Chucky Had A Good Day
July 11th, 2015
“Jiminy Christmas, I love Hooters, man! Love’em!”
What is a better combination than Bucs football and Hooters?
Joe can’t think of any and pardon Joe while he gets a bit nostalgic for good football and good chicken wings (and lovely lasses in form-fitting orange shorts).
Yes, Joe knows why Chucky was jettisoned by Team Glazer. For a myriad of reasons, this franchise has never been the same. That doesn’t mean Chucky is gone, and frankly, Joe was jealous of Chucky this week.
How would you like to flash bling and hang out with a beauty queen? Well, that’s what Chucky got paid (very well) to do this week. While shooting a new Hooters commercial, Chucky got to rub, um, elbows (?) with the lovely Meagan Pastorchik, recently crowned Miss Hooters International 2015.
Chucky was in such a good mood, he let the lovely Pastorchik flash his Super Bowl bling, as Pastorchik Instagrammed. Ah, the memories. And man, how far this franchise has fallen since.
Again, Joe understands why Chucky was booted by the Bucs. Everyone wears out their welcome eventually. Hey, Paul Brown, Tom Landry and Don Shula were fired, three of the best coaches who ever walked a sideline. So pardon Joe for finding it irksome that Chucky still pushes his “Fired Football Coaches Association” schtick. Stop it! You are not some martyr.
Joe must admit, though, the franchise hasn’t quite recovered since Chucky was jettisoned that dark, late January Friday afternoon in 2009.
Miss Hooters International 2015 Meagan Pastorchik flashes Chucky’s Super Bowl bling during a break in a Hooters commercial shoot this week.
July 11th, 2015 at 9:21 am
Gruden WON more playoff games in 02 than the Pathetic & Laughable Lovie Smith has WON in his entire 10 year poor excuse for a head coaching career.
It’s not about being a nice guy or being a mediocre defensive guru it’s about WINNING football gsmes…. Stop with excuses you either win or lose. Lovie is a 2-14 LOSER…. FACT
July 11th, 2015 at 9:29 am
Chucky can do no wrong…..as a Buc fan for 39 years….he brougt us a SB victory….didn’t just get us there….won it in style….one of the greatest days of my long life.
July 11th, 2015 at 9:33 am
Youre doing a countdown of terrible personnel moves in bucs history ya? We all know what #1 is….and it involves this guy getting fired….let’s fire gruden and hire raheem Morris followed by Greg schiano….that’s what smart people do
July 11th, 2015 at 9:53 am
For getting us a Championship. Chucky can spit his “Fired Football Coaches Association” schtick….as long as he likes brotha. Best damn coach we’ve ever had; Bar none.
Appreciate the Wins Coach!
Long Live the Gruster!
GO BUCS!
July 11th, 2015 at 9:56 am
@tmaxcon … “Lovie is a 2-14 LOSER …. FACT.”
Negativity is boorish and not very useful. Lovie inherited a team that had maybe 50% bonifide starters (and that’s being optimistic) and virtually no depth. Installing a new defensive strategy and losing your OC in preseason certainly didn’t help any. Plus L & L made several whopper personnel mistakes as we all know. The result: a 2-14 season which could easily have been 0-16 … or just as easily been 6-10.
Bucs have been down for quite awhile and it’ll take time to rebuild this team. Tony Dungy’s 1996 Bucs team went 6-10 as we know after a terrible start. That 1996 team only scored 221 points all season … worst in the NFL (last year’s Bucs team scored 277 points by the way). The 1997 Bucs team improved to a 10-6. The defense gave up about 30 less points, but the team scored 299 points (an improvement of 78 points or almost 5 points a game).
I think we’re going to see something very similar this year. The defense will improve (it has to … it gave up a ridiculous 410 points last year), but so will the offense and hopefully special teams.
July 11th, 2015 at 10:01 am
Man I really really miss the good ol days. I have a roller coaster of feelings every time I watch my 3 disk dvd of us beating the 49ers, Eagles and then the raiders. Just a great time. But sad to think how bad we’ve become.
July 11th, 2015 at 10:09 am
@Supersam
Its a damn shame, how bad its got Supersam. Like Deja vu
July 11th, 2015 at 10:16 am
@tmaxcon
How many playoff wins did Gruden have after that ’02 season?
July 11th, 2015 at 10:20 am
The stupidity of the Tampa Bay area got Gruden fired! I remember it like yesterday. The fans ran off the greatest coach we ever had!
July 11th, 2015 at 10:23 am
Man, I was checking out the Salvation Army thrift store in Pinellas Park on Thursday and saw two large commemorative plaques made after the Bucs Super Bowl win. One was for the win over the Eagles in the NFC Title game and the other over the Raiders in the Super Bowl. They were numbered and in mint condition and only 4 dollars each. These were super nice and any Buc fan would have to get them. They were piled in a buggy with other stuff just coming out. I grabbed them, then realized I was short the cash. I hid them best I could up high, went home a couple miles away and returned to find them gone. That was depressing and I could kick myself.
