Team Glazer Emboldened To Jump Into Personnel?
May 25th, 2020
From ESPN to the Daily Mirror in England, an intriguing report emerged about Team Glazer, specifically Buccaneers co-chairman Joel Glazer getting very heavy-handed when it came to one of his favorite players.
Joe’s talking about the guy in the picture, a soccer player for Manchester United.
“Anthony Martial is safe at Manchester United because he is one of Joel Glazer’s favourite players, sources have told ESPN FC.”
That’s how an ESPN report kicked off, and various other outlets later followed up with a similar message: Glazer had blocked the sale of the struggling 23-year-old goal scorer. Apparently, Glazer made a solid call because Martial’s game improved and he scored three goals in four games before The Sickness shut down the English Premier League season.
(Perhaps Team Glazer remembered regretting letting Chicarato walk for no good reason? That’s a story for another website.)
The Buccaneers point here is Joe wonders whether Team Glazer is feeling a more emboldened to make important Bucs decisions, assuming this soccer report is accurate.
After all, when a club struggles mightily, Joe assumes owners (regardless of the sport) aren’t quick to defer to guys who have captained the struggle.
Robert Kraft represents sort of the opposite example. Nearly 20 years ago he wanted to keep franchise quarterback Drew Bledsoe in place as the Patriots starter when Bledsoe returned from an injury. But Bill Belicheat asked Kraft to trust him to stick with this kid named Tom Brady. Fast forward to 2020, and Kraft wanted to keep Brady but deferred to the guy he trusted in 2001.
No, Joe doesn’t think Team Glazer ordered Jason Licht to keep Doug Martin coming off a season in which he was benched and averaged less than 3 yards per carry. And no, Joe doesn’t think Team Glazer made Licht trade up for a kicker or draft 73 defensive backs in the past four years.
But Joe doesn’t underestimate the hunger for a winner among the guys writing the checks, or what moves they’d make to achieve that goal.
May 25th, 2020 at 5:56 am
The Glazer’s gave the order to wack Frankie Pentangeli!
May 25th, 2020 at 6:33 am
Here’s the move they made…
Licht “I can seriously land Brady and he’ll bring Gronk with him out of retirement!”
Glazers: “yeah, ok!”
What a tremendous display of hunger and influence.
May 25th, 2020 at 6:34 am
“Word on the street” was that she-mc93 was just about to be trade for two second round picks , but she-mc93 agent caught wind of it and she-mc93 and agent went straight to team Glazer which over-ruled the trade!!!!!!! The next day she-mc93 came out with that strange statement that she was staying in 2018!!!!!!!!! Licht bulb then brought in a bunch of slappies to “build areound” she-mc93 which did nothing for another season!!!!!!!!!!!! After embarrassing licht and team glazer, that is why she-mc93 got the cold shoulder, had “no-value” and was cut for nothing in the 2019 offseason!!!!!!!!!!
This is the “no excuse” season of all “no excuse” seasons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 25th, 2020 at 6:38 am
Bucs should have a restraining order on she-mc93. Keep that cancer far away from Tampa. “The Face of Losing”
May 25th, 2020 at 6:49 am
A lack of success is the quickest way to lose authority….it seems the Glazers have a history of simply replacing their HC rather than “Jerry Jonesing” them.
May 25th, 2020 at 7:06 am
@Tampabaybucfan
While that statement “should” be true, In the Glazers case, it would seem to based on fan interests and fan/media buzz!!!!!!!!!!
But while the Glazer’s have maintained an appearance of not making personal decisions, in would be very naive to not know they have advised, meddle, and influenced some of the bigger personal decisions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the “no excuse” season of all “no excuse” seasons!!!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 25th, 2020 at 8:07 am
Doug Martin was puzzling to say the least. No GM is their right mind would let him walk after his productive rookie season and he was serviceable. I always wonder is all these multiple coaching changes just shortened players careers.
Josh Freeman is a good example of such……
May 25th, 2020 at 8:17 am
I have a feeling the Glazers are relishing the amount of attention their team has garnered since the Brady signing. Until now, the only sports news seems to revolve around either the Bucs or Brady, or both. With this newfound national recognition, their involvement may become a little stronger. The playoffs, and even the Super Bowl, are no longer just far flung aspirations. The Glazer’s aren’t going to want to get this close and let it slip away unfulfilled. The question is where can they assert influence for the greatest affect.
May 25th, 2020 at 8:27 am
@ PSL Bob
I disagree with you in regards to the Glazer Boys becoming more involved.
The Glazer Boys are complete idiots when it comes to football operations and it’s been proven over the last 12 years of the Bucs being irrelevant and quite frankly….hopeless.
