TENNESSEE 33, TAMPA BAY 13: Bucs a pushover in finale, become seventh team to have a losing record a season after winning Super Bowl.
By RICK STROUD
Published December 29, 2003
NASHVILLE - The season ended without the explosion of fireworks or the shower of confetti, without players holding their children, kissing wives and falling into each other's arms like relatives reunited at the airport.
It ended without champagne baths, postgame parties or a flyover of Raymond James Stadium by the team charter. And to the best of anyone's knowledge, no parade has been planned. Instead, the Buccaneers walked silently off the field Sunday at the Coliseum after being clubbed by the Titans 33-13, the worst regular-season defeat in 35 games.
In short, the season ended nothing like it did 11 months ago when the Bucs won Super Bowl XXXVII. In fact, it was more reminiscent of 1995, the last time Tampa Bay finished 7-9. Instead of returning as the toast of the town, the Bucs were simply toast and they knew it.
"It's a bad deal right now for us," cornerback Ronde Barber said. "We go from being the talk of the town, the king of the stoop to where we are now. We're feeling pretty low. Seven and nine. Any time you don't win the Super Bowl, I think it's a losing season. But when your record doesn't even reflect that you finished .500, that's pretty embarrassing for us."
How embarrassing?
The Bucs lost to a Titans team quarterbacked by Neil O'Donnell, who spent the first 16 weeks of the season, like you, on the couch after being cut in preseason. With Pro Bowl quarterback Steve McNair unable to play because of a strained right calf and cracked bone spurs in his left ankle, O'Donnell passed for 232 yards and two touchdowns Sunday.
Meanwhile, Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson was intercepted three times, going 12-for-23 for 96 yards before being replaced in the third quarter by Shaun King.
As Bucs players hung their heads and walked to the locker room, the Titans and fans watched the video scoreboard and saw the Colts win the AFC South by beating the Texans 20-17. Despite Sunday's win, Tennessee enters the playoffs as a wild card at Baltimore.
Addressing his team after the game, Jon Gruden took full responsibility for the losing record, his first in six years of coaching in the NFL.
"It's a frustrating year following a Liberty Bowl win or any bowl win," Gruden said. "This is very frustrating but, again, we're very realistic about what has occurred here in the last year or so of football. A lot of things have changed since Super Bowl XXXVII, obviously. But I like the football team, I believe we have a good, solid nucleus. And we have some things, obviously, we have to improve upon.
"It's got to begin on the way home, on the plane. We've got some work to do, obviously, examining the health of the football team, the salary-cap structure in which we are, and our position in the draft and what we need to try to do to return this team to where we want it to be."
The first order of business for Gruden will be to hire a general manager to replace Rich McKay. Tim Ruskell, the Bucs director of player personnel, will be considered and is on the short list for the Dolphins' GM job. Raiders director of player personnel Mike Lombardi, who worked with Gruden in Philadelphia and Oakland, could be headed to Tampa Bay soon.
Gruden also is expected to make some changes on his coaching staff within the next few days. Most of the offensive assistants, as well as special-teams coach Richard Bisaccia, are not expected to be offered contracts for next season.
"The best thing about this is we've got a head coach that stepped up and accepted responsibility," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "And he will not be associated with losing. And with him making that statement in front of this team, man, I can't do nothing but get fired up."
According to Gruden, the Bucs do not have to rebuild as much as reload. By virtue of their record, they will pick anywhere from 13th to 15th overall in the draft. Seventeen players will become unrestricted free agents, not including Keyshawn Johnson, and none is bigger than seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Warren Sapp.
After the game, in which he played despite a foot injury and recorded five tackles, Sapp declined to be interviewed. While praising Sapp, Gruden was noncommittal about the team's efforts to re-sign him.
"There's no question, from afar and from up close, at gunpoint range, I know what Warren Sapp is about as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer," Gruden said. "He's a Hall of Fame candidate, the most feared, most productive inside player in my time in this league. We'll see what happens. I hate to sit here and paint a bleak picture that we decided who's going where and he's decided who's going where until we take a bit of time and move on."
Most Bucs said Sunday that the team did not need an overhaul.
"We have some tremendous players here, and there's still a lot intact," Brad Johnson said. "I talked about it last year. Going into to next year, this year doesn't help us, it doesn't hurt us. I've said that after a Super Bowl win, I say that after a 7-9 season. It'll be a new beginning. We'll have a great offseason and come back with a burst of energy and energized for next year. Unfortunately, this year we had a lot of bad breaks and it just didn't go our way."
Blame it on injuries, distractions or just the Super Bowl jinx. It doesn't matter because it's over. It was an L of a season.
"That's what I don't think a lot of guys understand that right now," Brooks said. "They say they hurt, but I trust they're very disappointed. But it goes deep with me, man. I'd like to promise our fans that I'll be back and it starts with me. I'm a leader of this football team and I make no excuses for what happened, whether it be injuries or whether it be the lack of big plays. I'm not making excuses. The only person I can start with is me. It's a personal promise what next year is going to be with me, it's going to be personal."
