Nickerson For Ring Of Honor?
June 18th, 2011
In between telling readers during a BSPN live chat that Ronde Barber wouldn”t make the Hall of Fame, Aqib Talib should be cut and the Bucs won’t sign Reggie Bush, NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas offered up some thoughts on the Bucs’ next Ring of Honor inductee.
Perhaps with inside information from a key source connected to One Buc Place or a local barber shop, Yasinskas suggested the Bucs might get away from the old school inductees for 2011 and take someone from a more recent era.
Greg (Tampa): Any word who the bucs will put into the ring of fame this year?
Pat Yasinskas: Have not heard anything yet. Going to be interesting. Obviously, I don’t think Doug Williams and the franchise are real friendly right now, so they may skip over him. Do they skip all the way up to Brooks? Or do they go with someone like Paul Gruber or Hardy Nickerson?
The idea of Gruber or Nickerson is interesting. Call Joe misguided, but Joe thinks Nickerson is a no-brainer when compared to Gruber.
Sure, Gruber was a beast of a left tackle for a dozen years on a ton of bad teams. But unlike Gruber, who didn’t get the national recognition, Nickerson bruised his way to five Pro Bowls with the Bucs and was sort of the godfather of the Bucs’ legendary defense, serving as a mentor to guys like Derrick Brooks while being a dominant fixture in the heart of it.
While Joe would love to see the Bucs give Doug Williams his rightful place, Nickerson would be a hell of a choice.
June 18th, 2011 at 8:58 am
I’m for Hardy all the way… But i wont be upset if they pick Paul either
June 18th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Both would be great choices. I’m wondering if Ricky Bell would get consideration? His career wasn’t very long, but he was the key component on offense in getting the Bucs their first playoff win ever.
Of course, they could go with arguably the best running back in team history in James Wilder. Total yards from scrimmage 9500 yds with 47 touchdowns with no talent around him is pretty impressive.
Damn you, Hugh Culverhouse!!!!
June 18th, 2011 at 9:58 am
Any of the listed prospects are worthy. But, what about Jimmy Giles? Hugh Green? David Lewis? Steve Wilson? Or one of my favorite Bucs- who by the way, was an absolute Moster hitter at MLB pre Tampa 2 era- Ervin Randall.
Sure skipping alot a of great guys if we bounce all the way to Hardy- who deserves it , by the way!
June 18th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Trent Dilfer baby!
June 18th, 2011 at 10:51 am
I have so much respect for Gruber not just because of the teams he had to play with, but how he went about his business. The guy was a hard nosed blue collar player who never complained though he had every right to. I’m going to have to go with one of my favorite Bucs of all time though; Hardy Nickerson. For those of you who might not have been Bucs fans at the time; Nickerson single handedly turned this complete laughing stock of a franchise into respectable in a very short time. He also taught Brooks, Sapp, & Lynch how to be professionals & leaders.
June 18th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Erick:
That ring of honor will be placed in a CITS urinal with a bullseye on it.
June 18th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I kinda like the idea of Jimmie Giles being inducted. He went to 4 pro bowls and was seemed to be a good player for the Bucs over the years.
After that: do Doug Williams, Brooks, Sapp, Lynch, Nickerson, Dungy, Rice, Brad Johnson, Alstott, Galloway, Rich McKay, Quarles, Gruden, and Monte Kiffin.
Barber will probably be the last one to be inducted as he is still playing.
It’ll probably be at least 7-10 years before Gruden is inducted, as he was fired just a few years ago. Also, because a lot of people hate him too.
June 18th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Brooks should be next and that’s all I have to say about it.
June 18th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Jimmy Giles – No, he played 9 seasons here and only 5 of them were complete seasons. And he really wasn’t any good. The most yards he had here were 786, and that was the most he had in his entire career. 6 of his seasons of the nine were completely unproductive…that means he only had 3 average seasons (I wouldnm’t call them above average at all).
We could make excuses that the Oline sucked back then…but that doesn’t change the facts. The ones that should get in are the ones that overcame the limitations.
I would like to see Dungy go in there. This team owes him a lot for turning a losing team into a team that thought and played like winners.
A little early for Brooks. Sapp? Well, he should be in there too, but is it too soon? Lynch? Too soon…maybe not at all.