Malcom Glazer was the only Glazer that had any kind of football sense. Jason Licht deserves alot of credit and has really made this franchise better even though he cannot draft a running back of a defensive back to save his life.
Thank Jason Licht………..not the Glazer Boys for Tom Brady and the national spotlight now.
May 25th, 2020 at 8:48 am
The Glazer boys are most involved in depositing cash into their bank accounts.
May 25th, 2020 at 8:50 am
The Glazers have always been involved in decisions for the Bucs. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it’s not. But I’m not just talking about any decisions–I’m talking about strategic decisions that have long term impacts. The most recent ones were direction to draft Jameis Winston, and the direction to let him go. Sure, the HC and GM had inputs, but Winston was as good as gone before really BA knew it. Winston only lasted as long as he did here because of Darcy. In retrospect, they know they should have let him go after the Uber misconduct. Now, the Glazers don’t bother themselves with tactical level decisions, particularly mid-season–like start-sit, release, etc. They are big on letting people do their jobs…or not. They are much more engaged than many think though.
May 25th, 2020 at 9:00 am
Bucs Anthem, I don’t believe you’re accurate on Malcom. When Dungy couldn’t bring the trophy they mortgaged the future of the Bucs in what it took to bring Gruden here. Yes, he brought us a SB, but was it he alone to do it? I would agree the worst decisions were by the younger Glazers who sent guys like Brooks, Sapp, and Lynch packing before they should, but that was financial as the Glazers were bleeding money because of the real estate market and economy. But from a football standpoint, it was bad and had some bigtime missteps with the fan base, but from a financial standpoint, pretty brilliant. The Bucs were bought for $192 million but now are worth over $2.5 Billion. I don’t give Licht much credit at all. Not good at all.
May 25th, 2020 at 9:16 am
Joel Glazer absolutely did cite Anthony Martial as his ‘Pele’; the Frenchman’s contract renewal was under threat following tensions with (then) head coach Jose Mourinho
May 25th, 2020 at 9:55 am
Personally, I think the Glazers seem more like soccer people than football people and probably know more about it.
May 25th, 2020 at 9:59 am
I have a client that moved to Liverpool, where Manchester U is loathed. But even there, they accuse the Glazers of robbing soccer to pay for the Bucs, which is of course, not true.
May 25th, 2020 at 10:47 am
Every owner has influence….its their team, their vision. The biggest problem I’ve heard with our owners is there are too many providing input and the end product gets bogged down with trying to appease all siblings. Not all the Glazer siblings were fans of Winston before he was drafted….and certainly weren’t after the Uber incident. Its one thing to have ONE owner who provides input….imagine having 2 or 3. That’s a tough balancing act for any GM….particularly an unproven one like Licht who makes his own fair share of mistakes.
May 25th, 2020 at 11:45 am
This is the ultimate Team Glazer kiss of death move. They give you a lot of money in a “contract extension” and then cut you. They can’t help it. It’s just how they roll. Their ultimate “goal” (pardon the pun, Mr. Martial) is to pay players not to play and coaches not to coach. How many coaching staffs and players are still on the Bucs payroll? I fear that Licht, who just got an “extension”, and the largest coaching staff in the NFL will be joining them soon.
May 25th, 2020 at 11:58 am
“Let’s hit them. Let’s him them hard. While we have the muscle.”
May 25th, 2020 at 2:02 pm
Major cash investments in players almost certainly have to pass by the Glazers before they go down. I’m guessing they don’t get into the veto business very often, but they also might let Licht and Arians know they’re very much in favor of signing Tom Brady… So, I think they have some input on signing big ticket free agents. As long as that doesn’t conflict with the football people, I’m okay with that. Like if the Glazers demanded they sign Cam Newton let’s say… that would suck.
May 25th, 2020 at 3:25 pm
I’d rather watch my wife’s nails dry than watch soccer.
May 26th, 2020 at 12:18 am
Cute crack about the DBs, but the Bucs have no salary cap room (so cant sign one of your treasured veterans)…Evans can’t stay healthy with a tricky injury, so now they’re 3-deep at safety like a modern team (Winfield, Edwards, Whitehead) and have 3 starting corners like a modern team (Dean, Davis, SMB) with Stewart as a wildcard. I.e., Jason did the right thing on a team with no glaring needs. All I can see is maybe he should’ve grabbed an OLine instead of a tweener in Stewart.
May 26th, 2020 at 9:33 am
Joe great article. If you watch what they are doing with ManU you’ll see they are making some really smart moves lately. Maybe the boys are finally getting it?