July 11th, 2015 at 10:24 am
And before anyone says it, I was born and raised in Tampa. I moved away in 2011, so i was around to witness the idiocy of the fan base.
July 11th, 2015 at 10:32 am
I also wonder if Gruden is setting himself up for a return the the Bucs. I can only hope this is the reason he hasn’t returned to coaching.
July 11th, 2015 at 10:34 am
Recap
Winningest Coach (all-time): Jon Gruden – *57 wins
Most Division Titles: Jon Gruden- *3
Championships Won: Jon Gruden- *1
July 11th, 2015 at 10:44 am
Being from and living in Oakland, Ca I am very familiar with Chucky. As much as I loved him for bringing our YUCS the SB, I disliked him just as much for not putting the franchise in a better position for the future. He sucked at drafting and developing players. The best player he drafted was Mr. Cadillac Williams. The kid was electric. He revitalized the fan base that 2005 season. Dam it sucks he got injured.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8FDeKnnY7Q
July 11th, 2015 at 10:52 am
Dadgummit sorry Joe. Didnt mean for the S word. You can say it on so many sites nowadays and sometimes I forget. My bad. Shoulda said “snap”
July 11th, 2015 at 11:02 am
It’s funny the Joes are tired of Gruden’s shtick but have their own nickname schtick themselves…
Just callin it like I see it.
Miss Gruden as his back to back 9-7 teams would be a welcome sight after the bad football we’ve seen the last 4 years.
July 11th, 2015 at 11:06 am
I have zero understanding of why they booted Chucky.
Except they inexplicably listened to blabber mouth local sports radio hosts and brain dead stockholders.
July 11th, 2015 at 11:08 am
What we gave up For Gru!
• 2002 First-round draft pick
• 2002 Second-round draft pick
• 2003 First-round draft pick
• 2004 Second-round draft pick
+$8 million in cash
So with the high draft picks sacrificed for us to acquire Gruden, along with salary-cap purgatory and failed draft choices left by the former general manager Rich McKay-Anyone would be set up to fail.
Also Note: From (2004 and 2009) Tampa Buccaneers spent the least money in the Entire Freakin’ League -..cough, cough —Price of Purchasing ManU?
Unlike the so Called Rockstar-That had All his Draft picks + tons of Cap space left over from the Gruden/Allen Administration (over $45million)..An the extra $25 million gained by the releasing of several veterans.
July 11th, 2015 at 11:24 am
it just wasn’t possible give Gruden’s mindset, but i often wonder what he could have done if he just let a skilled personell man actually stock his roster with talent. knowing what we now do about guys like chris simms and end-of-the road jeff garcia, it really is amazing that we won any games at all after the defense started to be dismantled
July 11th, 2015 at 12:21 pm
^^^^^ What Pick6 just said!
July 11th, 2015 at 12:27 pm
I have absolutely NO problem with Gruden being in the ‘Fired Coaches Association’. I just don’t think he is the chairman, except when I am wearing my pewter tinted glasses. I would welcome his schtick in a heartbeat.
July 11th, 2015 at 12:55 pm
Gruden has it made. A cushy job that is well paid and that he seems to enjoy and is good at (MNF). A # of side projects with plenty of fringe benefits just like this Hooters spot. And every year he can court offers from NFL teams eager for his coaching services only to say – no – I’m good – knowing he gets to spend more time with his family and doing whatever he wants than any head coach can dream of.
Thanks for guiding the Buccaneers to the Lombardi trophy coach. You will always be loved in Tampa Bay for that.
July 11th, 2015 at 12:55 pm
Gruden is the man. No Buccaneer fan should argue that. Obviously in hindsight, we should have kept him over the guys we hired (and fired) since then. That being said, most people just don’t understand the way it works in professional sports. The players (and probably the front office) just grew weary of him. It happens to just about everyone. This is the very reason long coaching tenures are very rare. Look no further than Harbaugh. It doesn’t mean the guy can’t coach, it’s just their act gets old. If you are a professional athlete and you hear the same speeches year in and year out, there comes a point where they just don’t have the same effect on you. It’s not a knock on the coach or the player, just reality. By the time I was a senior in high school (for basketball), my coach’s speeches were completely meaningless to me. It was the same thing over and over. The practices were the same thing over and over. It became redundant, and it probably affected my play on the court. Now that was only for 3 years, I was a kid, and I wasn’t getting paid millions.
