Cusp Of Ugly History
September 11th, 2015
The “Custodian of Canton” has troubling data on the Bucs.
Yes, the Bucs are 30-70 in their last 100 games. A brutal, brutal stretch that harkens to the last month of the Chucky administration when he lost his final four games as Bucs coach (one to, of all people, JaMarcus Russell at home).
Few dreamed it at the time, but it proved to be a harbinger of terrible times.
And who better to unearth this frightening nugget than the “Custodian of Canton,” eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.
Since it is the start of the football season, Kaufman has resumed his weekly appearances with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on Mad Dog Radio, part of the family of sports channels heard exclusively on SirusXM Radio.
“Chris, [the Bucs] have been in the basement four straight years,” Kaufman said. “I always give you a little tidbit, right? I always do a little research for you. I’m going to break a little news on the Mad Dog show: If the Bucs finish in the NFC South basement this year, that will be five in a row. They will be the first NFC team to do so in any division since the merger.”
Dear God! Joe knows the merger happened in 1970. If this comes about, it will be truly disgusting. Just think about the sordid history of this franchise, and not even the likes of Leeman Bennett and Ray Perkins and Richard Williamson pulled off such a rotten streak!
That is how far this franchise has sunk. Think about that for a moment. And if that does happen, remember, this NFC South is hardly a juggernaut.
That is just pathetic. This may drive Joe to daytime drinking, since it is Friday.
And people wonder why Bucs fans are restless?
September 11th, 2015 at 6:31 am
0-0 Sept. 2015
8-8 Jan. 2016
In Lovie, Licht, Koetter & Wins-Ton I TRUST!!!
September 11th, 2015 at 6:33 am
This is why the fans are restless and want results. Especially seeing 2-3 teams every year turn it around and one of those teams is never the Bucs
September 11th, 2015 at 6:40 am
Ira’s got a face made for radio!
Seriously, it is sad to see how fast it’s all fallen apart. Especially when you consider where John McKay took this franchise from it’s beginning in 1976 to the excitement of 1979, a game from the Super Bowl. And that was in the era of no free agency.
Those were the days when it was really fun to cover football. Knew a lot of those players really well, often met them after hours for some cold beers and a WEALTH of off-the-record information. Can you imagine that today, actual players meeting and having beers during the season with a writer?
They did it because we were all about the same age. We knew each other and they knew they could trust that what they said would not be repeated anywhere.
September 11th, 2015 at 6:56 am
@Tom – So in your opinion what went wrong?
Was it writer’s focus on money led to the current status?
September 11th, 2015 at 7:13 am
Thank the Glazers for this. It all started when they used their NFL franchise like Hugh Culverhouse to purchase Manchester United.
September 11th, 2015 at 7:15 am
maybe we should start cheating too and create a “dynasty”
September 11th, 2015 at 7:32 am
The Glazers have perfected my craft to an amazing level. They drain the blood and life force of their following loyal innocent.
September 11th, 2015 at 7:51 am
Lovie says ” we don’t expect our fans to be patient!”
couple of weeks later ” It takes time!!”
5 years at the bottom, kinda blows out all those that say worst to first!!!!
and remember Sheep (lovie loyalist), What is below the Bucs Cellar? Lovie’s Basement!!!!!!!
September 11th, 2015 at 8:18 am
@tom edrington
If you think those were the days, Why just back in 2011 you could have beers, left handed cigarettes ( whacky tabacky) and who knows what else with a large group of Buc players!!!! ( allegedly!)
September 11th, 2015 at 8:34 am
For me the situation looks like a vicous circle :
you have a crappy team, everything is due to the coach/staff/GM.
So you fired them.
A new structure arrives and then they start working trading, cutting, signing, drafting, telling you “1st year will be difficult, be patient”. You wait, they are right it’s difficult or even very difficult.
Then new summer they draft, trade sign, cut telling you now you will see ! Due to injuries, suspension, … the team didn’t perform as expected.
It’s the fault on the coach/staff/GM so they are fired … and you start again.
On top of the that, who want to coach a crappy team like that ? Surely not an NFL top coach ! Which player want to join you ? Of course not the best one, even with a top league salary.
So you are stuck in this loop croissing fingers every two or three year to a GM/Coach/Staff able to do something to interrupt it but nothing is happening for the moment.
