14th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Thomas … the last few FA seasons have been bombs .. Next year will be the best FA season in a LONNNG Time … The Bucs need to be active with atleast 1 big signing next year … But the last 2 FA seasons have sucked and am glad we stayed away
August 14th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
If the bucs can’t beat the rams and lions and browns then raheem should be fired! Let’s be honest I can see them winning between 8-10 games and if they can’t then its goodbye dominick and raheem!!
August 14th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
No one said it would be great to lose, or that 9 – 7 is bad. You build the core with the draft than sprinkle in the free agents. Anyway, I hope you are wrong Thomas, because I really want these guys to play well. It should be a race to one every week! One game at a time. Also, do not count Lefty out, he did a pretty good job for Pitt in the past. They need to take two out of the first three, but all three are winnable or losable. Any given Sunday.
August 14th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Expecting anything more than 8 wins is unrealistic due to the sheer amount of youth we will have to rely on this year. We have loads of talent but it’s untested; some guys will have great years while others will play like guys getting their 1st taste of NFL action. 6 wins is the minimum for Rah to keep his job and anything else is icing on the cake.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
“anything MORE than 8 wins”
“Loads of talent”
Sensible fan, have you been out in the sun all day?
August 14th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
eric,
translation of sensiblefan for your benefit:
anything MORE than 8 wins is UNREALISTIC…. don’t forget to finish the sentence. His statement said 6 wins for Morris to keep his job…. if we get 8, that’s “icing on the cake”.
and “loads of talent” should be translated to “loads of youth” which have the potential for talent. We have loads of potential talent, it is yet to be seen how much we really have.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Thank you Mr. Bambam.
Now, if you can just explain a Raheem press conference!
🙂
August 14th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
“Joe doesn’t think the Bucs could recover from going 0-3 heading into the bye week.”
Which is far more likely than people seem to want to admit.
1st game~ Browns- They have a new czar in Mike Holmgren which is a proven quality winning Head coach in the NFL, Jake Delhomme as their QB which despite what people think of him he has plenty of experience playing against the Bucs and has beaten them quite a few times and The team showed growth at the end of last year….
2nd game~ Panthers- A team who still have several players experienced at playing against the Bucs, A coach that has faced the Bucs defense and offense twice a year for several years and he is trying to impress their owners to keep his job….
3rd game~Steelers- A coach that has been a part of the Bucs org. and understands much of their Defense, a QB that has practiced many days against the Bucs Defense as well as he has played well for them in the past and they still have most of their defensive and offensive play makers…
I’d LOVE to see the Bucs have a winning season and WOW mostly everyone BUT I have always been taught if you don’t have anything nice to say it is best not to say anything so I have remained quite for some time now…..Even HOPE for the Bucs to win any time soon seems so distant these days!!!
August 14th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Noth the Bucs D and O have changed a bit since than, and we have played against Jake, with and against lefty, ands against the Panthers too, so that really is no excuse for them to lose. We know their tendencies as much as they know ours, it is a wash. The Bucs may or may not beat them, but the reason will not because the opponents are familiar with the Bucs. I do not think anyone knows what the Bucs have instore, good or bad.
August 14th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Just read “The Race To One” and was fine with the ideology of what was said about winning early..yadda…yadda… What I don’t understand is the Ronde crybaby bashing. Why? What does his comments about media negativity is so out of line?
First of all he mentioned “local beat writers”. How do you know he is addressing you specifically Joe?
Second, just because the PR director of the Bucs is a Nazi and you couldn’t get access to a Tim Crowder, what does that have to do with Ronde? He is not the one who denied you access. It’s not his fault.
And under the assumption that he ‘was’ talking about you (which you cannot possibly know from such a vague grouping statement as “beat writers”) why are you then forced to be negative just because you didn’t gain access? That would mean your writing out of spite.
Look, I can maybe see your beef if he said “JoeBucsfan has written nothing but negativity….blah blah”. Then that can be a source of frustration, yes. But starting out an article by calling him a crybaby and showing such negativity based upon presumptions, only reinforces the very point he was trying to make isn’t it?
August 14th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Lets try to get Logan Mankins in here and keep him here and happy. It could happen we know we will need another Guard from next years draft.
August 14th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Joe here,
forunlawfulcarnalknowledge – No clue what you’re talking about. You’re making a lot of weird assumptions. The link to Barber’s comments about the media were from an interview he did last year. Never called him a crybaby, only referenced one time when he acted like one. Big difference.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I think ronde is a crybaby! Everyone knows Rah is his handpicked coach for job security reasons. so he is hypersensitive about any form of potential criticism. joe is doing a great job of providing pos and neg.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Look, everyone is entitled to opinions, as is Ronde, and yes he was generalizing by saying “beat writers”. He prob should have said “Stephen Holder writes negative comments” or “Roy Cummings is a twat” But when you start off a blog and ok..’compare’ Ronde to a crybaby, you obviously are pissed at him for making a comment at you personally. All i’m saying is, how do you know he was referring to you as writing negative articles? Maybe he’s blowing steam at others journalistic fodder.
I’ll put it another way. Imagine if I said “All Tampa Bay Buc writers are fat, but are good writers.” Hell, you may be 190 wounds of rock hard bicep, but me making a generalization that you hit the Twinkie isle every night would be wrong and prob piss you off. But Ronde never used the words ‘all beat writers” from what I can gather. I don’t think you are really a “beat writer” anyway Joe. You run a Bucs blog site that post information. Personally, I find your venue much more entertaining and comprehensive. It just seems like you are felt like he was talking specifically to you, and I really don’t think that’s what he was saying at all.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
forunlawfulcarnalknowledge:
Dude,you are so lost. joe is not limiting his statement (i.e. whiney crybaby) to the quote in the article. Since his b-friend became hc he is constantly getting his panties in a wad when people criticized his insurance policy, errr, coach.
Ronde knows that only Rah will employ him here for that $ without having to practice like everyone else and at his pay.
August 14th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Thomas:
Dude, you are so lost. I’ve heard Derrick Brooks in down years say time after time in his radio show “everyone needs to stay positive” and “being down or negative about the situation serves no purpose”. Including the last season he played here under Gruden, who was appherently the only reason Derrick still had a job, as it was in fact Morris that let him go. I’ve never heard one person from the media call Brooks a crybaby. Why the difference? It’s obvious you don’t like Morris. Ok, we all get it Thomas. Perhaps you’d prefer we all take a geriatric team of forty-somethings to camp every year. Or hire a Bill Cower, who would have had to release the same guys last season and start all over the same way Morris has.
The whole point is a very simple one. Why the dogpile on Ronde Barber? And what the hell did he say that was so friggin ‘whiney crybaby”?