I would like to see Gruber in there maybe.
Personally, I think it should be the guys that made such a difference that they changed the face of the team.
Even Gruden fits that category.
June 18th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Bucnjim –
I loved Gruber too, but I don’t think your description is accurate. You said:
“I have so much respect for Gruber not just because of the teams he had to play with, but how he went about his business. The guy was a hard nosed blue collar player who never complained though he had every right to.”
You must be forgetting 1993. He wanted out, but the Bucs slapped one of the first-ever franchise tags on him. He said he wouldn’t play for Tampa, and sat out the first 5 games of the season. He forced a trade to the Raiders, but the league nullified it because they said the Bucs couldn’t trade him since he wasn’t signed. Eventually he gave up and signed and stayed.
I certainly don’t blame him — those were the Culverhouse Bucs and _nobody_ wanted to play for them. But he wasn’t a guy who just kept his head down and “never complained”.
Anyway, I think any of the three — Williams, Nickerson, or Gruber — would be a great addition to the Ring of Honor.
June 18th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
We have alot of catch’n up to due……IMO there needs to be a wholesale induction process…5 a year for a few years….these guys are long long over due
June 18th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
I would love to see the fans who followed the Bucs during the 80’s through the early 90’s. Those the people who should be in the ring of honor.
June 18th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
WOW. He was one of the better tight ends of his time. If there was a better blocker than Jimmie Giles, wake me up.
June 18th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Joke,
You are right about the Gruber situation. It was just another case of Culverhouse being cheap, but he opened up the wallet just enough before Gruber walked out the door. He had an amazing career because through it all; he was able to play 12 years and started every single game (183). That’s an incredible feat for anyone playing for the Culverhouses. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember anytime before or after that event where Gruber was any kind of a problem for the organization. Of course these were quite the partying years so some of those memories will never be recovered.
June 18th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
What else was there to do in Tampa Stadium back in the 80’s & 90’s besides cry in your beer?
June 18th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Good one Mark D
June 18th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Giles wasn’t that good?!?!? The only receiving threat on the team, before the liberized passing rules. The man was the protype TE of the team!!!
Pete- without Giles, we didn’t go to our First NFC championship game . He and Doug Williams carried that team offensively.
You’ve lost it , pete.
June 18th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Tears for Beers.
June 19th, 2011 at 6:28 am
I remember those days. I could pull into the stadium parking area at 12:30, go get my ticket, buy a beer, and still be in my seat before kickoff. Stadium was usually half full or less. Sometimes I’d watch half the game in the lower section, then move way up high to watch the secondary. You could change sit where you wanted practically. My buddies and I would be ” now if we can just rally, and score two touchdowns, we’ll be back in this thing” and that was usually in the first Quarter! Lotsa Beers, lotsa Tears!!! Damn Hugh Culverhouse! He wasted a lot of talented young men’s careers! He never seemed to care about winning, only looking good in the financial comitee he headed for the NFL.
June 19th, 2011 at 7:20 am
What’s funny though Captain; these were some of the most die hard fan’s in the country. Same 40,000 fans every single week would show up in the heat, rain, lack of bathrooms, metal seats (with no backs) and really they had very little if any chance of winning those games. You’re right about the fact that everyone who attended those games should be recognized.
June 19th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Okay…the Giles comment was opinion. I think he was a great blocker…but take a look at his stats and see if he was that good of a receiver. He only had 2-3 good seasons receiving out of 9 seasons.
On the stadium thing…the old Tamps Stadium seated somewhere close to 75,000, and the new one seats 65,000 (but it is expandable).
I think that’s why the Bucs had trouble selling out games in hte old stadium…too many seats for such a bad team.
June 20th, 2011 at 10:52 am
we hae to seperate ring of honor into two groups SB team and non Sb team. For the bucko bruce teams I say these players deserve ring of honor
Williams, Bell, Giles, Wilder, D. Selmon, Batman Wood, Mark Cotney, Gruber, Nickerson, Brantley, Dunn – I believe these players deserve the spot for the efforts anf or being the best players on a bad teams and the for the turn around under Dungy
SB Team: Alstott, Sapp, Brooks, Barber, Lynch, Johnson, Rice, Gramtica without any of these players I don’t think the Bucs remain a top contender for the Dungy years and then the superbowl