Who would you say got the better end of this deal?
Not even an unpredictable rain storm or Prince’s running mascara, could keep the Indianapolis Colts from winning the 
Super Bowl on Sunday. The Colts entered the game as the favorites and it was supposed to be a Chicago Bear vaunted defense that was slated to stop them. After the first quarter, the defense became as porous as sponge Bob and Tony Dungy received the lifetime name tag of ” Winner “. Dungy’s career has brought about many barbershop discussions where people go at it about whether he deserves all the accolades for his current coaching job. Believe it or not, there are those who feel that Tony Dungy wasn’t really the catalyst behind the Buccaneers famous Tampa 2 defense. Some give that distinction to defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.
While the Super Bowl had fewer story lines of games of the past, the one that media friends seems to have stayed away from is….. What are Malcolm Glazer and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thinking now? Allow the Big Man to weigh in. They are thinking ” maybe we made a mistake!!” Oh yes…. And if the Glazer family is not thinking this, then they may find themselves and their franchise doomed to mediocrity much longer. Five years after Anthony ” Tony ” Dungy was unceremoniously let go by the Buccaneer franchise, we now have a clear picture of the fallout. When I listen to radio shows and hear so called Buc fans make suggestions that Dungy is not a great coach, I laugh and often wonder if these fans even remember what their team was like in the pre Dungy era. Better yet! How many of them can even name the previous five coaches. Do the usually fair weather fans of Tampa know that the franchise has had only two winning seasons prior to Tony’s arrival on Tampa soil and only two winning seasons in the five years after his departure? During the coaches 6 year tenure he put together five consecutive seasons of .500 or better. Fact is, Tampa’s proud franchise has only 187 wins in its 30 year history. Dungy’s regular season record was 54-42 and of the seven coaches in Tampa’s history he is the only one who can claim a winning record.
Maybe it needs to be pointed out to the ungrateful Tampa Bay fans that of the nine postseason appearances in club history, 4 of them were during Dungy’s tenure, including three straight. The Big Man wants to know, how dare you? How dare you question the greatness of a guy who inherited a ” pure ( P-yow) garbage franchise” that found every way to lose? A club that had double digit losses in 15 of 19 seasons including 12 straight from ‘83-’94, how dare you attempt to paint your best coach in a light that makes it look as if he could never could get it done in Tampa or that he’s really not that good at what he does? As an illustration of how great he was, ask yourselves what the current coach is doing with the players inherited from Dungy. Raymond James stadium was the house that Dungy Built!! It is because of those 6 seasons of striving to better the team in the playoffs why Tampa even has those cushy seats and a club level unmatched in the league. Not only did Tampa Learn how to win under Dungy, an expectation was created because of him.
Tony Dungy’s teams gave sports radio in Tampa, Florida something to finally talk about, he created an expectation to win in a place fans couldn’t hold their heads up when football was mentioned. This is the place where Bo Jackson wouldn’t come to play, the place that shunned two Super Bowl winning QB’s in Doug Williams and Steve Young, the place that John Elway threatened to play baseball if they drafted him, the place who chose Ricky Bell over Tony Dorsett in the 1977 draft, a place so ridiculously lousy when it came to football, Steve Spurrier and the Tampa Bandits were the best show in town at one point. Short term memory should be considered a disease and very contagious, because it seems to have permeated the Tampa community like a deadly plague.
Now begs the question, who got the better deal? With Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts looking prepared to be competitive for the next seven years, the Buccaneer franchise looks like its back to its old ways of losing. Since the Super Bowl victory with John Gruden at the controls, the Bucs are 27-37. The worst decline of a Super Bowl winning team in the history of our game. The best players on this team are still the ones who played for Dungy and the team has not improved in any categories. The Bucs are older, not younger, the Tampa 2 looks extremely porous, they have a mess at quarterback, a defensive line that doesn’t seem to get pressure anymore, and a running game that features a Cadillac who runs more like a Ford Pinto. What ever the reasons are for this demise, you can’t blame Tony Dungy. There are those who for some unGodly reason believe that Dungy wasn’t the driving force behind his recent Super Bowl win. I have heard preposterous claims such as Tom Moore ( Colts offensive coordinator) is the mastermind, or Peyton simply grew up and got better, or the Colts defensive woes proves Tony’s lack of greatness. Please know this…….In the end, it was all Tony Dungy that has the Colts as your Super Bowl champions. Allow me to make the case!! If Tom Moore was such a master mind, why was Dungy hired? Why hasn’t any owners hired Tom Moore as head coach? If it’s just because Peyton grew up, what about this lousy postseason he had where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns–does that sound like growing up to you? The defense Dungy has been tweaking for past five years came of age in their four post season games. I don’t have to tell you, just ask the Chiefs, Ravens, Patriots, and Bears. With Peyton throwing 3 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, what else could it be? oh I get it…..maybe you still think its Tom Moore’s master mind!!
