Welcome Chucky To Hard Knocks
May 30th, 2017
Summer exposure
They’re high-fivin’ this afternoon over at HBO headquarters.
Buried in today’s Buccaneers news release announcing the 2017 induction of Malcolm Glazer and Jon Gruden, aka Chucky, into the team Ring of Honor was a very intriguing nugget.
It was noted that “a formal press conference will be conducted at the team’s headquarters at One Buccaneer Place on Wednesday, August 2, at 1:00 p.m.” That means Chucky will be in the house answering questions and mingling — and that’s also when HBO’s Hard Knocks cameras and microphones will be swarming One Buc Palace. That’s no coincidence.
(In case you’ve just returned from an Internet-free trip to the beaches of Cancun, the Bucs were selected to be the subject of Hard Knocks this season, the popular training camp reality show.)
Chucky is sure to have plenty to say on Hard Knocks, and Joe would suspect Chucky will serve them up an exclusive interview on the 2017 Bucs, or he’ll be caught commenting on practice that day or inside the walls of One Buc Palace. In fact, you can count on it.
This is especially interesting considering Chucky had a very cold relationship with Team Glazer following his ouster back in 2009, and he held his bitterness for a very long time.
May 30th, 2017 at 4:33 pm
Extremely proud to have known him as head coach of the Bucs and as a person. Very few people know more about football than Gruden. He is a motivator of men which is why so many struggle in the NFL. In the end it worked out well for everyone, but Gruden was/is one of the best NFL Coaches ever in my opinion.
May 30th, 2017 at 4:51 pm
I do not know Jon Gruden personally and have no idea what kind of person he is/was. I have heard rumors about difficulty with certain players.
I’m not plugged in. Perhaps posters here can fill me in. Did Gruden wear out his welcome with the vets or is that more a reaction of some of the troublemakers like Keyshawn or perhaps a little of both is true?
I do not know but just observing Chucky and his behaviors it’s clear he is a consumed professional who pays great attention to detail. Was he always right?
Nah…especially in player selection…but Chucky has scoreboard SUPERBOWL…and it’s our SUPERBOWL.
Because I am convinced of his professionalism I’m not as excited as some about Chucky on Hard Knocks. He’s not going to say anything that’s not PC. Chucky is a professional…he’s not a fan…it’s his career and livelihood…he’s not going to hack off people he may want to hire him at some future date. He will be very politically correct impressing all 32 franchises.
May 30th, 2017 at 5:16 pm
I’ve heard nothing to-date from Gruden that was negative about the Bucs, in fact, he seems somewhat restrained in his comments, given he was fired. I agree SPBucsFan on this.
May 30th, 2017 at 5:24 pm
It was a mistake to fire Gruden, but what’s done is done. Given that the Glazers tried to hire him back, they even realize that. My diagnosis: they must have been suffering from proprioception at the time.
May 30th, 2017 at 5:27 pm
Listen man i still live in Tampa Bay, buccaneers are my team alright. Offensively we had a great free agency and draft, My man Dirk will have this offense flying high, Buccaneers will be a team to be reckoned with this season. NFC South better watch out, im so excited about training camp and the upcoming season man, this team will be breaking some records this year man.
May 30th, 2017 at 6:23 pm
Great, we get to hear Gruden talk about how he always wished he had a QB like _________ (insert name here) during his time in Tampa. I mean considering Gruden got Rich McKay fired and put his stooge Bruce Allen in charge he could have taken Aaron Rodgers instead of Cadillac Williams, it was Gruden’s call, but still Gruden will say if only the Bucs would have used a high pick on a QB everything would have been different and he’d have had more than one ring with Dungy’s team.
May 30th, 2017 at 7:02 pm
I think the issues surrounding “Team Glazer” and Gruden and the veteran Bucs players were many; can’t say this or that one thing is the “blame.”
Gruden had gotten stale, often sarcastic with the Bucs players, seniors, and media alike. He did have trouble with some of his own players.
