Mean Joe Greene Lauds Warren Sapp
August 4th, 2012
It is Hall of Fame weekend in Canton and already in the Tampa Bay area there is buzz building for this winter when eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune will have to convince a number of his fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame electors that former Bucs great Warren Sapp should be elected in his first year of eligibility.
In fact, Joe personally witnessed SI.com scribe and long-time Hall of Fame voter Peter King giving Kaufman some pointers in building a winning case for Sapp.
It seems indirectly, Kaufman got a boost from arguably the greatest defensive tackle to play the game, Mean Joe Greene.
Speaking to NFL.com, Greene hinted that Sapp may have been better than he was.
“(Sapp) did some of the same things we were trying to do in Pittsburgh,” Greene said. “In fact, I think some of the defenses they used were brought to Tampa by their coach (Tony Dungy). I think they just took what we did and took it to the next level, and Warren, as a defensive tackle, took what I tried to do — and wanted to do — to the next level.”
There are eerie similarities between Greene and Sapp. Both were lynchpins in two of the most dominant defenses in NFL history. Defenses were built around both.
Kaufman recently said this week on WHFS-FM 98.7 with co-hosts Todd Wright and Booger McFarland, that while Sapp may not have been the best player on the Bucs (that player would be Derrick Brooks), Sapp was rather the most important player.
August 4th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Sapp may be a jackass, but he’s our jackass.
He was also great. If he’s not first ballot, they need to get some new voters who know football.
August 4th, 2012 at 4:03 pm
Sapp made the Tampa 2 defense work, by providing the inside pass rush so necessary. Brooks and Lynch reaped much of the glory. Think about this, as Sapp went, so went Tampa.
August 4th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
great player..jerk of a person…
this site needs more advertising..
August 4th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Theres no question to me that Both Sapp and Brooks are both 1st Ballot hall of famers. They should and probably will get in on there first try. Ronde should also be 1st ballot but unlike the the first 2, I dont think it will happen.
August 4th, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Sapp is a 1st ballot HOFer, I feel fans are harder on GMC, bc we were SPOILED to have had Sapp.
August 4th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
sapp offended many of the media…the media have long memories and it is not a lock for him to make first ballot.
ps frack the z-code system! that is more obnoxious than the lawyer was. now i have to enable activex filtering for this site.
August 4th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
agreed^^^^^^^ + 100000
August 5th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Hall of Fame 1st ballot for Sapp.
I don’t think he offended the media, he just didn’t suffer fools lightly. Sometimes he shocked some fans who would gush over him only to be told to get the flock out of his face.
August 5th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
in case you missed it…
posted april 12, 2012 by mike florio with a shoutout to jbf:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/12/hall-of-fame-presenter-laments-sapps-recent-off-field-issues/