“Apathy”
November 15th, 2014
“A giant yawn,” explains The Custodian Of Canton.
Joe has often stated the absolute worst thing for any team, much less an NFL team, much less the Bucs is apathy.
Once apathy sets in among the fanbase, fans have checked out. And if things don’t turnaround quickly, many of those fans may be gone for good.
These are dangerous times in Tampa Bay for Bucs fandom. The Bucs are staring down the barrel of a 2-14 season and with so many holes and what sure seems to be a disconnect between players and Lovie Smith — he keeps preaching the same things week after week after week with no change — the immediate future looks bleak.
If anyone needed confirmation that apathy has set in, the “Custodian of Canton,” eye-RAH! Kaufman confirmed the morass in his weekly appearance with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, on the station that bears his name, “Mad Dog Radio,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: What has been the reaction – that town has been very anti-Bucs right now – what has been the reaction? I am sure that is all you hear about, TV, radio, newspaper. What has been the reaction?
eye-RAH! Kaufman: A giant yawn, Chris.
Russo: Oh, really?
Kaufman: A giant yawn.
Russo: Wow, wow. That is even worse.
Kaufman: That is even much worse, Chris.
Russo: Oh, much worse! That’s terrible. Apathy, is that what you are telling me, apathy Ira right now about the Bucs, huh?
Kaufman: Oh, there is no question, apathy. There was forty-six thousand people in the building last Sunday for a divisional home game. Now they are going to D.C. to face another team that is on shaky grounds. It just gets worse, Chris. Lovie Smith keeps crying for patience. Patience?! Chris, they haven’t won a playoff game since they beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl!
Russo: I don’t care if they go 1-15, he survives this no matter what, Lovie Smith?
Kaufman: Correct. He absolutely survives.
Yes, Joe also agrees if the Bucs do not win another game this season, that Lovie survives. Team Glazer, Joe is convinced, would give Lovie a mulligan for the Jeff Tedford medical issue. Losing an offensive coordinator at the dawn of the regular season is like setting off a hand grenade in a china shop. It just blows up your offense, especially when the next in line, Marcus Arroyo, is simply over his head experience-wise.
Though Joe is confident Lovie returns, let’s not be naive. Team Glazer launched Chucky, a man who won a Super Bowl for crying out loud, and he also had three years left on his contract.
The fanbase? Joe doesn’t know how badly it is turned off by the losing upon losing upon losing, now going on four of the past five years. And this season is the worst of them all, with expectations from fans at such a high point, then, splat!
If the Bucs can’t turn things around next year, not only is Lovie on thin ice, so too is the fanbase. They’ve been jilted enough that nothing short of wins will snap them out of their distrust.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:07 am
Jilted is an understatement.
That’s like trying to insult a corpse.
The Biff recommends self serve beer, in copious amounts, free and on the Glazers nickel.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:16 am
Fortunately there are enough fans from the other team we are playing each week here to make the stadium have some people in it. If this was Green Bay or Buffalo or some other town like that, it would be empty until they started winning.
I don’t think Lovie has another year, as you, Joe, and may others have pointed out, the coaching appears brain dead.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:18 am
ZZZZZZZ!
November 15th, 2014 at 9:36 am
One miscalculation, repeated time and time again, has not been really discussed. Remember when the Bucs were being hailed as the top performers in aggressive free agency acquisitions? Could win the division. A couple even predicted Super Bowl. Realistically, we ALL thought they would be better than last year. Now comes the big question. Is it scheme (offensively and defensively, blocking and pass rushing)? Is it coaching? What made these good players, with great potential, wilt like a flower in winter? Jason and Lovie were wrong, but so to was everyone of us that saw so much potential.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:36 am
Apathy has definitely set in with this long time season ticket holder. I am not excited about Sunday, already sold the Packer tickets and will either sell Saints tickets to friends.
Been way too long since we were relevant.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:41 am
Joe, your output production of posts far exceeds the Bucs output on the field. Well done. My high points of this season is reading and sharing on JBF the disgust we all have for the present state of the Bucs. Thanks for giving us a forum to make light of another dreadful season. My personal apathy level has dropped consistently with each loss and will continue to drop until SOMETHING positive changes.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:41 am
We have cut all the players that provided us with excitement……Stripper poles in LRs…..Mattress’ in yards, Missing team photos, oversleeping, Shooting at Mother’s boyfriends, Adderall popping, Punching players in College (hoping we’d see it here),
The only thing more excit
November 15th, 2014 at 9:43 am
The only thing more exciting would be to have a Ray Carruth or Aaron Hernandez….
Now we have losers with character. Here’s to hoping they start to win!!!!
November 15th, 2014 at 9:47 am
The hopes for a decent season were pretty much over by week 3. Playoff football, and teams vying for the playoffs, is what makes following your team exciting.