September 11th, 2015 at 8:54 am
@tbtd:
What the current organization has is a huge void in player and coaching talent:
I believe Lovie has a weak staff: consider the Bucs of the day had Joe Gibbs as QB coach…..Wayne Fontes as the secondary coach….one of my favorites was Abe Gibron, d-coordinator…..Abe was in coaches box and my press box seat was on the thin wall, Abe on the other side….you can’t imagine what it was like to hear Abe during a game…..McKay had incredibly talented staffs and as you can see, some went on to become head coaches of note…..Doug Williams was the turning point on offense along with Jimmie Giles…..This team has no JG and it will be interesting to see how good JW really is when things go bad….Also, those defenses were incredibly superior to the current defense, Bucs ran a 3-4 back then….would have loved to see Lee Roy Selmon in a 4-3…
That’s my thought…..today we are talent poor overall and I’m not big on the coaching staff…..
September 11th, 2015 at 9:19 am
Reality bites!
September 11th, 2015 at 9:25 am
“We are not Tennessee ready” – Lovie Smith 9/10/15
September 11th, 2015 at 10:03 am
This kind of reporting is just absurd!!! It’s not enough to point out the 30-70 now we are expected to use our imaginations and think how bad things COULD be?
I’ll play along. If we go winless this year, next year and the following year we’ll be the worst team in history…since the original Bucs!
WTF is the point of this story. Ira should be ashamed. We’re really now exploring just how bad we COULD be. Bite me Ira you maroon!!!!
September 11th, 2015 at 10:10 am
Not worried. We are finishing 3rd this season in the division. 6-10 overall and 3-3 in the South. My magic 8 ball said so. 🙂
September 11th, 2015 at 10:12 am
I would say 8-8 but the officials are going to screw us out of a couple of wins with phantom calls. Just based on our history with bad, bogus, game altering calls.
September 11th, 2015 at 10:15 am
@SPBF
It must especially be annoying to you dealing with idiotic reporting after spending years in the business.
September 11th, 2015 at 10:25 am
What annoys me is that so many people just assume because a team has been bad for e few years, that they cant bounce back and be a winning team. There is so much roster changes each season that each season is it’s own entity. We can take nothing from the past to determine the now. We had no OC, a different QB and several different OL men not to mention a better than ever Muscle Hamster. Plus injuries cant be predicted. What if Ryan, Brees and Newton all had season ending injuries after the first several weeks of the season? How would that change the landscape of the NFC South? Bottom line is that none of us know how good the Bucs can be this season but I do know one thing….the negativity wont stop because people just expect things to never change from year to year. I mean why even watch the NFL if the Patriots are going to win the Superbowl every year for the rest of eternity and the Bucs are going to be Cellar Dwellers for the rest of eternity? The reality is that we have a young offense that needs time to grow and will improve week to week. I actually expect us to struggle a little in the first part of the season but show vast improvement as the season progresses. I think 6-10 is my safe prediction but if they went 8-8 or even 9-7 I would not be floored.
September 11th, 2015 at 10:54 am
The only reason the Bucs did not finish last 5 seasons in a row back in the ’80s was because Green Bay and Detroit were just as bad if not worse than the Bucs for a few seasons in the Perkins’ era thanks to the ineptitude of guys like Daryl Rogers and Forrest Gregg so that a 5-11 or 6-10 Buc squad usually finished ahead of a couple of 3-13 or 4-12 bottom feeders where the Bucs would actually sweep the Lions and the Pack and win one or 2 other games vs the rest of the league: tough years at the Sombrero. Maybe that happens this year as the NFC South does not look that impressive this year so that a 6 or 7 win Buc team could finish in 2nd…. But for this to happen the Bucs really need to get the W this Sunday and being a justifiably nervous Bucs fan: i can think of a multitude of ways this team can lose but the Titans actually tanked less on their way to 2-14 than our Bucs did so i say Lovie pulls a “ray perkins” and gets a W against another bad team: Bucs 20 Titans 17 on the way to a 6 or 7 win season!
September 11th, 2015 at 11:05 am
@RayJay
I don’t know that I’m annoyed as much as bemused or maybe even amazed at the hard corps Buc fans.
I worked in Bristol..only major league sport was NASCAR but the Vols and Hokies were in our coverage area as well. Got to see Jim Kelly and Miami play in Blacksburg.
The fan base for these two teams was overly optimistic. Until Frank Beamer arrived Tech was not good and the Johnny Majors Vols were up and down but the fans always expected a good season.
As a simple fan of the Bengals growing up we suffered through some bad seasons but we never forgot Forrest Gregg and that SB visit and so when Sam Wyche arrived and brought in Boomer we “believed”.
I’ve NEVER seen a fan base that actually spent time trying to figure out what record for futility was in our grasp!! But then I’ve never been around N.Y. or Philly fan and so perhaps they are just as negative.
Change has to start somewhere. I say it starts this year.
September 11th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Reason = Moe, Curly and Larry Glazer…with a little helping of dumbass Rockstar…
Since Pop’s Glazer past on, that trio or quartet has messed this thing up…HUUUUGE!
September 11th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
No one knows more about ugly than Ira!