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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 13, 2002
It was a poke at what has become a joke, the placement of an irreverent advertisement.
In other words, yuks at the expense of the Bucs.
HEAD FOOTBALL COACH
in Tampa Bay
WANTED ASAP
Some of the boys at the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Palm Harbor chapter, were sitting around "sharing a beer or two and a laugh or two, discussing how serious everybody was, how everybody was getting these negative feelings," Steve Foy said of the Glazer family's search for a coach.
The beer and laughs coalesced in the mind of brother Eagle Tom Masiuszek. Let's lighten things up, he said, suggesting the idea of a classified ad in the North Pinellas section of the Times.
"We figured maybe we'd try helping things along," Masiuszek said. "We wanted to have a little fun, get our name out there, maybe get new members who like football and have a sense of humor." The collective imagination of the guys came up with:
"Strong offense skills & ability to work with play-off caliber team a plus. Strong interpersonal skills with GM & owners a must. Salary neg. Serious inquiries only. FAX Resume to 209-729-5037; Palm Harbor Fraternal Eagles. EOE".
That was the final version. As they went along, the Eagles deleted " ... underachieving play-off caliber team ... " and " ... ASAP as our timeline is short ... " and a few other barbs.
"We thought it was cute," Masiuszek said, "but we didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings."
Foy said he took up a collection. "Some guys threw in $10, some threw in $20. Nobody passed. Everybody wanted to be a part of it."
Bucs spokesman Reggie Roberts didn't see the humor in it ("It's serious business around here.") and said no one has called offering his or her services as a coach, interim or otherwise.
But Foy said he received one fax in response to the ad: "Somebody at Lucent Technologies, I don't know who, sent in Lindy Infante's resume."