Look At The Top
March 26th, 2015
The “Custodian of Canton,” eye-RAH! Kaufman, has strong words for Team Glazer.
The Bucs haven’t won one playoff game since that glorious January Sunday evening in San Diego 12 years ago, when Chucky hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory.
Since, the Bucs have disappointed too often, compiling just four winning records. The tip of the iceberg was last season’s 2-14 mark and winning the Chase for Jameis.
Just the way the Bucs have failed year after year after year to find a decent defensive end to replace Simeon Rice is laughable, it has been so bad. And when the Bucs did stumble upon a decent defensive end, they let him walk away for no good reason.
The constant failures of the franchise the past 12 years is easy to trace, claims the “Custodian of Canton,” eggs-eating eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune. Appearing with Tom Veit on WHBO-AM 1040 yesterday, Kaufman said the errors of the Bucs‘ ways begin at the top.
Kaufman believes, after speaking with Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer at the NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix on Tuesday, the losing is beginning is wearing on Team Glazer.
“I kind of think it’s the sinking realization — and they don’t want to admit it — when you’ve been irrelevant, basically, for such a long time, I think those three guys kind of look at each other and say, ‘Where did we go wrong? Where have we gone wrong?'” Kaufman said. “They come to these meetings, Tom, they see Kraft, they see Paul Allen, guys that are in the playoffs every year and guys that have been successful, and here they are. Once sitting on top of the football world. Doesn’t that seem like eons ago? I keep hammering away about how much responsibility ownership is willing to take for this mess and I don’t back down. Mess is the right word. Four straight last place finishes.
“It’s unacceptable for Bucs fans. They don’t want any nonsense about Jeff Tedford. They don’t want to hear about eight games being close and could have gone either way. They’re tired of this and the result is what you see at the turnstile at Raymond James Stadium. I gotta think that there is a sense from ownership that we have to do better. We have to make better choices about coaches. Maybe stop meddling as much as we have. And we gotta get back to the draft and make sure we’re making better decisions.”
Meddling? Hhhmmm? If that is the case, well, at the end of the day, it is Team Glazer’s team. And it wasn’t Team Glazer’s fault that leaky, sleepy Josh Freeman went mental or that Jeff Tedford grew sick.
Joe may be naive, but Joe senses things will turn around. That will only begin when the Bucs draft Jameis Winston. Until this team gets a franchise quarterback, it’s just going to be the SOS.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:06 am
The Glazers have really no good option other than to stick with Lovie & Licht for a while. Churning coaches is not the answer.
Mark Dominick was an absolute disaster….all you have to do is to look at his failed drafts and where they left us to understand how really incompetent he was.
There is absolutely no defense for Dominick.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:17 am
Drafting Jameis will guarantee the losing legacy….
Once Jameis signs a NFL contract and actually has $$$$ to go after the claims will fly and Jameis will become a HUGE distaction…great than Johnny Football was to the Browns…….yeah Jamesi is what we need
commentary directed at off field Jameis only…..on field sure a very talented football player but not a 1st overall quaility QB…neither is Mariota
The Buccaneer curse continues
March 26th, 2015 at 9:20 am
“Churning coaches is not the answer.”
But keeping an incompetent fool with a proven history of bad personnel decisions and mediocre coaching skills is going to turn things around. Not going to happen I don’t understand this mentality. If you want to stop churning coaches then make the right hire. but just like players when it’s clear they are a mistake you must cut bait. It is very clear Lovie is a mistake. Not a debate.
The biggest mistake Glazers made was agreeing to full control. Just like the Nanny state formerly known as USA, you can’t take entitlements away after they are given, it just does not happen. Glazers have to take full control away from him or get rid of him. They have no choice or they will keep repeating the cycle that they themselves are supposedly frustrated with. Lovie has never made good personnel moves. Never drafted well yet his given a blank check and full control. That’s bad business period. Until Lovie is gone the bucs will wallow in 2-14 seasons and be happy with mediocre 7 – 9 or 8-8 on the accidental occasions when Lovie strings a few wins together against sub 500 teams. It’s already been proven lovie can not beat teams above 500 consistently those are facts.
Stability is important only after you have the right people in place. Preaching stability without the right people in place does not make sense.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:21 am
Where did it go wrong? Well turning off the funding in 2006 was the start for me. Then the Glazers order to draft a franchise QB for 2009 ( which by the way was a huge fight between Allan, Gruden and Glazers. The Reign of incompetence by GM flunkie dominick, lead to the Glazers jumping into the time machine to get Lovie out of basement where he caught up on all the family guy and cleveland shows!
