Mike Tannenbaum’s Endorsement Of Todd Bowles Demonstrates How NFL Cliques Work
June 14th, 2022
Has fraternity brother’s back.
Joe has a lot of readers and commenters who wince because Joe is so cynical. That’s because the NFL world is so cynical.
Yesterday was a perfect example. Joe documented how Mike Tannenbaum, former Jets and Dolphins shot-caller, believes Todd Bowles taking over for former Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians is actually an upgrade! When have you ever heard of a guy replacing a coach who won a Super Bowl with the team an upgrade? That is literally unheard of.
But these are the cliques that populate the NFL.
Joe tends to believe journalists because they are trained to at least try to be objective (at least that’s what Joe was taught in journalism school. Fortunately JoeBucsFan is not a newspaper).
Various NFL media outlets (such as BSPN with Tannenbaum) are populated by non-journalists who act (?) as analysts. Often, objectivity means nothing to these folks. In fact, subjectivity means everything and often narratives and agendas are pushed.
This is also why Joe is always reading between the lines because damn near everything said on record in the NFL has an agenda of some sort.
When Tannenbaum said Bowles would be an upgrade, Joe immediately knew it was one was guy looking out for another guy belonging to the same football clan.
Joe has noticed that guys from the Bill Parcells tree often scoff about Arians.
Michael Lombardi, a guy close to Parcells who also worked twice for Parcells’ top disciple, Bill Belicheat, doesn’t offer Arians a lot of respect on his podcast “GM Shuffle.” All too often Lombardi chuckles about Arians and his win-or-lose-we-booze ways.
Lombardi seems to think Arians was more of a cartoon character than a savvy football mind. Joe also has a hunch that Arians’ philosophy — that you can get your work done so you can have a cocktail by 5 p.m. — really rubbed the Parcells/Belicheat guys the wrong way, guys who regularly slaved 16-18 hours a day.
Tannenbaum worked with the Jets when Parcells ran Gang Green. And Bucs fans may remember when the Bucs flirted with Tuna after Father Dungy got canned. A sticking point, allegedly, was that Parcells wanted to bring Tannenbaum to Tampa with him to run the front office. At the time, Rich McKay was firmly entrenched as the general manager.
Bowles worked for Parcells as an assistant in Dallas and when Parcells headed to Miami he brought Bowles with him. So you can see how Bowles and Tannenbaum are two branches off the Parcells tree.
So when Tannenbaum claimed the Bucs got an upgrade in Bowles, to Joe, this was as much Tannenbaum sticking up for one of his fraternity brothers as it was honest critique.
There is another example of an NFL clique working overtime for one of its own, and it has Bucs connections as well.
Remember when all the Father Dungy disciples started dropping texts and e-mails into the in-boxes of various national NFL writers claiming Lovie Smith was the victim of a palace coup at One Buc Palace (never mind Lovie did a horrendous job when he was here)? Lovie came from the Father Dungy tree and when Lovie deservedly if not belatedly got canned, the Father Dungy troops circled the wagons for one of their fallen brothers.
How dare someone can a member of the Father Dungy tree? Chicanery had to be involved! The nerve!
See how this works?
When a guy belongs to an NFL clan of some sort, members will stick their necks out to have a fraternity brother’s back, even if it means claiming a team that lost its Super Bowl-winning coach got an upgrade.
This is in no way a slap at Bowles. Joe hopes he’s an upgrade on Arians because that should mean multiple Super Bowl rings for the Bucs.
June 14th, 2022 at 4:38 am
Great article, one of the best I’ve read on here in some time. Guess Gruden doesn’t really have a Mike Holmgren clan willing to come to his rescue.
June 14th, 2022 at 5:26 am
‘This is also why Joe is always reading between the lines because damn near everything said on record in the NFL has an agenda of some sort.’
Wow! So IF almost everything found in the media has an agenda, what (and who) exactly is the ‘average fan’ supposed to believe?
Are we supposed to believe journalists who supposedly ‘try to be objective’ because they’re ‘trained’ to be objective in journalism school? Ya sure. Your caveat ‘Fortunately JBF is not a newspaper’ would imply otherwise.
Are we supposed to believe ‘non-journalists who act (?) as analysts’ for various NFL media outlets? Your question-mark after ‘act’ and your subsequent comments certainly let your position on that be clearly known Joe.
So who exactly does that leave when you can’t believe trained journalists and you can’t believe non-journalists because almost everyone who presents anything in the media has an agenda? Aahh yes, so many questions, so few answers.
BTW, kudos on a great article. You just joined the masses of us common folk who have become skeptical of everything that we see or read nowadays in the media.
June 14th, 2022 at 7:01 am
Arians has a winning record and a Super Bowl as HC. Bowles does not. What is he basing his belief on?