My dreams for this season aren’t over, they have just changed as the season grew older. I still want to see my team play well, I just hope they still lose. I want to see competitiveness…and losses, lots of them, I’m all in with “Win None for Winston” or “Suck for the Duck” but I still want the team to be competitive.
At this point, even with the record the team has, I still support Lovie Smith and realize that these things often take time. Next season, which is the true fan of a bad team’s mantra, next season things will be better… if not, then Lovie, like Schiano before him, and Morris, needs to go.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:58 am
As soon as the Bucs start winning more games than they lose – the stadium will be packed and all will be forgiven with the fanbase. It might take another couple years to get to that point – but I believe it will happen – with this head coach.
So many people think all this losing is Lovie’s fault. It’s not. The Bucs were losing big time before Lovie even got here and he has just not been able to get the ship turned around – YET. He doesn’t have the players – He doesn’t have the talent. YET.
The reality is the Bucs have 3 or 4 very good players and about 1/2 dozen decent ones to build with. That’s not enough. Need at least another 8-10 more good players to be good enough to win consistently. L&L knew this coming in which is why we saw them turn over 1/3 of the roster in 1 year – hoping to find some upgrades via free agency. That didn’t work out very well and rarely does. 2 more good drafts and this team will be in much better shape. This last one was the best draft we’ve had in years and it will take a couple more just like it or better to get back to decent.
I see so many people saying – the current regime should be “coaching up” what’s here and that should be good enough. It ain’t. You can’t fix 10 years of bad drafting in 1 year. We have 2 great players (LVD and GMC) and 1 good one (Banks) that were drafted by the Bucs prior to Lovie’s arrival and that’s it! Not enough. Not even close to enough. It will take time to build this team back up to competitive which sucks because the fans are so starved for a decent product NOW after years of watching a crappy team take the field.
If the Bucs still suck in 2016 – THEN it will be L&L’s fault. The biggest reason the Bucs suck now is because Mark Dominick was a terrible GM and completely missed on way too many high draft picks over the previous 5 years. That last statement is an absolute fact and has nothing to do with Lovie Smith.
November 15th, 2014 at 9:58 am
I sat through the 0-26 days and the games were more entertaining. At least we saw hope of improvement – not like this season!
November 15th, 2014 at 10:11 am
To quote Al Davis: “Just win baby”! Find a way to get back to 9+ win seasons Glazers and the fans will be back. Winning is the biggest cure for a town that is tired of losses, ineptitude and excuses. The ownership should make some good examples of how ineptitude will not be tolerated in Tampa as a starting point (hint make L&L fire anyone associated with coaching special teams and offense) and basically cut ties with Tedford for quitting on the program as us informed fans have been led to believe….. I’d like to believe that the Glazers will do things offseason to rebuild the fan base but right now I expect blackouts and more of the Culverhouse regime revisited as winning games seems far, far away in Tampa land….. Man the Bucs are bad, it is next to impossible for a franchise to be as badly pieced together as the baby Glazer product…… Something has to change from the top before we fans see any wins or at least an attempt to do so….. Perhaps the Glazers have to go………
November 15th, 2014 at 10:17 am
@ Brandon
There is another way to get a better draft position other than playing competitive and rooting for losing….its rooting for us to win and other teams in the hunt to win also….
I do agree with you that this will get turned around and by Lovie Smith…
That is an unpopular opinion now…but I’ll stick with it. I think they brought in the best players available and they haven’t turned out….I do think they had a good draft and will have a very good draft next year….
November 15th, 2014 at 10:22 am
I’ll always be a fan….just won’t be buying season tickets any longer….
November 15th, 2014 at 10:38 am
Sundays used to be reserved for the Bucs. Now I can work on my golf game instead.
November 15th, 2014 at 10:40 am
Apathy is the worst thing a fanbase can feel, and if they go 1-15 with a few more humiliating losses to end the year, the fans might be gone if Lovie comes back. How much is lost by non-renewals of season tickets of an incredibly weak fanbase to begin with will have a lot to do with it. If nothing else Lovie has no leash next year, an 0-3 start is probably instant fired.
And with Lovie on the hot seat like that, drafting a QB high is pretty much out. Lovie needs an instant impact player, so look for Randy Gregory or Leonard Williams to be the choice. Mariota maybe, Crab Legs not in a million years. In fact earliest I see a QB going for Lovie is the 3rd round, and that QB will be riding the pine as either McCown or some other vet runs the show.
November 15th, 2014 at 10:50 am
season tickets! I tossed every hat shirt helmet what have you in the back of my closet I also still a fan but not a fan of lovie and this staff of idiots he put together. im sorry to say this but I hope they lose till he gets fired!
November 15th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Frustration is the word for me.
L&L came out with a bunch of HooRahRah at the beginning
and VERY Soon it all turned to “Patience”
Very frustrating as like many others I bought in to the HooRahRah.