Tony Dungy inherited a 6-10 Colt squad with a Peyton Manning who had thrown 23 interceptions in the previous year. Tom Moore had four years with Peyton Prior to Dungy’s arrival and he threw 81 INT’s in that span. Since Dungy’s arrival, Peyton has cut down down on his mistakes each year, throwing only 58 picks in five years…the fewest by a current starting QB over this span . The Indianapolis Colts haven’t been this consistent since Don Shula coached them in the 1960’s. In fact, from 1978-2001, the colts had 14 losing seasons in 24 years and never more than two consecutive winning seasons. Well, Dungy has put together a streak of 5, bringing his consecutive seasons at .500 or above to 10 in a row. Only the Buccaneers have more losing seasons in the same span. From one losing franchise to another, he’s made them both winners. Tony joins George Halas, Tom Landry, John Madden, Marty Shottenheimer, and Don Shula as the only NFL coaches to ever accomplish the feat. Keep in mind he is the only one to do it during our wacky free agency era.
The Big Man has made his case on this issue, I just hope that Tampa Fans get some help for that memory loss. Even with 30 million in cap room for the upcoming season, the fans need to know that there has been a gross mis evaluation of talent on behalf of the coaching staff, each and every year since 2002, the same mis evaluation apparently made by the Glazers. All the money in Fort Knox won’t help them with this self imposed ass kicking they have been receiving as of late! Yes! They did it to themselves. Advantage Colts!!
–That’s how the BIG Man Sees It
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9 Responses to “Who would you say got the better end of this deal?”
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February 7th, 2007 11:50 pm
I totaly agree Big Man! I am so happy for Tony! I am a Tampa native and believe there is 100 percent truth to what you said about the Glazers. The Glazers are not football fans they are businessmen who could not pick talent if their lives depend on it. They seem to base all of their decisions on spontaneous statistics and not proven long term achievements. Don’t get me wrong I like Gruden as well, but getting rid of a coach because you have a losing streak from a team of overpaid grown men who need to remember the hunger they had in college before the paycheck is rediculous! The players ultimately determine the game’s outcome, the coach is there for guidence and support, but when the helmets collide it is each player to stand strong and win!
February 8th, 2007 3:02 am
Brother, I cram to understand why they won’t give Dungy the credit he deserves. Why is it that they forget that before Dungy became the Bucs head coach, he was the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, a team that had the NUMBER ONE defense in the NFL during his tenure? I cram to understand why they don’t recognize the contribution he has made to the NFL as a defensive minded coach and the influence he has had on other coaches in the league… like Lovie Smith, and Mike Tomlin who was also a defensive coordinator at Minnesota before replacing Cowher in Pittsburgh (which reminds me, I expect to see the return of the Steel Curtain, or something more sinister, under this man). Teams are now required to interview minorities for coaching positions due to the contributions of this man to the NFL. Gruden wins the Super Bowl, the year after Dungy is fired, by playing his former team and by using a defense (the D in the word defense here is for Dungy) that, as John Lynch was heard DURING the Super Bowl as saying, had already practiced against every offensive play that Callahan ran that night. The good people of Tampa have clearly forgotten that Dungy is a son of the Steel Curtain era having played for AND coached under Chuck Noll, and filling the big shoes left by Bud Carson and Woody Widenhofer. Should I even bother to mention that the teams that played in this past Super Bowl are both running the Tampa 2 defense? HELLO! MONTE! ARE YOU OUT THERE? IS ANYBODY HOME? YOUR DEFENSE WAS 30TH IN TAKEAWAYS THIS PAST SEASON. (In Dungy’s last season in Tampa Bay, the defense was ranked in a 3 way tie for 2nd) WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT STIFLING TAMPA 2 DEFENSE THAT YOU ALLEGEDLY MASTERMINDED? Meanwhile the only thing that Jon Gruden is running is his team into the ground. They’re draggin’ ass! What do I call it? As Malcolm X would probably have said… I call it justice.