March 26th, 2015 at 9:26 am
Blah blah blah. The Winston bashing is so freaking old man. We are taking him, either get on board or go be a dolphins fan you loser. Winston is a lock and real Buc fans are already preordering his Jersey. Just Win-ston Baby! There are people who thought RG3 was better than Luck and Leaf over Peyton so there will always be haters.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:27 am
I’ll tell you where they went wrong. It was dismantling a super bowl winning team in 2002 off season. It was clear then they were interested in winning a super bowl, raising the value of their players, then selling them off. We team lost the spirit of what it is to be a buccaneer. Remember the attitude of that Golden era? The defense was nasty. Sapp running thru the other team’s stretching exercises, theA Train would roll, brooks and ronde would swarm. We were a proud team that embodied a buccaneer attitude.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:31 am
Well they are about to draft the next Byron Leftwich and they wonder why they suck
March 26th, 2015 at 9:35 am
The sons have not made a single good hire on their watch. That tells me it’s time for them to bring in a football guy to serve as team president to run the football side of business. Not a derrick brooks or John McKay, living in the past is stupid and for losers. Get a real football guy with credibility and a track record. Let him bring in the gm and the coach in the right order. All this touchy, feely, we all love each other group hug leadership crap the bucs have currently is part of the problem. There needs to be accountable no group hugs. Coaches need to coach. Gm’s need to GM and there needs to be healthy conflict and debate not a 60’s flower power celebration every time they all agree on a decision which have all been bad decisions with the exception of Evans.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:36 am
They should not have listened to the “shareholders’, installed the DB coach without a search, then froze any spending to be at the very bottom of the salary cap.
Its easy to see.
Grossly misrepresented to say the 12 years since the super bowl are all the same. The line of despair started with the Chucky/Raheem fiasco. The four years prior to that were three winning seasons and two division titles.
Now we have a highly accomplished and respected head coach again. So we are on the right track provided we stay the course.
(1) Don’t listen to the same boobs who ran Chucky out of town and (2) draft Jameis Winton.
And forget Mr. Rutgers and Mr. Youngry ever existed. And the Rock Star may he RIP on television.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:39 am
nah their knowledge is nothing close to what their fathers was bottom line. you can start by allowing your gm to hire a head coach who had never been more than a defensive backs coach then you hire a guy from an average school like Rutgers….seems the lovie hire was the only choice for them because there was a track record whether it was good or bad, he has a record of being successful at times plus they are familiar with him and he is from the old winning formula the bucs had before. desperation defines their moves very easily
March 26th, 2015 at 9:41 am
‘Where did we go wrong?”
Ira needs to pull his head out of his rectum! This is not a mystery nor is it the Glazers going “wrong”.
Football is a business to the owners. Can we all accept that? Yes owners of all businesses want their business to be perceived well but what is really the SINGLE most important motivator of 99% of all businessmen? Show me the money!
Malcolm and the boys invested in the Bucs and got us to a Super Bowl. They took the success of that investment and LEVERAGED it into buying Man U, one of the most important sports franchises in the world.
From a fans perspective that sucked. From a business perspective the Glazers kicked major assss!!! Like it or not what they did made perfect sense.
They did that and then our economy crashed putting strain on their “leveraged” asset.
The Glazers went from being multi millionaires to being BILLIONAIRES!!! Are any of you saying you wouldn’t do the same thing if you could make your extended family wealthy? Really?
Here is the good news. The Glazers have finally pulled it off! They own Man U and they are finally in better financial position. It’s clear they are now ready to turn their attention (read $$$) back to the Bucs. There are also now league rules (should be called the Culverhouse rule) that forces all owners to spend a minimum amount.
The Glazers have only recently turned their attention back to the Bucs after almost a decade of Man U sucking up their resources and attention.
We are entering the second year of what amounts to a total rebuilding, including stadium refurbishments etc. as well as player salaries after almost a decade of neglect. You can’t reverse a decade of damage…Rah..Schiano..cheap coaches and no player budget…in just a year.
