The Fun Bucs
May 10th, 2022
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Joe remembers being at a horrible Vikings-Bucs game at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway in 2014 and thinking how Joe was throwing life away.
It was torture to watch this game coached by two meathead defensive coaches with dreadful beyond words quarterback play. Joe couldn’t have imagined paying for that tripe.
Joe remembers being so nauseated, a walk back into the media breakroom was necessary to try to clear Joe’s head. At that point Joe seriously debated selling this site. Joe was “this close” to being convinced throwing away leisure time covering a terrible team with a terrible quarterback with a worse coach was a waste of time.
While most of America was out enjoying themselves watching good football of their choice on a fall Sunday — or at least watching bad football with lots of Big Storm Beer and rowdy fans — Joe was subjected to eyerake football in the worst way week after week.
“What the hell is Joe doing?”
It was easily Joe’s lowest point of covering the Bucs in the 14 seasons this here site has been up and running.
(And it was at that moment the plan was hatched for the “Chase for Jameis.”)
So Joe understands watching bad football is awful. Joe has always watched football for entertainment, not to be waterboarded. Joe’s good friend Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders feels the same way. He recently ranked every NFL team in terms of its fun.
For Tanier, the key ingredients are: team quality, quarterback, playmakers, defense, scheme and novelty. Using these criteria, Tanier ranked the Bucs as the No. 6 most-fun team to watch.
Fun Index: 75
Fake retirements! Illuminati-like controversies! It feels like we’re straining for fresh Tom Brady storylines. Up next: an evil twin, or perhaps a petulant alien sidekick that only Brady can see.
The Buccaneers will win lots of games, but they lack novelty, and Brady’s quest to become greater than the greatest great only appeals to his hardcore mega-stans and ultra-casual sports fans anymore. Think Law & Order: Special GOATS Unit, a well-produced show that tops the ratings but isn’t cool to talk about around the water cooler.
Joe has a hunch the Bucs won’t be as fun as last year. Without former Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians and his Type-A, pedal-to-the-metal mentality, and a defensive coach taking over, Joe suspects the Bucs will run more. Part of that is because Chris Godwin could be out who knows how long.
So Joe naming the Bucs as the sixth-most fun team to watch is a nice ranking.
May 10th, 2022 at 12:16 am
Go Bucs
May 10th, 2022 at 12:33 am
We’re on the way to being as bad as before,
Find a way to sign Gronk, Suh and JPP so we can milk this one more time.
May 10th, 2022 at 1:19 am
I feel ya. Listening to Buc’s games while working, selling boiled peanuts and tea at the old (get rid of this cookie cutter sh!!t) Sombrero, when I was much younger. Bad football, but good times.
Just as an aside, one of Barry Sander’s thighs was the size of my torso.
It’s a great time to be a Buc’s fan despite our most recent draft. 😛
May 10th, 2022 at 1:28 am
Every once in awhile one of these comments (on the way to being as bad as we were before…) makes me realize being a Bucs fan is like being a victim of PTSD. Half of us are convinced the other shoe is going to drop any day and we’ll be be losing again. I think we all need a hug or something.
May 10th, 2022 at 2:17 am
It was hard being a fan of the worst team in the league for so many years. One must make all the ‘right’ moves repeatedly. Like trading away the the rights to earl campbell, Dan Hampton, and not being able to sign bo Jackson. Then not resigning Doug Williams. Drafting rod ‘toast’ jonesetc. These are just a few lowlights😬
But somehow thru all that, the team righted itself, and had glorious moments with stellar defensive play of the late nineties and early 2000’s, then the signing of the goat being the creme de la crème moment of a roller coaster franchise ride indeed.
That kinda made those good moments in time sweeter if you know what I mean.
May 10th, 2022 at 3:16 am
I went to every Bucs home game back then. I remember Barry Sanders making MONKEYS out of the Bucs (his highlight films are almost all against us). I remember McKay yelling at the bench. I could almost hear him saying, “Has anyone here EVER kicked a field goal?” because right after that some heavy looking–like-a-tackle-guy came out and kicked toward the uprights–missing, of course. AND I don’t care what anyone says, but Doug Williams was HORRIBLE. He kept pretending to be hurt and limping fakely to the bench.No. It was no fun. Once we lost every single game in a season and others weren’t much better. I think, this year it is a LOT of fun to be optimistic about our team, if nothing else.:)
May 10th, 2022 at 4:43 am
Buczilla … ‘It’s a great time to be a Buc’s fan despite our most recent draft.’
Despite our most recent draft? Chuckled when I first read that Buczilla because that’s the same way I felt right after the draft finished. Not only did no one in our draft class excite me, but I felt we’d missed out on 2 of our biggest needs to make a run for it this year: a true DT & an ILB.
And while that MAY end up being the case, the more I’ve looked at our draft picks the better this class already looks. Logan Hall wasn’t my 1st choice, but he’s gonna be a quality football player. Same with Goedeke, and probably White. Our 2 TEs should improve our capability to play smashmouth football, and we need that. Camarda gives us that young punter we needed to save some $$$, and McCollum & Anthony are the 2 potential steals of this draft. Only time will tell.
May 10th, 2022 at 7:22 am
BA was pretty tame. Give me some John Gruden! That’s electric coaching!
May 10th, 2022 at 7:34 am
Fun is when you win, it doesn’t matter if it was 3-0.
May 10th, 2022 at 8:20 am
Could have changed the name to “Woe Bucs Fan”
May 10th, 2022 at 10:50 am
I agree with Joe: Arians was the center of the “fun.”
I’m totally OK with Bowles, but he’s boring.
May 10th, 2022 at 10:51 am
@Jeff: Gruden was fun, but he’s also an asswipe.
BA was fun and a decent guy.
Big difference.
Colorful does not mean fun.
May 10th, 2022 at 9:24 pm
“… Joe suspects the Bucs will run more. Part of that is because Chris Godwin could be out who knows how long.”
.
.
The other part is to not wear out Brady’s arm before the playoffs. It wasn’t fun watching Manning’s reduction to game-manager.
May 11th, 2022 at 6:52 pm
The Bucs will be more fun than last year.
May 11th, 2022 at 6:53 pm
The Bucs will be more fun this year