Word for Word

'I love you, man!'

He grimaces like Chucky. Swears worse than any sailor. Stomps the sidelines. Curses calls. Chews out players.

We've seen that side of Jon Gruden.

Now, here's another angle: Hear him celebrate record-setting runs. Listen to him call paragraph-long plays. Watch his energy and intensity inspire the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win their first Super Bowl.

On Monday, two weeks after the big game, NFL films released Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Super Bowl XXXVII Champions. The three-hour video or DVD includes highlights from every game this season, slow-motion play-by-plays and never-before-seen footage from the sidelines and locker room.

Some of the best scenes are with Gruden.

His pep talks may not be as memorable as Knute Rockne's. Most of his language would have to be edited for prime time TV. But in words as cliched as his pregame quotes:

Gruden will PUMP YOU UP!

-- LANE DeGREGORY, Times staff writer

After defeating the Carolina Panthers for the second time in the 2002 season, Gruden talks to his team in the locker room. Owner Malcolm Glazer and the other coaches also are listening.

"Where's (team doctor) Joe Diaco?" Gruden asks, scanning the room beneath his signature white visor.

Diaco raises his hand in the corner.

"How long you been here?" Gruden asks.

"27 years," Diaco replies.

"You ever been 8 and 2?" Gruden asks.

"Never, sir," says Diaco.

"Let's everybody say 8 and 2, man," Gruden shouts, pumping his fist high overhead.

"8 and 2," everybody chants. "8 and 2." Louder and louder. "8 and 2 ... 8 and 2."

At least eight times, then the film fades out.

The Bucs just beat the 49ers in the first playoff game. Gruden stands before his team, wearing a black team turtleneck. The players are still in their uniforms.

"Hey, guys! Congratulations, man!" the coach shouts.

"You're 60 minutes away from the mountain you guys wanted to climb now. 60 minutes. I love you guys, man." He starts sounding more and more like a beer commercial. "I love you. I'm so happy for you."

Up until this time, he's been talking about them. Then he switches to "we." So his strategy extends to rhetoric. "Now, we gotta have our best week of football.

"And again," he says, his grin halfway between evil and all-knowing, "it's about us -- and nobody else."

Before the Super Bowl, narrator Harry Kalas' voice bellows over clips of Bucs kicker Martin Gramatica warming up:

"Losers for four years, the littlest Buc brought along a little luck." Then the camera swivels to the sidelines. A goateed coach asks Gruden whether Gramatica is all right.

"I saw him at his locker," Gruden says, smiling.

"He was rubbing all his lucky coins, man."

Later, while the Raiders and the Bucs are battling back and forth during the first half, a play-by-play announcer says both quarterbacks are under siege.

"In order to settle his quarterback down, Jon Gruden selected one of his simplest plays from his playbook," the narrator says -- not at all sarcastically.

"Now listen!" Gruden booms from behind his playbook. He doesn't want any Raiders reading his lips from across the field.

"This is a Zebra Trojan. Far west. Right slot. X-short. 200 Jet Smoke. X-choice."

The players nod.

The narrator translates:

"In other words, a short toss to Joe Jurevicius, running free on a crossing run."

On the sidelines. Third quarter.

"Gruden was in a play-calling zone," the narrator is saying. "He was exuding confidence. And instilling it in his players."

Gruden to Kenyatta Walker, No. 67: "You're gonna be a stud. You're gonna be all you want to be. We gotta work together on it, though, right?"

"Oh, no, definitely," the second-year offensive tackle says, nodding.

"Finish strong, man," Gruden commands, clapping Walker's wide shoulder. "Let's finish strong."

Then he gives Walker that "I dare you to look away" look and says, "I love you, boy. Keep it going." The coach walks away, leaving Walker looking after him.

Then Gruden grabs Keyshawn Johnson, No. 19.

"That's why you and I work together," he says, by way of congratulating the receiver.

"I'm with you," Johnson says, beaming. "We rolling."

A few plays later, when the score is 34-3, someone on the Bucs sideline shouts: "It's a wrap!"

"We ain't even started yet," Gruden grumbles back. Then grins.

"Let 'em keep throwing. Let 'em keep throwing."

Of course, the Raiders do.

What choice do they have?

"Don't let up. Do not let up," Gruden is still screaming near the end of the fourth quarter.

Two minutes to go, and his team is ahead 34-21.

"Stay after 'em, Monte," he calls into his headset to his defensive coordinator.

"Don't ever let go!" he yells back at his team. "Don't ever stop putting the pedal on 'em. Keep your mind on the prize."

It's all over. The Bucs have clinched their first world championship. Gruden has become the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.

"It took 27 years to get here," an announcer is saying. "It took 60 seconds to bring home the trophy."

"How 'bout that, Mr. Glazer?" Gruden asks, grabbing the Bucs owner in a rare embrace -- yet never dropping the courtesy title. "Huh? We did it, man! Best in the world, man!"

Glazer smiles beneath his thick beard. Doesn't react much, other than that. Gruden goes on. Again, his emotions seem best expressed by a beer ad:

"I love you, man!" Gruden keeps saying. "I can't tell you how much I love you."

-- To order the Buccaneers Super Bowl video, call 1-877-NFL-SHOP or log on to www.buccaneers.com and click on Team Store. The three-hour video costs $19.99. The DVD version is $24.99.

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