Yeah I’m the blog optimist but the FACTS indicate we are on our way to happier days. We sign Fameis…..fix the OL…cobble together a rush and begin by wining our division this year and then moving deeper into the playoffs in 2016.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:42 am
Eric
I really enjoy your posts and you are obviously very intelligent that being said, I just can’t grasp your love for Lovie. He is not a highly accomplished head coach. He has never won consistently. He is below 500 against winning teams. He drafts poorly and he has not upgraded a single position this off seaon. Every player signed has a question mark or is need of a prove it deal. Carter is being asked to switch position yet another gamble. Moore may or not be an upgrade but he has the most potential. Anyhow, not trying to be a douchebag but you are smart enough to dig into Lovie’s stat’s and realize the statements you made don’t add up. I am glad you like the dude but he is the problem not the solution. History proves that over and over again. He does not get a lifetime free pass because he lost a super bowl nearly ten years ago.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:46 am
I am so tired of these people who blame this drought on Dominik; get over it please. A large part of why Dominik’s drafts failed was that the coaches couldn’t teach the players to transition into top level talent. Besides the guys who just are personally driven to be great- GMC, LVD, and a few others, you have to work, teach, motivate, and do anything possible to get the rest to become top performers. In general, the coaches couldn’t do that through players selected in the draft, so eventually Dominik had to start bringing in FA who had already proven they are like GMC and LVD, but those players are in short supply and are expensive, players like VJax, Revis, and Carl Nicks. The rest of free agency was spent trying to put enough bodies on the field.
The biggest problem of the last decade is Player Development. No matter who you draft, they are not yet NFL All-Pros. They have to put in an enormous effort after joining the NFL to improve their bodies, their mental preperation, and the techniques they use to play to become winners in the sport. This is where the Buc’s organization fails, and organizations like the Packers and Patriots thrive.
To fix it, you have to stop worrying about trying to find guys like LVD, GMC, vJax, and you have to start learning how to turn Leonard Johnson, Bobby Rainey, and the entire offense line into NFL quality players, and then you allow those truly special players to continue to give their all, which will result in the team winning games.
This is a problem for the coaches to solve, and if they can’t figure it out, you hunt for coaches who can.
Now, what a truly elite QB, like Brady or Manning brings to the team is that they often can be that guy in charge of offensive player development, which cuts the coaches’ responsibility by about half. Tom and Peyton know exactly what they need from every guy on every play and in practice demand it. This is why complete no names can come in and prosper in those environments.
The Buc’s have a long way to go, but it doesn’t end by convincing everyone that Dominik is the problem. It ends when your organization is realistically confident that a player they can take in the draft can be turned into a quality starter for a long time.
This is why I think the Buc’s have to take Winston over Mariota, not because they can’t afford to wait, but rather waiting gets them nowhere since they can’t develop players very well.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:48 am
If they don’t draft Winston – and it’s a moot point because I think they will – they will never fully turn this around. Not in this generation.
March 26th, 2015 at 9:57 am
Lovie was 10-6 his last year in Chicago, and two years prior was in the NFC Championship game and narrowly lost to the Packers.
He brought in adequate talent to do that.
Pretty much every year his teams competed for a playoff spot.
So, it is not true that the Super Bowl year was his only accomplishment.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:00 am
Eric
3-3 playoff record. he went twice in his first 3 years.
he was inconsistent and some of these trades and personnel moves chicago is trying to recover from this off seaon were lovie deals. chicago is still paying the price for his bad personnel moves.
all good. i get you like the guy. I am tired of losing. I want a consistent winner and I don’t feel Lovie can do that. I also believe history is on my side after digging into the stats not just reading the surface.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:02 am
@BucFanForever
are you insane….you have to start learning how to turn Leonard Johnson, Bobby Rainey, and the entire offense line into NFL quality players?
what makes you think any amount of teaching could turn leonard Johnson or bobby rainey into nfl quality players- translation starting nfl players? mark Dominick takes credit for raheem morris and schiano hires, coaching staff mainly hired by mark Dominick so you have a rookie head coach and you hire an offensive coordinator you end up firing 10 before the season starts, then you fired the defensive coordinator mid season of a rookie head coaches year. schiano had the biggest coaching staff in the league and didn’t listen to any of them lol. raheem morris was going out hanging out with his players at bars. they let go of Michael Bennett for daquan bowers and you don’t think any of that has to do with the gm? raheem morris 17-31 in 3 years including a 10-6 season. mark Dominick was horrible and so is Jason licht and lovie smith but that was one year and this fan base expects them to turn it around this year no excuses or they will be apart of history too. jon gruden was atleast making the playoffs so maybe we do need an offensive minded coach
March 26th, 2015 at 10:14 am
@Stpetebucsfan … “Yeah I’m the blog optimist but the FACTS indicate we are on our way to happier days.”
I’m an optimist too (that’s the only rationale I have for buying season tickets year after year). But … the Bucs keep making the same mistakes year after year.
We had a great coach in Tony Dungy. Fired him (and his staff) after 6 seasons. His record in those years: 54-42 (not counting playoffs in 4 of 6 years). Record the year he got fired (after the 2001 season): 9-7 .