February 8th, 2007 1:14 pm
Thank you, Big Man, for going into the Buccaneer closet and dusting off that photo album and scrap book and reminding them of the fact that should still feel the smolderings of the simmering flame because they are still HOT GARBAGE!!! Now, that may seem hypocritical because I consider myself a Bucs fan.
However, as an African American, i will admit that I’m a little sensitive when it comes to Tony Dungy because he truly represents a lot of firsts for African American.
But stepping away from that a moment, I’m amazed that people would doubt his legacy thus far. One of three coaches to win the superbowl as a player and coach! The coach who has the highest winning percentage of all active coaches! The coach with the most consecutive playoff appearances! If you listen to commentators and fans, they would swear that Tony Dungy got these accolades by having his teams sing ‘We are the WORLD’ while his coaches and other administrators do all the work. Ok, again, I need these people to ‘Stop SNIFFING the Elmer’s Glue and move to the Back of the class!!’.
For those people who are still holding that crack pipe and getting their fix while trying to basically say that Tony’s legacy is a fluke, do I need to remind you that NFL Coaches have the distinction of having to manage about 57 grown ass men who make about $350k or more and probably egotistical enough to believe that they should start on any team they play. Do I need to remind these people of the staff of 6 or 7 Asst Head Coaches who probably think they can do a better job than the current Head Coach. Wait, should we ignore the fact that this year, we had THREE Black Coaches in the Playoff. Or maybe the fact that all THREE of these coaches came from programs where they were successful. Both Luvie Smith (who, if you didn’t notice in your drug induced stupor was the FIRST black coach to get a team to the Super Bowl) and Herm Edwards (who, also, made it to the Playoffs) both credit their success to the tutilage of Tony Dungy? So am I to assume that with all of the accolades that the BIG MAN has thrown out and all of the obvious accomplishments, you want to belittle him by saying “He’s a nice guy but he’s the most overrated Head Coach in the league”?? Should we ignore the fact that as he sits there in the NFL Super Bowl Coaches club, in the last 10 years, you can name all of the coaches who have been head coaches in the NFL and now, name all the Head Coaches who won the super bowl who are actively coaching?
Ok, I see right now, I’m going to start a non-profit right now called Fans against CHAFSTR (Crack Head Addicted Fans Smoking that ROCK!!)
And let me be the first to tell you, that these fans are the SAME fans who would tell you, I can’t wait for Steve Spurrier to coach in the pros again. The same fans who are begging for Pete Carroll to come back out. The same fans who think that the Charlie Weiss is one step away from coming into the pros and kicking ass!
My friends, if you are one of THOSE people and if you are so blind to the obvious coaching qualities of Tony Dungy, I caution you to make sure that you don’t burn yourself when you’re smoking that pipe because I’m not sure if you know how to light the crack rock right!!
February 9th, 2007 8:40 am
Man, all I can say is that Big Man you hit this topic head on and didn’t stop until everyone that read this article changed their views on this superbowl winning head coach, Dungy deserves to be mentioned in the likes of all the grat head coaches in NFL History!
February 9th, 2007 1:30 pm
Big Man! You got everyone pumped up about this one. I like it, I like it a lot!! Before I go any further here let me just say that I am a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tried & true. Let me also say that Tony Dungy is a very good coach, and Big Man if there are any Bucs fans that try to tell you otherwise, just ask them who was the coach of the Buccaneers before Tony Dungy & if they cant correctly answer that question, then you don’t even need to go any further w/that conversation.
