Sports: With cold weather comes same old talk

With cold weather comes same old talk

By ROGER MILLS, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA -- Let the cold weather banter begin.

With the weather in Philadelphia expected to be cold Saturday, the Bucs' sad history of never winning when the game-time temperature is lower than 40 degrees is back in play.

Tampa Bay has lost 20 consecutive games in those conditions, including last year's 21-3 loss at Philadephia in the first round of the playoffs.

In most of those 20 losses Tampa Bay wasn't a good team. But coach Tony Dungy thinks the idea of a jinx is untrue.

"It's all pretty much myth based on the past," Dungy said. "We have not had that many shots to win cold weather games and when we have, we haven't won them. Now, we've won some games when it's been cold, but it just hasn't been below 40 degrees.

"We played well enough to win a couple of games and didn't win them. We've lost some home games down the stretch that we don't normally lose and that's because we got outplayed. The big thing we have to do is go and play our game and not make mistakes and outplay Philadelphia. If we do that we'll win, regardless of what the temperature is.

"I don't believe we've ever won a playoff game on the road, period. Whether it's warm weather, cold weather, whatever. That'll be a big thing that we'll talk about as a team. You have to go win a playoff game on the road and not really worry about what the temperature is."

Rookie offensive left tackle Kenyatta Walker said the team isn't worried about the weather.

"The good thing is we've been to Chicago, we've played in Cincinnati and Green Bay," Walker said. "But, it's going to be cold and that's an element of the game. Who cares? We have to win."

TURF LOVE: The infamous artificial turf at Veterans Stadium was changed this offseason to the new "artificial field turf," a playing surface similar to the one at Tropicana Field, and the Bucs may travel to Philadelphia earlier than usual to get a feel for the synthetic grass.

The Bucs have called equipment managers for a number of teams who have played on the new surface to get an idea of what shoes the players need.

"We have never played on the surface and we have noticed a lot of people slipping and sliding around," Dungy said. "It's been told to us that there are five or six different types of shoes you can wear, so we want to let our guys get up there on Friday and kind of experiment with the shoes a little bit."

NFL ALUMNI SPEAKS: The NFL Alumni named its best players by position for the 2001 season and cornerback Ronde Barber got the nod at defensive back.

Barber had a breakout season, tying for the NFL lead with 10 interceptions, and was named to his first Pro Bowl.

Through a tabulation of votes cast by former players for the positions they played, the alumni also selected Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, Jets running back Curtis Martin, Cardinals receiver David Boston, Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez and Jets offensive lineman Kevin Mawae.

Along with Barber on defense the alumni picked Ravens tackle Sam Adams, Giants end Michael Strahan and Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher. Broncos kicker Jason Elam and Bears coach Dick Jauron were named special teams player and coach of the year.

INJURY UPDATE: Kicker Martin Gramatica (right hamstring strain) kicked for the second day in a row with no complications and will be ready Saturday. Running back Rabih Abdullah (left foot sprain), defensive tackle James Cannida (right abdominal strain) and linebacker Nate Webster (left shoulder sprain) should be back by Friday.