Replaced him with a very good coach: Jon Gruden. Fired him (and his staff) after 7 seasons. His record in those years: 57-55 (not counting playoffs in 3 of 7 years, including Superbowl win). Record the year he got fired (after 2008 season): 9-7.
Since the Glazers fired Jon Gruden, we’ve had a revolving door of head coaches (3 in the last 6 years).
The reality is that owners like Kraft and Allen have successful franchises because they know how to build a winning franchise. And that starts from the top down. They know how to pick strong leaders, and they support them well.
I won’t say the same for the Glazers’ track record. Replacing a Superbowl-winning coach like Jon Gruden with a 32-year old with no experience (Raheem Morris) doesn’t qualify as ‘picking strong leaders and supporting them well’.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:18 am
So far we have people who hate Jameis, even though he’s going to be the pick. People who hate Lovie, even though he’s the coach. People who apologize for Mark Dominik’s absolute ineptitutude even though the team sunk to the worst in the league largely with his players. Where are the Bucs fans? Are there any? Thanks Glazers!
March 26th, 2015 at 10:22 am
Dick2111…correct the Glazers did this to themselves and us fans.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:23 am
@tmaxcon,
Ok, so who was out there when the Glazers made this hire, or is out there now if they fired him as you propose, that has a better record than Lovie?
Whisenhunt was one of the Joe’s favorites because he is offensive minded and went to a Super Bowl.
He’s sitting at 2014 after his first year with the Titans just like Lovie.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:28 am
It mostly comes down to talent evaluation. Identify, acquire, develop and keep good players and coaches and personnel people.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:29 am
@Tmax
“He is below 500 against winning teams.”
Then you must really dislike Belicheat Tmax. In his six years before Brady arrived Belicheat had a record below 500 AGAINST ALL TEAMS. His record sucked.
Then voila a 6th round shot in the dark materializes into perhaps the best QB in the history of the game and Belicheat SUDDENLY becomes a freaking genius.
If Fameis is half as good as you’ve promised we’ll be fine with Lovie. If he’s actually AS GOOD as you’ve promised then Lovie will become the next “genius”.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:39 am
Eric
I can’t BS you. I have no clear favorite who I would like to be next coach. I feel at this stage the glazers need to hire a football guy who hires the gm and they both pick coach. Old fashioned I know but I trust that more than current regime.
StPete
NO snapshots sir… Entire body of work nice try lol also Belicheat players are irrelevant but if you want to bring Brady to the dance, what a great personnel move by the cheat. Who is Lovie’s Brady? Ohhh yeah he can’t draft and develop.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:41 am
The problems started when the Bucs went with a ‘yes man’ for a GM. Bruce Allen did what Gruden wanted, Dominic did what Raheem & Schiano wanted. They need a GM that can and will say NO to the head coach on occasion & look out for what is best for the long term of the team. Leight is another ‘yes man’. Watch them pick Winston which is best for the next year or so. In 4 to 5 years the Bucs will be back to ‘square one’ once again.
March 26th, 2015 at 10:55 am
Tmax
“Who is Lovie’s Brady? Ohhh yeah he can’t draft and develop.”
Have you been blowing smoke up my butt about Fameis? You and dozens of others here have promised that he is the “savior”. Now I”m on board and you’re saying he’s not.,
Lovie will not be developing Fameis!!! That will be Koetter and Bajakian’s jobs.
Do you not have faith in a combination like that…Koetter/Bajakian and FAMEIS!!!
March 26th, 2015 at 10:59 am
btw Tmax
what a great personnel move by the cheat.
No Belicheat gets zero credit for drafting Brady. Either one of two things is true.
Either Belicheat got exceptionally lucky…or he’s the dumbest personnel guy in the league. Anybody who saw Brady’s potential and waited until the sixth round is by definition a moron.
As much as I loathe Belicheat I do not consider him a moron so I’ll go with lucky.
The truth is that anybody who saw Brady’s potential would have traded EVERYONE of their draft picks and tossed in players, whatever it took to land a guy who may be the best ever!
March 26th, 2015 at 11:37 am
The team needs continuity from ownership on down. It’s ok to cut your losses when you’ve made a bad coaching hire. But, you can’t continue to hire the wrong people to run the football side of the organization. That is squarely on the owners shoulders. Coaching turnover is a killer. Bad drafting is a killer. The only way to stop the downward spiral is to stick with a coach and front office for a while. Let them build their team. After three seasons, there will be enough of a track record to see if this team is making progress.
March 26th, 2015 at 12:05 pm
We can talk on and on about bad drafting, no player development, etc. This is a QB league, period. Belicheck and Payton are geniuses because of their QB’s. Hell, Dungy was never considered to be such a great coach until he got Manning.