Now they want me to buy into the patience.
Makes it hard to believe what they are saying.
November 15th, 2014 at 11:36 am
Lovie is no lock to return. Tedford’s absence is far less distraction than what Schiano dealt with in 2013, and team managed to win 4 games and at least look competitive in the majority of losses. If Lovie can’t at least achieve 4 wins this year and show some team improvement you (Joe) really are confident Team Glazier doesn’t pull the plug on the Lovie Smith experiment? They are not a patient lot as proven in the past
November 15th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
All of the experienced coaches brought in by Lovie for this staff and it is by far the inferior unit on this team. The offense was always an untested experiment that not even Lovie understands. Who gave the go-ahead on all of these decisions? Lovie stands alone at the top of this botched abortion that we call the “Buccaneers”.
I might be able to forgive him slightly if he wasnt too arrogant to admit ownership of this disaster, but if he did that he would lose what little player respect he still has, and so……the suffering continues.
November 15th, 2014 at 12:35 pm
In Chicago, we couldn’t wait for Lovie to get the axe. When I heard we hired him in Tampa, I told everyone I knew, it was a big mistake ! What bugs me the most is when he was in Chi town and then here is that far away, deer in the headlines look he has. It seems he has no clue on what to do. Yes, I know, he made it to the Super Bowl. He had great talent (Urlacher, etc.) on defense which carried the team..
November 15th, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Just like I stated!
Nobody cares about a stupid pole anymore… We all know that Lovie sucks and we are stuck with him for at least one more year…
I mean really Joe, how in the hell could his approval rating really go higher? Because most fans like me have lost interest… This is just a silly side show at this point…
November 15th, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Bucrightoff is exactly right……….I know I’m not renewing, and I’ve had these tix for over seven years. The Bucs organization is like the little boy who cried wolf. Far too many times have they lied to the fanbase and claimed they were a better team, more competitive, and financially vested in winning. We’ve all heard it too many times with a lack of results. I’ll always be a Buc fan, but I won’t throw good money after bad. I’ll buy single game tickets when they start winning.
November 15th, 2014 at 1:18 pm
When there’s no one single thing to blame, is when the apathy sets in.
When it was Dilfer, or Mike Shula, the bad cornerbacks, or the d-line stunts, fans can get mad about that.
Across the board, everything is below average to varying degrees. It’s too much to process, so the best solution is just not to care.
November 15th, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Yawn… they’re playing this week? really? who and where? Seahawks? in Dallas? oh, ok, now back to my other things I have to get done…
November 15th, 2014 at 2:16 pm
It doesnt help when Lovie and Licht made it clear that they weren’t in a rebuilding mode. They told everyone they wanted win now. Changing the tune and telling everyone to have patience isn’t sitting well with the fanbase at this point.
Lovie will most likely be back next year, although he shouldn’t get a mulligan for the Tedford issue. The offense has arguably outplayed the defense and special teams, which is a scary thought. The offensive playcalling would’ve certainly been better coming from an experienced coach, it’s still not the weakest link. Tedford would still be working with Lovie’s hand picked offensive lineman and QB. Lovie’s defense has been the biggest culprit, especially when you consider his philosophy of being able to win games when your offense gives you 17 points.
November 15th, 2014 at 5:44 pm
2-14??? Who are you saying the Bucs are better than on their schedule?
Awfully arrogant at this point don’t ya think?
November 15th, 2014 at 8:06 pm
How can you say it takes time to get the players he wants or good enough players to win but say wonder out loud will he keep his job is these players don’t start winning? Win or lose the Glazers won’t fire this guy before time. Sooner or later you have to play it out with a coach
November 15th, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Now i’m not saying we necessarily have to fire Lovie, but 1-15 is bad… like really bad. And its somehow assumed that after winning only one game, the coach has something to make you believe he should get at least 1 more year. But if he went 0-16, it’s again a foregone conclusion – out of the unwritten handbook of lowliness – he’d get canned out of principle.
Point is, how in the world can we just assume we should give another year to a guy who is 1 last second TD away from being auto fired? Principle?
November 15th, 2014 at 11:26 pm
I want to care but have been apathetic since earnest graham got hurt in the London game. He was the last player we had with a will to win, that really was the end of the road for Raheem and I just think the glazers aren’t committed to winning until the team gets moved to London. I keep begging for tebow so I can have something to care about but all we get are guys without the will to win. because of jameis issues he wont do it for me btw -I was a lovey fan but when he brought in this minor league general manager who wouldn’t even try to get some decent offensive linemen (which cost lovey the job in chicago) and they wouldn’t even give tebow a tryout, I could see more of the same so I just rarely watch any nfl football any more. I should bet the nfl though because the bucs usually lose, but I don’t.