Again, I wish we would have kept in. I feel pretty confident that we would be in better shape than we are now. However, I do understand the move, especially with his personality. Also, lets not kid ourselves, we weren’t on the verge of another Super Bowl run when we let go of Gruden. It would have been a rebuild had he stayed. Problem is, the rebuild would have consisted of more Tim Brown’s and Charlie Gardner’s. We would probably have several 8-8 or 9-7 seasons, but I have my serious doubts if we would see 11-5 or 12-4 with Gruden in charge of a rebuild. When it all comes down to it, that’s what you want. I remember how upset people were with Dungy going 10-6 and losing in the playoffs. It sounds like a dream now, but it’s almost equally frustrating. Do you think Bengal fans are the happiest bunch in the world?
July 11th, 2015 at 1:26 pm
HA!
Chucky just completely owned his haters with that picture. Awesome!
I remember Bucs bulletin boards back in 2008 and all the yahoos
that painted Chucky as the worst coach since Leemon Bennett.
I tried to tell them that jettisoning Gruden was terrible idea.
All I got was grief and hostility. I swear some of these ankle-bites threw a
party when Gruden was fired.
Lol,
Look at the picture.
Who’s laughing now, bro.
…certainly not the owners. Chucky owned them too.
July 11th, 2015 at 2:21 pm
Chucky is a great X’s and O’s guy and his presence was definitely need to help push the team over the hump to get that ring. I’d love to have him as an offensive coordinator but wouldn’t want him making overall team/head coaching decisions. He was horrible at evaluating talent and too impatient to develop young players. Had problems getting along with decent players which ended up required the team to spend unnecessary draft picks to replace those players (still can’t figure out why he couldn’t figure out how to use Thomas Jones or Alstott). I’d be interested to know what percent of the players on Joe’s worst Buccaneers list were guys that came in under Chucky.
July 11th, 2015 at 4:36 pm
Gruden and Hooters bring back good memories. The head coach of the Super Bowl winning Bucs speaks for itself. Hooters now, I’m thinking the original one was on Gulf to Bay just a few blocks east of U.S. 19 in Clearwater. I lived a couple of blocks from there then and stopped in for the views. I read up top on Game Watching Parties that Hooters was a place to get together with Buc fans to cheer them on. Hooters started a trend, now look at all the copycat places that have opened up trying to come up with another name for women’s breasts.
July 11th, 2015 at 7:12 pm
I got to wear that ring myself thanks to my cousin. It was just totally awesome and I didn’t want to give it back to him. Then again he earned it. I was THAT close to getting my picture taken with the Lombardi, but getting my pic with the ring was good enough for me.
July 11th, 2015 at 7:19 pm
LUVMYBUCS Says:
July 11th, 2015 at 11:08 am
What we gave up For Gru!
• 2002 First-round draft pick
• 2002 Second-round draft pick
• 2003 First-round draft pick
• 2004 Second-round draft pick
+$8 million in cash
Buc1987 says : it was MORE than worth it in fact they could have given up more and I’d still be a happy camper to finally see this team in and win the SB. PRECIOUS MEMORIES. We ALL have that memory for the REST OF OUR LIVES!
July 11th, 2015 at 10:07 pm
The worse thing About chucky, was that he couldnt develop a QB. Jeff garcia was entertaining for a few years, but he needed to
July 12th, 2015 at 8:41 am
Chucky’s record with the Bucs – 12–4, 7–9, 5–11, 11–5, 4–12, 9–7, 9-7. Hardly a great record. Chucky added an offense to Dungy’s defense and won the Superbowl. Once the team actually became his he had 3 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons, including the 5-11 and 4-12. He took the team to 1 more playoff game and lost in a Wild Card game. Other than Dungy’s first year he never had a losing season. He did go 8-8 one year (6-10, 10-6, 8-8, 11-5, 10-6, 9-7). Dungy’s only problem was he hated the word offense till he inherited Peyton Manning. If the Glazers had demanded Dungy hire a top notch OC, Dungy may have won his Super Bowl and continued his winning tradition. Ahh, hindsight.
July 12th, 2015 at 7:43 pm
God! Get rid of that crap that keeps popping up – I can’t navigate your site with all the stupid links you have embedded. I know that you need the clicks tom support your site, but I really don’t believe there is any place else this ridiculous!
July 13th, 2015 at 5:01 pm
Tell the truth – he was fired because the owners began to believe the gonzo-style negative-marketing campaign SOME in the local media committed to…the idiots like EYE-rah, Woody, and Dr Stroud…had the owners believing that they had to fire Gruden…that anyone could do what he was doing, and that it might even be cheaper…
I’d love to say the dolts have learned – but I am reminded that all of the local media have been fired from somewhere up north – long before landing in a spot where the old-timers used to revere Buccaneer Football.
As one old-timer has learned – whenever you decide a coach has “worn out his welcome”…it usually has more to do with the ownership “buying” time. As in, it’s easier to throw a coach under the wheels of the bus that the owner is driving – than it is for the natives to notice that confused look in the eyes of the owner(s)…
Chucky’s Super Bowl win will forever be the standard all coaches are graded against.