June 14th, 2022 at 7:19 am
Sure, journalists are trained to be objective. And lawyers are trained to be honest.
June 14th, 2022 at 8:55 am
I mean Bowles & Tannenbaum also have the experience of working for an out of touch, old money 20th century relic like Woody Johnson.
June 14th, 2022 at 9:24 am
Great point Joe. When Tanenbaum said Bowles resume is now the same as Bill’s when he left Clevland is when everyone’s BS detector should have gone off. BA built a HOF resume thru several decades and BA is the reason Todd is our HC. Go Bucs!
June 14th, 2022 at 9:48 am
You cannot be a journalist if you refuse to exercise cynicism.
June 14th, 2022 at 10:15 am
SufferingSince76 Says:
June 14th, 2022 at 7:01 am
Arians has a winning record and a Super Bowl as HC. Bowles does not. What is he basing his belief on?
Exactly, Mike T is just backing a friend, no facts yet, to support his statements.
And that is 3 different teams, Colts, Cardinals and Bucs, that BA had a winning record. Bowels may be good, and we hope so, but he has 1 winning season, let alone a winning record with 3 different NFL teams like BA.
GO BUCS!!!!!
June 14th, 2022 at 10:25 am
So if you are not “objective” does that not make you have a agenda? Or why else write or blog anything?
Talk is just that talk. Until we see the result, it is all just talk.
June 14th, 2022 at 10:42 am
@Defense Rules
I like everything you post, because you back up your statement with evidence.
But on this one I have some diferences……
I, as Joe says, most of journalists today have a hidden agenda, journalism is not about informing people, is about making fake disucissions (Shannon Sharpe Skyp B etc), and massage your brain, trying to manipulate you, happens in sports, politics and economy, even in entretainment……
Today you have to be an expert on interpretaction on what most journalist say….
I really think Mike FLorio has a hidden agenda just to name one.
And one of the thing I like form Joebucs fan is that is just old school jorunalism,just send news and an opinion not trying to convince anybody.
But again Defense Rules , I like everything you say, even I disagree with you
June 14th, 2022 at 11:21 am
I wouldn’t call Tannenbaum or other talking heads journalists as they’re more akin to the essayists at a newspaper. A journalist is someone who carefully writes a piece after an event or interview and tries to give an objective view as to what happened or provide some context in terms of what the interview subject stated. Journalism 101 requires a degree of cynicism, as an interviewee can provide self-interested spin. Similarly, the editor has to be cynical and make sure that the journalist isn’t taking license and letting his own opinion color the piece.
At the major newspapers, there’s a wall between the journalists and the folks who serve up editorials. The talking heads like Tannenbaum are not journalists, they’re just giving a social or political view on something that has transpired, which is like the folks who write the newspaper op-eds. They’re verbal essayists, pumping their own views for discussion or thought.
It’s important to make a note of the difference. Folks claim that The New York Times is too liberal and discount the stories, or that The Wall Street Journal publishes stories with a conservative agenda. That simply isn’t true. You’d be surprised at the number of liberal-leaning journalists at the Journal, or the conservative-leaning journalists at the Times. The editors at both papers police those stories carefully; the editorials (not to be confused with the editors) on the other hand are intended to be thought-provoking and definitely follow a political agenda. But those pieces are in a separate section of the paper, with the implicit assumption that the reader can distinguish the difference between news and opinion.
June 14th, 2022 at 1:06 pm
Mike Florio can not have a hidden agenda, because he is called “The Great Mike Florio”.
I have to wonder WHY The Texans hired Lovie Smith ?
The jury is still out on Bowles, until after this year, no matter what anyone says.
You is what your record says you is, any questions ?
June 14th, 2022 at 3:02 pm
Apparently Brady also thinks bowles is an upgrade. If he didn’t, BA would still be head coach. Why many of you continue to bury your heads in the sand on this issue, is beyond me. Arians already told you he didn’t have much to do with play calling, and bowles ran the defense. BA also said he wasn’t coaching up his staff. These things are undeniable. What exactly did BA contribute to the Bucs? Brady directed the offensive practices and JPP the defensive. BA was effectively a figure head, by his own design.
Bowles isn’t a proven head coach, so I get the arguments against him. The gameplan in both losses to the Rams were wretched. We can only hope he’s learned his lesson, and STOPS BLITZING STAFFORD!!!!!
June 14th, 2022 at 10:19 pm
No, no. Most (good) journalists don’t have agendas. Football coaches and football suits posing as “analysts” often have agendas. They are not tethered to any objectivity training.
Think the guys on the TV business networks (not the anchors), the. guys they bring in as analysts. Don’t tell Joe those guys aren’t either trying to sell stocks short or push a stock they are invested in.