The Bucs’ Mt. Rushmore
June 7th, 2013
NBC Sports Network has been having fun choosing Mt. Rushmore representatives for each NFL team, and they got to the Bucs yesterday.
Father Dungy weighed in, as did Shaun King, while the fan voting tally picked the winners.
Lee Roy Selmon, Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp took everybody’s top three spots, but No. 4 stirred some debate. Father Dungy said he felt like he needed to pick an offensive player and chose Mike Alstott because he was darn good and set the physical tone for the franchise. King pegged Father Dungy for leading the turnaround of the organization, and King also threw love at Malcolm Glazer for changing the culture from top to bottom.
The fans picked Ronde Barber as their fourth and final icon. John Lynch was fifth in fan voting. Alstott was sixth. Dungy placed seventh. And Chucky and Monte Kiffin tied for ninth place.
Joe can’t go with Alstott. Joe would have to say that Doug Williams’ place in Bucs history is more worthy of being carved into stone. Barber, in Joe’s mind, also is more worthy than A-train.
It’s a fun debate. You can catch the full NBC segment below with Dungy, King and others.
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June 7th, 2013 at 8:37 am
I really appreciate that when history looks back on this franchise, Tony Dungy is held in higher esteem than that man who actually won the Super Bowl.
Goes to show that in 20/20 hindsight, Dungy should have been allowed that one more year. Our owners are such boneheads.
June 7th, 2013 at 8:52 am
Can’t disagree with the voting as all the winners were huge fan faves. My casual, but not surprising, observation was that they were all defensive players – which says that is where the Bucs fortunes have been built in the past.
To me it makes understandable why we continue to struggle to develop an offensive identity. If you’re like me you probably don’t care, but it would be interesting to see if there were any other teams who selected all defensive players.
June 7th, 2013 at 9:27 am
“Goes to show that in 20/20 hindsight, Dungy should have been allowed that one more year”
Are you serious? Do you think, if Dungy had coached the next year, you’d have seen Joe Jurevicius running free coming over the middle for 70+ yards in Philly, or Keenan McCardell and Keyshawn consistently wide open in the Super Bowl. You are delusional.
June 7th, 2013 at 9:29 am
Who finished higher in the voting – Shaun King or Josh Freeman?
June 7th, 2013 at 9:41 am
I agree lightning,
I voted for Sapp, Brooks, Selmon and Gruden. Chucky got us that super bowl
June 7th, 2013 at 9:48 am
I voted for Selmon, Gruber, Brooks and Barber, because they never played for anybody but the Bucs. I know Williams and Sapp didn’t exactly have a choice in it, but I wanted to honor the guys who only wore our uniform. And my list pretty well spans all the eras.
June 7th, 2013 at 9:49 am
If you’re throwing in non-players, why not Rich McKay? He was our GM through the years that changed our franchise and selected multiple (future) HoFs.
June 7th, 2013 at 10:00 am
Joe I totally disagree that you would place Doug Williams in that last spot over Mike Alstott. Given, Williams had a couple good seasons, but we’ve had way better QB’s than him through the years, the stats don’t lie, and as for Mike Alstott, c’mon…..70+ td’s HAS to count for something, and the way he sacrificed his body quickly made him a fan favorite, nobody has come close to that td total!
June 7th, 2013 at 10:03 am
Rich McKay? John is more deserving. Rich is a quitting baby.
June 7th, 2013 at 10:05 am
LOL, i love how Derrick Brooks calls Shaun King, Smoothie King!
June 7th, 2013 at 10:25 am
I love what Alstott did for this franchise but lets be realistic. He has the most TDs because he got the ball but Dunn actually had a much better career. His other stats are mediocre at best. Barber has stats that put him among all-time greats on any team not just the Bucs.
June 7th, 2013 at 11:48 am
I might take Lynch over Barber if it were purely skill based. Lynch was a successful safety for a LONG time but not all with the Bucs. Barber was a rock for this team after all the legends left for the last four years. That along with his game changing talent he brought to the position makes me like the four that were chosen. Selmon, Sapp, Brooks, Barber . . . I can live with that.
June 7th, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Dungy would not have won the Superbowl here. He had to go into a team with a premade offense to get it. I still think he was worthy though. He changed the face of this team and broke a 22 losing seasons streak.
I’m happy enough with Barber though.
Anyone that thinks Dunn even came close to deserving it hasn’t looked at his stats. He had all of his best years with the Falcons.
June 7th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
I remember when you couldn’t come up with 4 good names. Gruden won the Superbowl but destroyed the franchise afterwards. Dungy may not have won Superbowl but every year from 1997-2001 it was a realistic possibility. Can’t say that about any Gruden team except 2002.
June 7th, 2013 at 1:29 pm
@snook
It’s hard to downplay Rich’s achievements when he drafted Sapp and Brooks in one round and helped bring a period of success that we could only dream of.
June 7th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
@Luther, I buy into what you’re saying about Ronde being more deserving than Alstott, I’d have no problem with that, it’s Doug Williams that I can’t see as being more deserving than Alstott, and those 70+ td’s were not all from the one yard line, Mike had many td’s of 20yds or more, but when you say he got the ball over Dunn, that is not so, Dunn got the majority of the carries as he was considered our starting tailback. But Doug was more symbolic than anything else, his biggest accomplishment is taking the team to the playoffs after 2 yrs in the league, the Bucs went to the playoffs 3 times under his watch, but statistically speaking, he was just average, I mean he had a howitzer for an arm, but his completions and completion %, td vs int’s, these were stats that weren’t very flattering for Doug. So I agree that Barber has more merit than Alstott, but 70+ tds is very impressive no matter how you paint it, and most of those was AFTER the first tackle attempt, he was a beast till the end, AND chose to stay hear until he retired.
June 7th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Sad that history always gets forgotten. Is everyone on this site that young? James Wilder was an elite RB that put the franchise on his back and carried them when the Bucs had nothing. Has to be in that fourth spot.
June 7th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
Alstott had almost double the stats that Wilder did.
June 7th, 2013 at 8:03 pm
selmon,sapp,brooks,doug
June 8th, 2013 at 12:02 am
Check your facts Bonzai, Wilder rushed and received for more yards than Alstott. ( James W. Rush 6K, Rec 3.5K 9.5K combind Vs 5K Rush 2.3K Rec 7.3K combined Mike A.) Alstott way have had more 1 yards runs for TDs 58 TDs to Wilders 37 but he was nowhere near the all around workhorse running back of James Wilder.
June 8th, 2013 at 1:33 am
I can’t believe Shaun King said he should have been in the top 12 of the voting. I voted on this over at PFT and there is no way in hell he deserved to be on the list over anyone else that was on it.
June 8th, 2013 at 5:31 am
If Shaun King was on Mount Rushmore there wouldn’t be room for anyone else. Apparently there aren’t enough fans who remember James Wilder playing on the worst teams in Bucs history which is reminiscent of Paul Gruber playing on those perennial losers. We all love # 40, but don’t discount the play of old # 32 just because you didn’t witness him first hand.
June 8th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
Shaun King is an idiot, dungy was rightfully fired for never getting the offense together.