Bucs Ignore 20th Anniversary Of Super Bowl Win
January 26th, 2023
Team Glazer honoring Jon Gruden at his Buccaneers Ring of Honor ceremony in 2018.
UPDATED: 10:30 a.m – It was stunning that Team Glazer passed on a formal and significant honoring of their 2002 Super Bowl team this season at Raymond James Stadium. Today is the 20th anniversary of the franchise’s first Super Bowl win.
As of 9:30 a.m. this morning, there’s not even an acknowledgement on the Buccaneers’ Twitter account, Facebook page or the team website.
And rest assured, 2002 Buccaneers players spoke up and asked Tampa Bay management how they would be honored this season and if it would be similar to the 10th anniversary celebration at a late-season home game.
Joe is convinced there is only one reason the Bucs passed on honoring the 20th anniversary: Jon Gruden, their first Super Bowl head coach.
Team Glazer defrocked Gruden from the Buccaneers Ring of Honor last season, ripping his name from the stadium after old Gruden emails were discovered as part of the probe of the Washington franchise. Gruden effectively was canceled by the NFL for what the league considered sexist, racist, xenophobic and anti-gay emails sent by Gruden to then-Washington general manager Bruce Allen and others when he worked for ESPN.
The emails also included anti-Glazer commentary, which apparently is a crime worse than any indiscretion committed by Antonio Brown, Jameis Winston or Jerramy Stevens.
Gruden is suing the NFL for a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” to make him quit his Raiders head coaching job midway through the 2021 season by leaking his emails — and concealing hundreds of thousands of other emails tied to the NFL probe.
Joe knows former Bucs were not pleased by the team passing on honoring the 20th anniversary of the Super Bowl win. The Bucs’ company line, apparently, was that there would be a big deal made for the 25th anniversary.
For perspective, during the 2021 season, the Patriots had a year-long celebration of their 20th anniversary of Super Bowl glory. That included a podcast and a website portal dedicated to re-living that 2001 season, in addition to other public celebrations.
Across professional sports it’s commonplace for teams to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a championship.
In Tampa, well, Gruden.
Joe finds this very embarrassing for the Bucs. It was a small-minded decision.
UPDATED 10:30 a.m. – The Bucs added a video to their website of Ronde Barber breaking down film of the 2002 championship season. Also added to their Twitter account was a post, “Where were you 20 years ago today?”
Today is the 20th Anniversary of #SBXXXVII – Salute all my former @Buccaneers teammates who played in the last SB that didn't have a bye week between AFC/NFC Championships & SB weekend 🙌🏿🎊 pic.twitter.com/Fiz74LZ2QK
— Roman Oben (@R_Oben) January 26, 2023
January 26th, 2023 at 9:37 am
Gruden will be exonerated
January 26th, 2023 at 9:44 am
Gruden’s personal emails should not have been made public even if you don’t like or agree with them . The nfl will eventually pay out $
January 26th, 2023 at 9:49 am
When I heard Donald Penn’s reaction to the Gruden incident, that was all I needed to hear on the matter.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:53 am
Small minded is a bit of an understatement.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:53 am
That Gruden-Allen thing is going to get buried forever…. They start digging through NFL emails, a lot of billionaires are in trouble.
At least John Lynch is still celebrating as the 49er GM.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:54 am
Gruden did nothing wrong. The glazers are bad owners who got LUCKY with TB12. Any criticism towards the small hat gang or woke politics and you’re guilty in the court of public opinion.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:55 am
Shame on the Glazers.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:57 am
Thank you Joe. It is courageous of you to call out the Glazers for being small minded. Especially knowing how capable they are of being retaliatory (eg response to Gruden emails). That said, do you have any thought as to how they might respond to this article? Please don’t misinterpret this post. I am sincerely interested in your thought process here. Perhaps a form of journalistic integrity to express one’s self honestly, despite potential consequences.
Sort of a silly question here. Joe writes about what interests Joe without regard for what fans, players or the organization thinks. It’s been the same thing here for 15 years. Joe might as well quit if forced to worry about who will or won’t like what’s written here — because there’s always someone offended every day among the tens of thousands of daily readers. There’s not a word in this post that is malicious or inappropriate. Team Glazer knows that. –Joe
January 26th, 2023 at 9:57 am
I am offended. What a snub to those players. I know they pretend Gruden never existed, but this is ridiculous.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:57 am
…Let he who without sin cast the first stone. Glaser and family and all detractors should be asked to submit all of their emails for scrutiny. if they decline, we shall assume they have written things as bad or worse.
