LAKE BUENA VISTA - If the Bucs win another world championship this season, you can say it was made in Japan.
That's because Tampa Bay officially begins its defense of the Super Bowl title by kicking off the NFL preseason Saturday at the American Bowl against the Jets in Tokyo.
It's the kind of global warming up to the Bucs the organization has craved except the invitation from NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue came about seven years too late.
Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the Bucs were preparing for the Raiders in January in San Diego when they were - ahem - asked if they would mind a fifth preseason game, this one on another continent.
"They ask you politely, and you respond affirmatively," Bucs general manager Rich McKay said.
The thought of interrupting training camp to fly more than 13,000 miles (just 1,800 more than what the Bucs will travel for eight road games during the regular season) shivered the timbers of team officials.
"We were concerned; unquestionably concerned," McKay said. "I think Jon (Gruden) put a lot of time and effort into talking with coaches that have been in the game, and he talked to players on those teams and members of those organizations. You get a bonus week going to camp a week earlier, and you really have to give a lot of those days back as a way to deal with the extra game.
"You worry about simply getting tired, about the travel weariness. I don't know how far we travel, and I don't want to see the numbers. The key, they tell us, is trying to deal with coming back home and how players feel when they come back home. We've got to shake the cobwebs and go back to work when we come back."
Gruden worked his team hard during the first week of training camp, keeping mostly to a grueling two-a-day practice schedule with no days off. But when the team arrives after a 14- to 15-hour flight to Tokyo on Wednesday, it will feel more like a visit for a college football bowl game.
The players will become tourists. They will have a chance to buy the latest electronic gadgets at Akihabara, witness enormous tuna unloaded and carved for consumption at the fish market, fill up on sushi and saki and participate in sumo wrestling demonstrations. (Warren Sapp and Anthony McFarland need only apply).
"In some ways, you could say it's going to be a pain to go over there 18 hours or whatever it is," Gruden said. "But it some ways, it might be really exciting. The players are going to get a lot of rest on the plane. It's going to be a break. I'm trying to look at it as a positive. What are the negatives? It does transplant you from a normal training camp routine. But it's not always roses all the time."
There are several surprising aspects about the American Bowl series, initiated in London when the Cowboys played the Bears in 1986.
The NFL has played more of these games (38) than Super Bowls (37). After Saturday, 26 teams will have participated in the series that has appeared in 12 cities and eight countries.
This is the 11th American Bowl at the Tokyo Dome and 12th game in Japan. Last preseason, the Redskins played the 49ers in Osaka.
The event also coincides with the flag football world championship, which includes an all-star team of boys, ages 12-14, from Tampa Bay.
Everything is arranged by the NFL to make the stay as comfortable as possible.
The teams are booked at a hotel adjacent to the Tokyo Dome and can access the practice field by a subterranean tunnel. Because the hotel is designed for western visitors, the Bucs can have meals catered there.
"There weren't really any snacks that I was used to," said linebacker Shelton Quarles, who made a promotional appearance in Japan in May. "The Cokes there were like shot glasses. Like a small can, like 2 ounces of Coke. So I went to Sam's Club before training camp started."
Likewise, the NFL hasn't caught on in Japan. About 15 years ago, games were televised live, but now they can be accessed only by satellite dish.
American football is mostly played by universities and company teams. Last year, the game in Osaka drew about 26,000. For Saturday, about 40,000 tickets have been sold.
The reason for its limited interest is no Japanese player has become a star in the NFL. The league assigned a Japanese player to the Bucs and Jets for the game, linebacker Shinzo Yamada to the Bucs and receiver Yoshinobu Imoto to the Jets. Both played for Amsterdam in NFL Europe and are all-stars in their country, but neither has a shot at making a roster.
Even so, a curiosity exists. The Japanese tend to remember players who visit.
"The Japanese fans will surprise you about how much they know about the NFL," Gordon Smeaton, vice president of NFL International, said. "I've been over there 40 times, and I'm never not amazed at the level of interest and understanding of the game. Having said that, it's still not the most popular sport in the country. You've got a long way to go to developing American football in Japan. But with the colleges getting behind this, the level of play is improving. Certainly, the two Japanese players on the Tampa roster and the Jets roster can't play with these guys. I don't think they're going to make the team, necessarily. But football is growing, and the quality of play is growing.
"I think in the early '90s, mid '80s, when we first started going over, we had to program the scoreboard so the (Japanese) understood what was going on. Now it's a different story. They're well aware after 10 games. The nature of the Japanese is they're quiet to begin with. They won't necessarily act out because they don't want to appear to be screaming at the wrong time. Keep in mind, there's a significant amount of Americans who will be at the game. They'll come up from the (military) bases and so forth."
In a city of more than 12.2-million people, the Bucs will stand out.
"When they see some guy (6 feet 8) walking down the street, they'll stick out," Smeaton said. "Japanese are very courteous, and (the players) get a lot of attention over there. But they leave them alone."
Of course, there have been some glitches with American Bowl games in Japan. In the inaugural game, they used tape in some areas to line the converted baseball field. For Saturday's game, Gruden and Jets coach Herm Edwards can't communicate with quarterbacks through helmet microphones.
"We had one year when Jimmy Johnson was coming over with the Cowboys, and he was so excited to get moving out of the airport, he jumped into his car. But he didn't wait for his translator to join him," Pete Abitante, the NFL's senior director of NFL affairs, said. "So he jumped into his car. The car took off, and it was just Jimmy and his driver. And he didn't speak English. So the driver took him to the practice field, which is okay, except the team was going to the hotel. So Jimmy was at the practice field for about two hours, and then we finally realized something was not right."
In many ways, this will not be a normal preseason game. Because of the risk of injury, the Bucs and Jets likely will limit their starters to about one series. But young players should take full advantage of it as an extra opportunity to be evaluated and prove they belong on the team.
"In some ways it'll be festive while we're over there seeing the brilliance of Tokyo, Japan," Gruden said. "We're going to get on the plane, play the game, get home, let our players regroup and get back to work.
"There are some older guys who won't play that much in this game because of the length of the preseason. But there are younger guys who can really benefit from this game. And when else do you get a chance to get a fully paid trip to go see Tokyo?"