I have to disagree w/you when you say the Glazers mis-evaluated talent. When you say that, I assume you mean they mis-evaluated on their hiring of John Gruden. Well, you have to remember, Chucky was not the Glazers original choice to take over this team. It was Bill Parcels who the Glazers evaluated & choose to take over the team, a guy all Cowboy fans know very well now. Then in the last hour, Bill decided he did not want to come to Tampa. Some will say the Glazers “sold there soul” to bring in John Gruden, but that statement is unjust. When the Glazers took over the Bucs franchise, they promised to do what it took to deliver the Bay Area a Championship & so they did what they had to do after Bill backed out at the last minute. Prior to Chucky coming to Tampa, his resume in Oakland was solid & so they did what they felt they had to in order to get John to Tampa, but I don’t feel that was a mis-evaluation of talent.
You asked us two questions Big man, first “Are the Glazers thinking they made a mistake by firing Tony Dungy?” Second, “Who got the better end of the deal, the Bucs or the Colts?” My answer to the first question is this. The ultimate goal for every franchise in the NFL is to win the Superbowl, period! Let me say once again, Tony is a very good coach!! But if he would have stayed w/the Bucs, I don’t believe he would have taken the Bucs to a Superbowl. Even w/a defense that ranked in the top 10 during his entire tenure w/the Bucs, his record w/the Bucs in the playoffs was 1-3. So no, I don’t think they regret firing Tony because it did not look like he could get the Bucs to the Superbowl.
As far as who got the better deal from him being fired, right now everyone would probably say the Colts did. But I would say, hold off on asking that question. Now that the Colts have won a Championship, let’s see how Tony & the Colts deal w/their assistant coaches being picked apart by other teams. Lets see how they handle players who contracts are due to expire & now that they have the championship, want to get the big pay day that the Colts may not be able to afford w/the all the money wrapped up on the offensive side of the ball. Lets see how they deal w/free agency, how they revamp through the draft & things like that first. Obviously the Bucs & John Gruden have FAILED TERRIBLY at those things by only having 2 winning seasons in the last five years since the Superbowl win. But outside of the Patriots, what other team has had success since winning the Superbowl? We can’t say for sure that five years from now the Colts will have been back to the bowl again, so I think we would have to wait to see what happens w/the Colts before we can get an answer to that question.
I enjoy the show as always Big Man!! Keep it going!!
March 31st, 2007 6:59 pm
First things first…
Dungy did one thing for the Colts, restore their D and everything else fell in line…
Peyton was forced to carry the team before Dungy got there and that’s why he forced the ball so much trying to win… The tea bag incident wasn’t the only balls he mishandled during that period… Also, he still has a tendancy to throw picks in big games which has cost him a whole lot of success even in the Dungy era…
As for the Tampa Two… It doesn’t matter who created it but rather who perfected it… Crud, Belichick didn’t invent the 3-4 but you would be hard pressed to find another coach in history that has used it as effectively as he has!
Oh and about the Bucs, AKA Rich McKay’s team (Dungy didn’t have total control over the personell so it technically was built by McKay)… Of course, McKay also gets the credit for putting the team in Salary Cap Hell which has hurt the Bucs through most of the Gruden Era… In short, if Gruden gets what he needs this year (his first year without the major cap challenges) and fails to even make the playoffs then we can talk about who got the better deal… Keep in mind though if he goes back to the SB and wins it will still look like a wise decision by the Bucs…
Ok, now a question for you… A Gruden Led Raiders squad versus a Dungy Led Bucs Squad… Who do you think would win that SB? My money would’ve went on the Raiders in that scenario and Tampa might still be without their 1st Ring!
April 1st, 2007 12:35 am
Appreciate the response, EL Terrible:
I especially like your assessment of why you feel Indianapolis got it done this year and why the Bucs may not have been equally successful as of late. While I like the points you bring out, I would like help you understand that Tony Dungy’s contribution to the Colts has been a little more than simply ” Restore their D and everyone else fell in line “. Please do not forget that the last time the Colts had a D, Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States, and Johnny Unitas was their Quarterback. I’d like to say he didn’t restore it, he created a Defense. You’re right when you say..” As for the Tampa Two… It doesn’t matter who created it but rather who perfected it…” I’m liking the fact that Dungy has taken his act to yet another team with no defensive identity before he arrived, with yet another defensive coordinator who had little league credibility before he arrived, and has achieved awesome results. I think we all agree here that the Colts Defense had to show up for them to get to the Super Bowl. Funny…Don’t see any names like Lynch,Sapp, and Brooks on this Colts squad, but they seem to have finally caught on. Hmmm..I’m finding it hard pressed right now to find someone else whose perfected the Tampa-2 and gained the same results like Dungy has.