January 26th, 2023 at 9:59 am
And agreed with the above. I hope Gruden takes Goodell down hard, like a Lynch tackle of Marshall Faulk.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:01 am
Fake outrage everywhere
January 26th, 2023 at 10:02 am
“league considered sexist, racist, xenophobic and anti-gay emails sent by Gruden”
In fairness it’s not just the league but a preponderance of society at large!
Having said that I certainly accept the two points made about the fact they were sent privately and shouldn’t have been revealed. And the other point about “judge not lest we be judged.” If we had access to everybody’s PRIVATE emails and texts the reality is that more would have offensive remarks than those that didn’t.
I see BOTH sides of those latter two arguments. Perhaps Rita can show up and fill me in. 🙂
January 26th, 2023 at 10:03 am
Because it was rigged !!!
January 26th, 2023 at 10:06 am
Wow it’s sad to see what Woke ism has not done to just society, but also sports. It’s not only disgusting, but very sad and thankfully I can hold hold on to the memories of the 80s and 90s. People need to wake up and last season was a perfect example of go woke go broke !!
January 26th, 2023 at 10:06 am
Embarrassing that the G’Boyz
Knee jerked Gruden from the ROH
Clown show!
Sell the team or at least 51%
January 26th, 2023 at 10:12 am
Ben, I sure hope you are right. It seems there is no such thing as freedom of speech anymore.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:15 am
I would love to see Ronde Barber publicly call out the Glazers on this.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:20 am
Just imagine what both Bills, Walsh, and other coaches have said and why can’t we see the emails ? Once you go against the Mob they really do try and destroy your life and it’s pathetic and criminal !! Is that why Bruce Arians wasn’t in the sidelines this past season because something was being held over his head ? Hmm
January 26th, 2023 at 10:23 am
Only saw him one time on the sideline and then the G boys stepped in, but I want to know what really happened to this organization from the top down. It was obvious this season was way bigger then football and I wish someone would do some investigating because it seemed off since training camp
January 26th, 2023 at 10:24 am
Don’t see the big deal
January 26th, 2023 at 10:27 am
Joe says: There’s not a word in this post that is malicious or inappropriate. Team Glazer knows that. –Joe …
I don’t think they will care for being called small minded, and I don’t think they will take it well. While it is neither malicious nor inappropriate, it is still criticism. Even though it is appropriate criticism, they will not see it that way. After all, they don’t exactly have a history of taking the high road (e.g. Gruden).
Joe, I was complimenting your courage and you respond by calling my question silly and getting sanctimonious. Get over yourself, man!
Jiminy Christmas! Wasn’t sanctimonious at all. Just gave a real response. –Joe
January 26th, 2023 at 10:27 am
and lastly they just posted 20 minutes ago “ Where were you 20 years ago “ ?? I was with my Dad in San Diego having the time of our lives and memories I will cherish forever!! RIP Pops
January 26th, 2023 at 10:30 am
Our team has spiraled and failed to meet expectations since the Glazer Boys kicked Chucky out of the Ring.
For a team that will post for every obscure players birthday, I don’t buy the “25 year” excuse
January 26th, 2023 at 10:33 am
Bosch… joebucsfans future is so bright, we gotta wear shades man….
January 26th, 2023 at 10:40 am
I’ve said this for years….the Bucs need to simply go across town to the Lightning offices and take a major PR lesson…..they are incredibly bad at the small minded effort they put forth in public relations and incredibly good at passing off fans. How can they not realize how much that team meant to the long suffering fans? It seems that they revert to their comfort zone…mediocrity…in all phases of the organization. The handling of the 20th Anniversary is a travesty….the handling of the success of the past couple years along with the current coaching situation is just as pathetic….back to free time on car windshields!!!!!
January 26th, 2023 at 10:41 am
You’re right, Joe. Sanctimonious is the wrong word to use. Prideful would have been more appropriate. I stand corrected.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:42 am
Love Jon Gruden…….won us our first SB……he got the hose…..should be reinstated to the Ring of Honor…….
Love Bruce Arians also…..should be reinstated as HC.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:42 am
It was 20 years ago. I don’t care if they put something up to recognize it.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:44 am
Gruden isn’t going to accept a settlement either just to keep quiet, he has an axe to grind and is going to go for blood…
January 26th, 2023 at 10:44 am
They are likely waiting for the 25th to buy time. By then Gruden might well have won his lawsuit. Then the public tide will likely shift as it so often does and find he was equally a victim and a bad guy. A ratio they and the woke can live with. A cowardly tactic but plausible.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:49 am
I wouldn’t celebrate if DeSantis was my coach either.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:49 am
Wouldn’t that be wild if it turned out that the Glazers were the ones who released the emails?
January 26th, 2023 at 10:49 am
Great example of how not to build a fan base.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:51 am
@Joe JBF got too hollywood and forgot about the ppl like myself who have been on the site since it started.
