16 replies to this topic

[DocJ]

http://www.usatoday....r-bowl/1857133/

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Is it just me or has this been the weirdest couple weeks in football in a long time?

Thoughts? I thought this was total bunk until Rice chimed in.

[GottaGetTheWin]

I don't see it as any controversy because I honestly don't care.  This is only a story because people want it to be.   Even if every one of the 52 players, coaches, and front office agrees with Jerry and Tim there is no way they will ever be able to prove anything and even if Callahan came out and admitted it there still isn't anything the NFL would or could do.

The Bucs are the champs that year it's never going to change so I have no clue why this is any more than a quick blurb on the 11pm Sportscenter.

[cbe_88]

Brown and Rice I think more, truly believe that they didn't like Callahan's sudden change of gameplan was the right way to go and believe that the new gameplan coincidentally "sabotaged" their chances of winning. It's ridiculous to say that he loved Gruden and wanted him to win. Callahan is one of the more respected coaches in NFL circles, and I must say I don't believe he threw the '02 Super Bowl.

Did he not have a good gameplan, and irrationally changed his mind two days before the Super Bowl? Probably

Did he purposefully sabotage his team, and throw the Super Bowl and give a ring to Gruden? Absolutely not.

I think Tim Brown especially is confusing the two.

[DocJ]

I only care because I consider that Bucs team fluky, not as fluky as the 2000 Ravens but still...fluky.
Also I remember watching this game and thinking that the Raiders got out coached in that game by the biggest margin I'd ever seen in a SB but you're right, in the end it doesn't matter a hill of beans, the Bucs won.

[predator_05]

I was a junior in high school back then. Had a $20 bet with a friend of mine, who said Gannon would destroy the Bucs D. Good times.

[DocJ]

Thanks for making me feel old LOL! Kidding...I lost a bet taking the Raiders, in hindsight that was a SB I shouldn't have bet on at all.

[GottaGetTheWin]

I think I was in 6th grade when I watched this game and I remember being extremely bored with it.

[cbe_88]

lol I was in 7th grade. Very boring, not a good game at all. I remember that year they had some time capsule they "buried" before the game, that had a piece of paper in it that guessed the score correctly. Such a load of crap.

[rraayy3]

Lynch/Sapp/Brooks have said they knew what was coming because the Raiders kept a lot of the same terminoloy from when Gruden coached them.
Basically, Tampa had a good idea what play was being called before the snap.

[ToO_BaD]

Why would you say the team was fluky?  #1 defense in the league, showing it with a strong turnover margin in the playoffs.

[cbe_88]

I absolutely echo both of these last two posts...I don't call the '02 Bucs fluky, that defense is bordering on legendary, if you win a Super Bowl you win a Super Bowl. And for sure, Callahan and the Raiders had it coming to them because Gruden knew a ton about how the way they gameplan being the HC 1-2 years before that set the foundation of their playcalls and the way they do things.

[DocJ]

I don't care how good a defense is, 3 pick 6s over 40 yards in one game is a statistical fluke, however, it's probably more that Callahan was simply a crappy coach and they deserved to lose.

[cbe_88]

I think it's more of a mix of luck in being in the right place at the right time, and being in good enough coverage and being a  good (great ) enough defense to take advantage of those opportunities. And yes, the huge factor is that Gruden saw a ton of those play calls coming. Gruden had this game won before it even happened.

[rraayy3]

DocJ, on 24 January 2013 - 02:02 PM, said:

I don't care how good a defense is, 3 pick 6s over 40 yards in one game is a statistical fluke, however, it's probably more that Callahan was simply a crappy coach and they deserved to lose.

it helps when you know every audible Gannon was calling out and have a good idea what play is being run based on the personnel in the huddle. the game was over before it started, Callahan pretty much ran the same plays, with the same terminology, that Gruden ran.

More awful coaching than a "sabotage", and it would explain the pick 6s. Much easier to jump a route when you know exactly where that route is going.

Edited by rraayy3, 24 January 2013 - 02:40 PM.

[Proteus]

It don't see that it matters how the game ended up and why it actually ended up that way.

What matters to me is a coach making an inexplicable move two days before the game, having his very talented but mentally unstable center vanish the next day, and having two of the most respected players in the history of the game making this accusation. I don't know what I believe but if ever an owner could make a coach want to do that it'd be Al Davis. The logic? "Might as well make a FORTUNE and stick it to the oily old bastard in the process because he's gonna fire me anyway."

Just playing devil's advocate here.

[pacosarae]

This is only a story because people want it to be.

[Maligator]

Delete

Edited by Maligator, 26 January 2013 - 08:54 AM.