Malcom Glazer had a stroke in 2006 and was in declining health for years. The Great Recession resulting from a series of finacial events 2007-2008 had the Glazer family in general taking a huge hit in their investments worldwide, and the mastermind (Malcom) was not well enough to steer through issues with a wise hand as he had done since since his days running a small watch repair shop and building a heckuva fortune from there.
Monte Kiffen announced his leaving earlier in 2008, some aging players (like Lynch and Brooks and Alstott) were due to get new contracts or were to expensive to keep with what they had, and the team blew the last quarter of the 2008 season. Just as they needed to move on from Dungy to Gruden, the team needed to move on from Gruden and most everybody else. They needed to rebuild everything. All the while, they owed Gruden a mint. The stadium was 10 years old and the original seat contracts (10 years) were expiring, with many fans feeling slighted with the dismantling of their SB team, justified or not. Funny is some people say the Glazers robbed the Bucs to build up Man U across the pond…but over there, they blame the Glazers for robbing Man U to build up the Bucs. Neither is true, as the reality is failing economy and failing health of Malcom and failing of Team Jon Gruden ill timed with seat contracts expiring was a perfect storm. It was time to settle in and endure the storm. The Bucs brand suffered, as expected, but survived. Gruden was unhappy we can be sure, but really, but what do you expect from a Type A guy like Gruden who will always get mad when decisions are made by someone other than himself that drive his destiny. But make no mistake, it was he that turned in a terrible season, being on pace for playoffs and lost the last four in a row to miss out. Plus it looked like the Tampa Bay D gave up in there. Lost the fire. That’s what I’ve heard over the years, much of it from inside One Buc. I’ll also say the slog to get back the brand and fan loyalty has been a full bore effort since 2012, from a season ticket holder perspective/customer service effort, to hiring a COO to run all the non-football stuff, Bucs-financed stadium renovations ($120M of the $150M renovation you see now), and no contracts for “members.” So things are looking up.
2008 sucked for a lot of us, in a lot of ways. But really, Gruden is the guy who made out really well, short of a slightly bruised, oversized ego, which the Ring of Honor will fix.
May 30th, 2017 at 7:08 pm
Doctor Stroud…unaware of any efforts to ever hire Gruden back. There was some media speculation, but never heard anything serious over it. I may have missed it. I know a lot of teams wanted him, but what’s done is done. Vermeil back to the Eagles was a good story, And we’ll see how Coughlin does in Jax…but think it would be a miracle for Gruden to be wanted back here, or to want to come back…to coach.
May 30th, 2017 at 7:37 pm
Fred E. Bucs
Excellent well thought out post. The only thing I would add is the effect of the trading of draft picks to get Gruden.
Imagine telling any franchise they’re going to give up their first two draft picks…not just one year but two years in a row!!!!
That’s a LOT of talent that never makes it to the Bucs lineup. I think we have finally turned that corner talent wise.
May 30th, 2017 at 7:50 pm
StPeteBucs…oh definitely you are right on the draft picks. We were still feeling that five years after Gruden left…Yeah, he got us the SB so maybe it was worth it. But what a hit the team took in later years.
May 30th, 2017 at 8:08 pm
My only knock on Gruden he didn’t believe in building a team thru the draft. No tolerance for rookie mistakes and question his ability to develop a rookie qb
May 30th, 2017 at 9:01 pm
Who here thinks if the Bucs bomb and Koettr gets fired in the future that Chucky will be offered the job?
I doubt the Bucs bomb, at least not until #3 retires though, so, no worries!
May 30th, 2017 at 9:21 pm
People say it was a mistake to fire Jon Gruden. I disagree. It was a mistake to wait until late JANUARY to fire Jon Gruden.
But you know he got us a ring and the guy shouldn’t pay for a dinner in this town ever.
May 30th, 2017 at 9:49 pm
Not exactly Fred E.