January 26th, 2023 at 10:51 am
The hung Gruden out to dry. It was a political stunt by the NFL. Even Gruden ex players like Sapp said he wasn’t racist. They should have never removed him from the ring of honor. The Glazers are weak small minded people.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:03 am
Meanwhile the Bowels of Toad still run as head coich at one Buc place. You can feel the team getting worse every day, decaying right in front of us.
Licht is a good GM but he won’t be able to have quality coaches because of Toad’ Stool, he won’t be able to attract quality free agents or keep any of the ones he wants to keep because of Toad’s Stool, and Toad won’t be helpful with the draft because he doesn’t look at film, according to his comment before the Humiliation at home against the Cowboys.
Great time to be a fan.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:06 am
Why are we surprised? The Glazers are protecting their investment – they are in the real estate business not football. The Bucs are simply a revenue stream.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:14 am
So they are that angry at Gruden that they want to erase the Super Bowl win? I know cancel culture is the new fad these days, but this is ridiculous.
Are they going to give back the trophy too?
January 26th, 2023 at 11:18 am
If emails were exposed by one of my ex-employees that blasted me in embarrassing terms, I wouldn’t be happy about it either. I certainly wouldn’t try to remind everyone about their presence. Litigation is an extra bonus to go on top. The Glazers are right in taking him out of the Ring of Honor and not highlighting him. If people can’t understand that, it’s their problem.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:21 am
Buc50, good thing you’re not working in politics.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:22 am
They are still depressed about getting smashed in the playoffs. Maybe just maybe they didn’t put a lot of effort into it is because hopefully we’re going all in on the throwback orange uni’s. What else is there to look forward after a performance like that
January 26th, 2023 at 11:33 am
I think we are overthinking this. This is Joe’s blog and he has long banned or otherwise put posters in the freezer for what he calls crimes against Joe. Of course this isn’t defined specifically and it can be whatever Joe wants it to be, which is as it should be.
Whatever negative emails about the Glazers that happened to be unearthed from gruden, I have to think that these were malicious and ugly enough to be considered a crime against the Glazers. And as is their right, they can respond however they please. It seems clear to me that this is the crux of it as far as the owners versus the former coach. I don’t think it’s the optics from the other stuff. It’s personal.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:37 am
“A crime against the Glazers” LMAO – I’m sure they’d wipe away their tears and sorrows with their billions of dollars.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:40 am
Sorry, but if the whole company finds out you said the bossman should suck your ****, your employee of the month photo is probably coming off the wall. It’s that simple.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:43 am
It’s only the greatest day in Bucs history.
January 26th, 2023 at 11:47 am
They posted a video about a half hour ago on Facebook that’s pretty fun to watch https://www.facebook.com/tampabaybuccaneers/videos/744008847144837
January 26th, 2023 at 11:50 am
Yucs, I suppose it needs to be explained to you specifically that I was being rhetorical. Just like Joe is when he uses the same exact term. Hope that clears it up for you.
January 26th, 2023 at 12:05 pm
James Wilder !
January 26th, 2023 at 12:21 pm
@ben and anyone else crying foul at the NFL,
You do realize that there is a lot of thought that Dan Snyder leaked those e-mails to spite the Raider’s owners, right?
It’s not just the NFL, Dan Snyder was selectively sabotaging other teams on his way down.
January 26th, 2023 at 12:25 pm
Gruden did not belong in the ring of honor in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, cancel culture is despicable and it sucks that the organization caved to all those phony losers. Putting that aside, I’m glad his name is no longer there. First SB victory was awesome, so celebrate the team as a whole for that (it wasn’t just him that got us there). Gruden had 1 or 2 great seasons as a coach. Lots of guys had 1 or 2 great seasons. That doesn’t earn them immortal status.
January 26th, 2023 at 12:36 pm
DungyDunce — your love interest couldn’t get it done with the team you probably give him credit for. So if Gruden doesn’t belong, neither does Dungy. Don’t despair, though, the current Bucs head coach wants to be just like Tony, making sure the offense can’t move the ball or score points. But, unlike Dungy, the current head coach’s defense sucks almost as bad as the offense, so Yay.
January 26th, 2023 at 12:42 pm
Actually the handle I use is the title of a parody song that was on the radio during the Dungy years.
January 26th, 2023 at 12:59 pm
Some funny takes on here.
Everyone still has freedom their freedom of speech.
But freedom of speech doesn’t mean you are free from facing any consequences over your speech. People seem to always forget that. Has nothing to do with being woke. Society changes and progresses over time. It’s always been this way.
Personally I think it was an overreaction to remove him from the ROH, but at the end of the day it’s the owners who have the most power. I have many issues with how the Goazer children have run this team, but Gruden being removed from the ROH is near the bottom of my list. The lack of acknowledgement of the SB win is a bigger deal IMO.
