[Times photos: Toni Sandys]
Most of the fans ar still around to watch as the Jets defense looks for a way to stop the Bucs near hte goal line in the fourth quarter.
Jon Gruden finds reason to smile as he talks with rookie quarteback Chris Simms on the sideline during the second quarter.
TOKYO - If you ever wondered why they call it the Far East, just ask the Bucs.
After more than 30 hours of flying from Tampa to Tokyo and back, players and coaches will begin to pay for the hardship of being one of the NFL's selections for the American Bowl.
The 13-hour time difference is nearly impossible to adjust to in a span of four or five days.
Day melts into night and night into day.
The body clock is so out of whack, it's hard to know when to go to sleep. Consequently, you don't. Before long, you feel like Al Pacino in Insomnia.
"It's funny, I couldn't go to sleep," quarterback Shaun King said. "I thought I was tired, but I couldn't go to sleep. (Anthony) McFarland was my roommate. We were waking up at 3:30 in the morning playing dominoes all the way until it was time to go to work. Nobody really went anywhere yesterday, everybody just went in and took a nap.
"You don't get the opportunity to come to Tokyo often, but you really didn't see it from a tourist standpoint. It was more of a business trip. We had curfew each night, so you couldn't stay out late, and you had practice and things during the day. So you couldn't really go and experience the things Tokyo has to offer. But I thought we handled it well. We could've easily come in and made excuses and played terrible. But I thought the team as a whole played well."
One thing the NFL got right: the accommodations. The Tokyo Dome is accessible from the hotel. An enormous roller coaster and other carnival rides await outside the door.
"I kind of enjoyed the trip. With this thing, the league did a very nice job setting it up," general manager Rich McKay said. "We got some good practices in. I think we got to see a country and a city that a lot of us would've never seen, probably. So I think the trip was very successful and I think it was one our guys would say good things about.
"The way the schedule is, I think they did a good job. We get in around midnight Sunday. And we get all of Sunday off where we can kind of just relax and get back. Because, really, I think we're all still on Tampa time."
Gruden was asked if he thought the NFL could ever put a team in Japan.
"No, that'd be impossible," he said. "This is a 14- or 15-hour flight when it's all said and done from Tampa. I think it's a great thing for the NFL as far as exposure here in Japan. But a regular-season game? I hope we're not on the docket for that. That's too far."
CROWNING MOMENT: King is back. That may sound premature after one preseason game, but he is growing comfortable in the system, getting the ball out of his hand and he's accurate.
"It was another scheme," McKay said of King. "He was involved in a battle for No.2, he didn't win the battle, so now he's sitting at No.3, so he gets no reps during the season. Rob (Johnson) gets hurt, he gets thrust in there and he wasn't ready for it. Now he's had a whole offseason learning it and he's much better off."
DID YOU KNOW: Defensive tackle Warren Sapp was so fan-friendly he tossed his shoes into the crowd at halftime.
SAPP QUOTABLE: "Oh. Thirteen hours, 15 hours, 100 hours - get me on the plane."