SPBF already mentioned the two 1sts and two 2nds the Glazers gave up for Gruden. Its obviously going to be tough to maintain a highly talented team when you automatically lose out on at least 3 talented starters to move forward with.(assuming a miss on 1 of the 4 high picks). And we had also just 2 years earlier given up two 1sts for MeShawn as well. That’s Four 1st rounders and 2 2nd rounders in 4 years that Gruden should have had to work with.
But more specifically – you are not citing the $ “situation” accurately Fred E.
Starting in 2004 and for the next EIGHT STRAIGHT YEARS (2004>2011) the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had THE LOWEST PAYROLL in the ENTIRE NFL!!!
That encompasses 5 of Gruden’s 7 years here. So not only did Chucky not have draft picks to rebuild with early in his tenure – he had No $ to work with for the majority of his time as coach of the Bucs.
How the Glazers have not been raked over the coals time and time again for spending as little $ as they possibly could for damn near a decade is beyond me. The excuse of the ‘Great Recession’ you cited is not valid. The banker’s free-for-all (lets call it what it was and shame on ALL of us for allowing that chit) and resulting recession/depression did not begin until end of 2008/beg of 2009. A full 5 years after the Glazers stopped spending $ on the Buccaneers.
May 30th, 2017 at 11:20 pm
Bucs will without a doubt leave a indelible impression on this years games as well as opponents believe me believe me Boom cannon fire kill shot 1 #13 ME/AKA/Godzilla Boom cannon shot 2 #11 DJAX/AKA/Flash Boom kill shot 3 OJ/The Freak Howard or Boom kill shot 4 Cam the man Brate or Hump or or and you see👁 Where I’m going with this can you say high octane I’m talking 93 premium phuck it’s more like NOS
May 31st, 2017 at 12:22 am
Enough of the Dungy team thing , I love Tony on and off field I did personal stuff for my family I won’t discuss. The reality though he was NEVER going to win a super bowl here in Tampa cause we had no offense nor did he care. Even the stars Bucs fan worship here tell you they needed a gruden , a change.
If your dumb enough to say Dungys team , than I hope your not dumb enough to also give him credit for Colts Super Bowl ( according to your thinking that’s not his team) he wasn’t even allowed to have input on offense , that should tell you something.
I give Dungy credit for the culture he created here and standard , he out Bucs in map for good , I give him FULL. Credit for Colts super bowl win
I Give gruden credit for Bucs Super Bowl win (may wanna see all new players who weren’t dungys on team that year). Gruden did wear out his welcome with many of the star players and I heard from their mouth. Some these players are the ones Bucs fans live and die for as great Bucs. It was time for change , just bad choices for the change
May 31st, 2017 at 3:51 am
THETRUTH – The Bucs had the #18 ranked scoring offense in the NFL in 2002. The Colts had the #1 ranked scoring defense in 2007 (#3 in yards) when they won the Superbowl. So yes, it’s very very fair to say Dungy won them that Superbowl.
WOW… datruth hurts. LOL!
May 31st, 2017 at 10:12 am
Maybe it was “fake news”, but I remember reading reports about possible coaching candidates, including Gruden, before Lovie Smith was hired. For example, this from Jason La Canfora:
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bucs-were-interested-in-bill-cowher-jon-gruden-before-hiring-lovie/
May 31st, 2017 at 10:30 am
Rod Munch :
Bucs were top 5 defense with dungy every year no argument he got it done on offense.
You telling me dungy game planned offense for colts , NO WAY ! If he was that open on offense why didn’t he run that with Bucs…
Dungy took over a team that was ready to win and compete.
Check ofensivo stats when playoffs started that 2002. Bucs were posting up some high scoring games.
June 1st, 2017 at 2:45 am
THETRUTH – Dungy didn’t touch the offense in Indy, he was brought in to build a defense that could win a SB even with the playoff choke artist that was Manning at the helm – and that’s what Dungy did, as I said he built the #1 scoring defense in football in Indy. They didn’t win the SB because of their offense in Indy, they won because of their defense, because of Dungy’s defense. The same reason the Bucs won the Superbowl, it was because of Dungy’s defense.