January 26th, 2023 at 1:16 pm
Make no mistake…I can’t stand Jon Gruden…but he got a bum deal. He has always been that way. It never bothered anyone before. But the media wanted a story and jumped on it.
As a Christian, I could not stand the way he talked. I was glad when he got fired from the Bucs. He had the nastiest mouth of anyone I have ever met.
Still got a bum deal though.
January 26th, 2023 at 1:19 pm
He should still be in the ring of honor simply because he coached us to our first superbowl victory. Something that happened so many years later does not change that.
January 26th, 2023 at 1:21 pm
I agree Gruden’s emails should not have been made public, etc., etc. The thing that made the Glazers take his name off was not in retaliation for his unwoke comments. It was because he called one Glazer a very rude and obscene name. What better way to get back at him for saying that? lol
I do wish they had not taken him out of the ROH but I know why they did it, and it probably got to Gruden as his comment did to the Glazers.
January 26th, 2023 at 1:41 pm
Has anyone seen the Dwight Smith video on our Superbowl?
January 26th, 2023 at 1:42 pm
If not lol just go on YouTube and search
January 26th, 2023 at 1:59 pm
I’m not even a Gruden fan as I give way more credit to Dungy for our first SB, but the dude was totally wronged in this instance. What we say in confidence should be just that, in confidence. Every single person on this site has said things that would warrant them being “cancelled” if the entire world knew about it. The world has gone too soft.
January 26th, 2023 at 2:05 pm
Considering all the vitriol I’ve seen posted on this site by supposed Bucs fans, to see the Gruden love surprises me. The Glazers were beyond wrong for taking his name down. What he did or supposedly did in a few emails years ago after he left the Bucs had nothing to do with his service to our team. And who among us hasn’t some time in his life engaged in inappropriate comments before among their friends? The real test is does he recognize that’s wrong and has he tried to improve? Only he and God can determine that. Restore Gruden’s Name to RayJay!
January 26th, 2023 at 2:25 pm
What are the chances there are sexist, xenophobic and anti-gay emails by Tony Dungy floating around out there?
I’d say pretty good odds.
January 26th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Steven007 Says:
January 26th, 2023 at 11:33 am
I think we are overthinking this. This is Joe’s blog and he has long banned or otherwise put posters in the freezer for what he calls crimes against Joe. Of course this isn’t defined specifically and it can be whatever Joe wants it to be, which is as it should be.
Whatever negative emails about the Glazers that happened to be unearthed from gruden, I have to think that these were malicious and ugly enough to be considered a crime against the Glazers. And as is their right, they can respond however they please. It seems clear to me that this is the crux of it as far as the owners versus the former coach. I don’t think it’s the optics from the other stuff. It’s personal.
—
Excellent take, I didn’t think of it from that standpoint. I thought it was the Glazers simply protecting their investment. You are on to something there.
January 26th, 2023 at 3:18 pm
Go woke go broke. Another pathetic move by this organization. How many empty seats will there be next year when it is 100 degrees on Sunday afternoons.
January 26th, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Isn’t this a story you write at like 11:00 tonight if they don’t post anything all day?
January 26th, 2023 at 3:44 pm
BucsMinisiterFuller Says:
January 26th, 2023 at 2:25 pm
What are the chances there are sexist, xenophobic and anti-gay emails by Tony Dungy floating around out there?
I’d say pretty good odds.
___________________
I’d say it’s 100%. At least the anti-gay part – he’s apparently been pretty vocal about his stance on that.
January 26th, 2023 at 4:08 pm
Its BS that Gruden’s (and ONLY Gruden’s) PRIVATE emails to his long time friend were released by the NFL. Hopefully a court will decide there’s a steep price to pay for those actions – like 100+ Million or so…. because Gruden was absolutely wronged by Goodell and the league.
The Glazer’s reaction to basically “cancel” Jon Gruden because he said “mean” things about them (in confidence) – remove his name from the ring of honor and downplay the Super Bowl 37 Champion team’s accomplishments because Chucky was the coach of that team is also BS.
“Small minded” is a weak description – but Joe can only go so far on a (ahem) family friendly blog so kudos for at least calling them out Joe.
January 26th, 2023 at 5:04 pm
Unbelievable/Fuller: what both of you think is anti-gay were mainstream opinions for Democrats like 10 years ago.
January 26th, 2023 at 5:08 pm
The glazers are woke too woke that’s why we are stuck.with Todd bowles when we all.know he was a diversity hires. Sell the team we all love gruden
January 26th, 2023 at 6:18 pm
These days what one says is so much worse than what one does. How’d we evolve to getting this do upsidedown wrong?