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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 31, 2003
Sure, 88-million viewers watched the Bucs in Sunday's Super Bowl victory, but safety Dexter Jackson can thank 4,754 fans for giving him the MVP trophy and the $75,000 Cadillac that goes with it.
For the second year in a row, a slim margin in online balloting overturned the popular choice of the 15 voting media members. The online winner receives four votes, which was enough to push Jackson past the media's choice -- defensive end Simeon Rice.
More than 200,000 online votes (about half as many as last year) were cast during the fourth quarter, and Jackson led the way with 37,138, just ahead of running back Michael Pittman, who had the same number of media votes and a close 32,384 votes online.
Rice finished fourth in the online voting, getting 28,791 votes to fall behind quarterback Brad Johnson, who drew 31,663. The winning margin online was about five times larger than last year's, when Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won the online contingent to leapfrog past teammates Ty Law and Adam Vinatieri, who had earned more media votes.
Sports Illustrated's Peter King, in his weekly column for CNNSI.com, called the selection process "well-intentioned but dumb," saying the award should come from the press box and not the fans at home. Doling out those four online votes at the same percentage as the actual voting would have changed the last two winners, but don't expect any changes.
"We evaluate everything, but we think we've found a good system," said Brian McCarthy, the NFL's director of corporate communications. "We think it's fair and equitable, and it's a good chance to make the fans a bigger part of the game."
MOVE OVER, BRITNEY: Even before Sunday, the Bucs playoff success had vaulted them to unprecedented online popularity for any NFL franchise.
The Lycos 50, a weekly survey of the search engine's most-searched topics, saw the Buccaneers squeak in at No. 49 for the week that ended Saturday. It might not seem like much, but it made the Bucs only the second NFL team to make the top 50 in the list's four-year existence (after last year's champion Patriots) and the first to do so before winning a Super Bowl.
Before the game, the Bucs were getting 50 percent more searches at Lycos than their opponents, an advantage that mirrored the greater attention New England drew as an underdog in the week before last year's Super Bowl.
To no one's surprise, Bucs coach Jon Gruden drew more online interest than players from either team, with Oakland's Rich Gannon and Jerry Rice finishing second and third, respectively.
Before Bucs fans can celebrate their online victory, another search engine has tossed a red flag on the field, awarding the pregame traffic edge to Oakland. Yahoo's Buzz Index (buzz.yahoo.com) shows the Raiders with a consistent edge from the NFL preseason in August clear through to two days before the Super Bowl. The difference in the two sites' lists is oddly different -- the NFL and the Super Bowl are Nos.2 and 3 at Lycos, but rank 16th and sixth in Yahoo's current rankings.
-- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com .