The right call -- for both McKay and team

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© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

The image was all wrong. Try as you might, you couldn't quite picture Rich McKay in black.

His shirts were not meant to be adorned with birds as the crest. He grew up beneath the Florida sun, not on Georgia clay. He was never destined to sit around the offices and tell anecdotes about Tommy Nobis and William Andrews and Jeff Van Note.

Certain people are meant to be in certain places.

Rich McKay was meant to be a Buc.

In the end, McKay realized that. Once the hurt and the anger faded, once reason replaced rage, it dawned on McKay where he wanted to be. "When you get down to it," McKay said, "the chance to work for an NFL team, a good team, with good owners, in your hometown is pretty special."

One day after the Bucs got their man, they got their other man. It could be suggested that Wednesday, when the Bucs introduced Jon Gruden, was the best day the Bucs have had in some time. It could also be suggested that Thursday was the second best.

McKay didn't belong in Atlanta. Or in Carolina or Cincinnati or Seattle or any of the other places he might have ended up had he chosen to sit out the final year of his contract. Fortunately, everyone else -- including the Glazers, including Jon Gruden -- realized it too. The best team for this general manager, and the best general manager for this team, were in the same building all along.

A few days ago, most people wouldn't have given a dime -- which, these days, isn't worth a nickel -- for the notion of McKay remaining in the same area code. He had been embarrassed and excluded, and the only thing keeping him from the Falcons was his contract.

McKay made every attempt to put his best face on the situation in his news conference Thursday. He tap-danced around the last two weeks and played dodge ball when asked about his feelings. He was determined to go forward from here. But make no mistake. He was ticked. And he was ready to go.

Time heals, however. So, too, does communication. When the Glazers talked with McKay, they talked of their entire ride together, not the turbulence of the last few weeks. They talked of days gone by. They talked of days to come.

Oh, one other thing helped, too. Gruden.

There is a symmetry here. Twenty years ago, their fathers, John McKay and Jim Gruden, worked together on the Bucs' staff. Now, their sons are in charge of its future. Batman and Robin. Butch and Sundance. Jon and Rich.

A different coach, and this might not have happened. Another coach might have wanted the job himself, like Steve Mariucci did, or his own man in the job, like Bill Parcells did. A different coach, and McKay might have thought the best chance of success was on someone else's field.

This is the best combination the Bucs could have. For the Bucs to succeed, it's going to take both of them.

Since Gruden was signed, there has been a lot of debate over whether the Bucs paid too much. This much is obvious. It was a serious price tag. The first two rounds of the draft are the easiest way to replenish players.

Instead, it will take a good coaching staff to develop a free agent or a late-round draft pick. It will take a good capologist to keep the team out of financial minefields. It will require a high percentage of finding free agents who produce.

"I think you can overcome it," McKay said. "You try not to dwell on it, and you find other ways to get players. Hey, we know draft picks aren't guaranteed. We're probably the franchise that invented that phrase."

These guys are going to work fine together. Both are consensus-builders rather than dictators. Both are hungry to win. That hiring one of them didn't come at the cost of the other is a good thing for the team, the owners and the area.

By the way, McKay does have an anecdote about Gruden. Three years ago, the Bucs' coaches and the Raiders' coaches were handling the Senior Bowl squads. Tony Dungy's team won, and late in the game, faked a punt.

Two months later, at the NFL meetings, McKay ran into Gruden. Before he said hello, Gruden said this: "Who in the hell called that punt?"

McKay, walking away, said this: "Now, that's a competitive guy."

Gruden, walking the other way, could have said the same.

You cannot underestimate the need for cohesion between head coach and general manager. There are places where it has ripped apart a pretty good thing. Remember Washington, where Bobby Beathard and Joe Gibbs drove each other crazy? Remember the Giants, where the same thing happened with Parcells and George Young?

It will work here. This is the right time for these two guys. This is the right place.

Besides, McKay had too many shirts with pirate flags on them to leave.

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