The big failure for this organization is at QB. If Bruce Allen had not bungled the Drew Brees deal he and Chucky would still be here. Dom got the Freeman choice wrong. The Glazers better be certain about their QB selection in a few weeks because a bad choice dooms this team to another 5 years of losing.
March 26th, 2015 at 12:25 pm
The Bucs mostly sucking since the Super Bowl is pretty easy to trace in hindsight.
1. This team spent less $ than every other team in the league for 8 straight years starting in 2004. 8 STRAIGHT YEARS – the lowest payroll in the NFL! Inexcusable Glazers!!!!
2. The ineptitude of the last 2 GMs (Bruce Allen and Mark Dominik) ability to draft quality players is staggering. One glance at all the players drafted from 2004>2013 is all that’s needed. Only a handful of good players were drafted in that entire 10 year period.
3. The firing of Jon Gruden for no good reason. The case could easily be made that considering #s 1 and 2 above – Jon Gruden coached his less than stellar players up as well or better than any other coach in the league. The only reason the Bucs lost 4 straight games at the end of 2008 after a 9-3 start was because of a complete and utter collapse on the defensive side of the ball. That had very little to do with Gruden and almost everything to do with Monte Kiffen announcing prematurely that he was leaving after the season ended.
4. The hiring of Raheem Morris and Greg Schiano – 2 coaches back to back who had very little clue what it takes to be a successful HC in the NFL.
March 26th, 2015 at 12:27 pm
Joe- again – why are my comments not appearing after hitting submit? They are showing up in other threads some 1/2 hour to an hour after I submit them. What’s the deal?
Wish Joe knew. — Joe
March 26th, 2015 at 12:29 pm
These idiots need more help selecting coaches and GM’s, maybe like a president of football operations type role. That cost money that they don’t want to spend. Or they could just keep cycling through coaches and GM’s til one of them sticks, like crappy teams do. Sustained success for the Buc’s has never seemed further away.
March 26th, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Eric, it is a waste of time to argue with Tmaxcon.
How can you argue with someone who won’t give credit to a coach for a team he was fired,from prior to the 2013 season and posted a winning record but blames for a losing 2014 record.
All I can say is, huh?
As you notice Tmaxcon knows or says he knows allot about the Bears and their personnel. That’s because he is really a closet Bears fan and is just anti-Lovie and doesn’t even care about the Bucs.
I strongly suspect he also used to be a member of the Illinois Bund Party which I believe had it’s headquarters In Chicago.
March 26th, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Incompetent ownership breeds the predictable result. I believe they care, they’re just incapable of making a sound football decision. This started when they kicked Chucky out the door without a suitable replacement. They handcuffed Raheem’s budget, and it’s a small miracle he was even able to squeeze as many wins out of those squads as he did. Even the decision to not re-sign Michael Bennett can be traced back to ownership. These guys need to start holding themselves accountable for their own terrible decisions *cough*Lovie*cough*
March 26th, 2015 at 1:18 pm
Here’s what I think might happen next season. Take or leave it.
If the Bucs only win 4-5 games and the defense still looks like shyte, but the offense looks good. Lovie’s gone. Koetter gets promoted and we proceed from there.
Not predicting it will happen. Just saying if it does happen.
March 26th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
The only thing the soccer brats have proven over the last 13 years
is that they’re very bad owners. They get no credit for 2002; That
was Malcolm.
Props to Ira The Custodian of Canton for having the cajones to be
real and not lick the Glazers boots like so many local media people do.
March 26th, 2015 at 8:26 pm
Let’s face it, the Bucs have been a badly run franchise since Malcolm Glazer had the stroke thus handing the reigns of the franchise to the lads to run into the ground. The Bucs record since the lads taken over has to be in the bottom 5 of the NFL along with the Rams and Raiders who also have really questionable ownership when you see how the franchises are run with a turnstile at the head coaching slot and numerous 10+ loss seasons, the only way things could get worse are if the Glazer lads start calling more of the shots like fellow bottom feeder Dan Snyder does in DC. Back to the lowly Rams: from 2007 to 2009 the rams won 6 games in 3 seasons, the Bucs are capable of matching this esteemed mark with a “perfect season” in 2015. Normally I would say this is impossible but looking at how Lovie lost winnable game after game with the Glazers’ blessing; I say with the possible exception of the raiders, the Bucs are the most likely team to run the gauntlet to a perfect 16 loss season if they do not address all the galring deficiencies on this roster, starting with qb and fortifying the trenches