Ex-Rebel with special cause

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© St. Petersburg Times
published August 5, 2002

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- He is the man in charge of history. So it shall be his legacy whether it is changed or merely perpetuated.

Which probably goes a long way toward explaining the frown Richard Bisaccia puts on every morning. He is a serious man with a serious task.

You see, Bisaccia is Tampa Bay's latest special-teams coach. In most places, the task is merely thankless. Here it has been fruitless too.

This is the place where kickoff returns stumble and fall. Tackled by fate. Taunted by odds.

The Bucs have traveled 30,451 yards on kickoff returns since 1976 and still have not reached their destination.

Namely, the end zone.

"It's kind of sickening when you think about it," said return man Aaron Stecker, who was 9 months old when the streak began.

Sickening would be one word. Staggering would be another. Just do not choose amusing or comical because Bisaccia (pronounced bi-sach-ee-ah) is having none of it.

"You're laughing, but it's not funny to me. I know it's not funny to the players," Bisaccia says. "I don't find anything funny about it."

The question of going 0-for-infinity hovers on the outskirts of any special-teams conversation. Not quite in sight but close enough to feel. Before it can emerge, Bisaccia swats it away.

"I know what you're fixing to bring up," Bisaccia says.

He may be in charge of changing Tampa Bay's woeful kick return history, but Bisaccia has little affinity for the past. At least not around here.

For the record -- and that's what it is -- the Bucs have gone 1,545 kickoff returns without scoring a touchdown.

There have been 77 players who have taken a shot. They've tried a Workman (Vince) and a Freeman (Phil). They've tried the Bright (Leon), the Hardy (Robert) and even got Wilder (James) to no avail.

By now, you might argue the odds are in their favor. But, then, they have been since around 1979.

Based on the past two seasons, NFL teams return a kickoff for a touchdown about one every 162 chances or every 2-3 years.

With that as a guide, the Bucs already should have 9-10 kickoff returns for a touchdown. That makes them overdue by around 23 years.

"During this season, the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I'm just telling you not to go buy a hot dog when it's time for the special teams to play," Bisaccia said. "We're going to keep you in your seat."

You want to believe in Bisaccia. He is earnest. He is concerned. He is also haunted by a statistic that, until this month, he had nothing to do with.

"People ask about it," he said, "so it's a part of my life now."

The job of Bucs special-teams coach should come with a warning label. Nowhere else in the NFL are kickoff returns more closely monitored.

This is the situation Bisaccia has walked into after 19 years as a college coach. He had opportunities to interview in the NFL in the past, but never felt the situation was right for his wife and four children.

Bisaccia had no association with coach Jon Gruden or the Bucs before getting a call in the spring. The team wanted him to interview at the NFL combine, but Bisaccia was committed to duties at Ole Miss, where he was assistant head coach.

He delayed the Bucs for two days until he could get away from spring practice. Bisaccia arrived at the combine in Indianapolis late on a Saturday night and was told he would meet with Gruden at 10 a.m. Sunday.

He knocked on the door of Gruden's hotel room shortly after 9 a.m.

"I don't sleep much anyway and I was worried I had already blown it with them because I had to put them off a couple of days," Bisaccia said. "I got up real early that morning. I had brought two white shirts with me and I must have put each of them on three times.

"I finally had to knock on his door and say, 'Coach are you ready, because I'm going crazy waiting in my room?' "

His duties go beyond kickoff returns. There are field goals and punts and coverages. But, for better or worse, Bisaccia's fortunes will be tied to whether the Bucs reach the end zone.

"He's made things simple for us," said Frank Murphy, who led the Bucs with a 22.3-yard average on kickoff returns in 2001. "By making it simple, he's saying, 'I don't care if they know what we do. The best man will win.' By leaving it simple, it allows us to play without having to think so much.

"Trust me, it's going to come this year. I don't know who and I don't know when. But we're going to bring one all the way back this year."

Maybe it will happen this year or maybe not.

But eventually a Buccaneer will receive a kick, make a cut, burst into the open and run straight into history.

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