Now I must stop short of giving Rich Mckay the credit for building the Buccaneers because we can make that case for any GM who has a successful franchise. Guess we would give Bill Polian the credit for this years Colts team! NOT!! The problem I have with it El Terrible, is that both of these teams were perennial losers before Tony Dungy arrived, and they both became consistent and expected winners during his tenure, so I have to give the credit for team success to Dungy. Mckay and Polian may have purchased the groceries, but Dungy cooked it into masterpieces, something their previous chefs(coaches) were unable to do. I’m Also not wanting to buy the notion that salary cap hell is what has made it difficult for the Bucs in the last 4 years. Well when I look at other franchises who have been successful while in salary cap hell, i.e.. New England Patriots, who seems to have to release quality starters each year (ie.lawyer Milloy,Deion Branch,Willie McGinest, & Ted Washington) , but continues to get the job done with careful evaluation of guys we don’t know the name of until they reach the playoffs and challenge for the Super Bowl each and every year. While the Bucs have been hurt by the Cap, they have been hurt worse by their poor evaluation of the talent they bring in each year. Case in point - most people would tell you that the best 3 players on this team is still the guys who were there prior to Grudens arrival,(D.Brooks, R. Barber and S. Rice) we would be hard pressed to find people providing a name of one who got to Tampa since Grudens arrival.
Most people can’t name the guys Tom Brady throws the ball to each week, but the Buccaneers seem to acquire the ” Next Big Thing” each year, only to get the same results in their record.
Chris Simms was supposed be the savior at QB, then Michael Clayton was supposed to be the perfect compliment at WR, then Cadillac Williams was supposed to solidify the run game , then Davin Joseph was supposed spring new running holes for Cadillac, then we fooled fans into believing the Bruce Gratkowski was a capable stand-in, now, 37 year old Jeff Garcia is supposed to do what Chris Simms hasn’t been able to do. Rather than pay for a new player, the Bucs re-sign Mike Alstott for apparent popularity reasons, because he sure isn’t going to all of sudden be infused in the offense. Now the Bucs are looking to get Calvin Johnson (the Newest Big Thing ) out of Georgia Tech, to do what Michael Clayton was supposed to do, and the cycle goes on and on and on. Buc supporters should stop blaming the Bucs failures on the salary cap, and lay this puppy in Jon Grudens lap, where it belongs.
As for the question you ask, I’m not sure if we haven’t already seen this match up. Superbowl XXXVII gave us this matchup in my opinion, one must ask, how much more did Bill Callahan do to get the Raiders to the show and how much more did Gruden do? Giving both coaches their do, they made the necessary adjustments to get these teams over the hump, but how significant were these adjustment. I’m of the opinion that the cake batter was already prepared for these guys, I’d say they simply greased the pans and put them in the oven. The difference in this game was three interception returns by the Bucs, isn’t defense the staple of a Dungy team? Jon is supposed to be the offensive guru. If we don’t have three interceptions returned for touchdowns, we have a very different game in this Superbowl…So I’d say, you would lose your money by betting with Gruden’s Raiders. Thanks for your entry El terrible, and thanks or giving my readers a new perspective, please continue to visit and feel free to join me on http://www.Blogtalkradio.com/bringit live every Thursday and Sunday evening at 8:30pm Eastern.
Sincerely,
The Big Man
May 2nd, 2007 2:54 am
“the place who chose Ricky Bell over Tony Dorsett in the 1977 draft”
I really have to take exception to this, first off Tony Dorsett wasn’t a “pound it” type runner. The Buccaneers had absolutely no offensive line at that time, and you needed a bigger back that was going to take shot after shot. Ricky Bell could do that, Tony Dorsett would have been a broken man and out of the NFL within a year or 2 had he been thrown to the wolves and picked by Tampa. That Tony ended up on a top team with arguably one of the best offensive lines in football, made it so much easier for him to be a hall of famer. Hell, any decent running back would have worked on that team.
Seriously, do you really think that the scat back type Tony Dorsett would have been a better choice for the Buccaneers? If so, you might want to lay off the crack pipe.
July 28th, 2007 11:27 pm
Good Blog, and your show is doing a good!!!