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Just how long does a Super Bowl last?

By GARY SHELTON
Published September 11, 2005

If you need an O moved to the other side of an X, he can do that.

No one doubts his ability to dissect a game film. No one questions whether he can create a mismatch. No one wonders whether he can call a play.

Yes, Jon Gruden still can coach.

On the other hand, can he coach his way out of this?

Even now, as another season presents a new set of questions to the Tampa Bay Bucs, this is the answer you seek. Despite all the defeats, despite all the upheaval, despite the torturous unraveling of a championship team, no one doubts Gruden's talent. Just his timetable.

He is in a predicament, all right. According to most opinions, the Bucs are about to embark on their third season of bad. There is not enough talent, not enough depth. Few seem to think there will be enough winning, either.

So how much time does Gruden have?

Better question: How much time should he have?

Any time the question is about patience, it is important to remember the NFL is an impatient business. Remember, Gruden was hired for this job only because of previous impatience by the Bucs' owners, who fired Tony Dungy because he was only making the playoffs. Who knows how many seasons of falling short will be too many for them?

Defeat tarnishes a lot of things, from the shine on the Lombardi Trophy to the luster of a coach. Eventually, even a Super Bowl wears off of a coach's resume.

Ask George Seifert. He won Super Bowl XXIX in '95, and his 49ers won 24 of 32 regular-season games over the next two years. Next thing Seifert knew, he was being elbowed out of the way to make room for Steve Mariucci.

Ask Don McCafferty. He won Super Bowl V in '71. Two years later, after only nine losses, the Colts had seen enough.

Ask Barry Switzer. He won Super Bowl XXX with the Cowboys in '96. Two years later, after 16 regular-season losses, he was gone.

Gruden? Gruden has lost 20 times in his two post-Super Bowl years. It is a dangerous pace, and it does not seem unfair to wonder what happens if that number grows substantially this season.

(It could have been worse. At least Gruden won his Super Bowl. One season after losing his Super Bowl, Bill Callahan was out as Raiders coach. Two seasons after after losing the Super Bowl, Bobby Ross was gone from the Chargers. The Rams' Ray Malavasi lasted 22 regular-season losses and 21/2 years. One season removed from Super Bowl II, and after just two regular-season defeats, the Raiders allowed John Rauch to leave for the Bills.) Oh, there are circumstances to Gruden's record, and for now, the Glazers seem aware of them. The team gave up a fortune in draft picks to acquire Gruden, and that has had a cost. The salary cap was stretched, which led to too many stop-gap players. The kicking game unraveled. The receiving corps revolted. There were aging veterans, offensive shortcomings, and limited ways to replace them.

Any coach, any regime, would have had problems to overcome. Even if Dungy were still here, Warren Sapp's skills would have diminished. Even if Rich McKay were around, Brad Johnson would have shown his age.

Think of the Bucs as an NCAA program with sanctions. When you are unable to replenish stars, it leaves a team thin and magnifies injury.

That said, Gruden hasn't pitched a perfect game, either. He has lost too many games, and in particular, too many close games. If coaches are praised because their teams do not commit turnovers or penalties, don't you have to notice the Bucs have committed too many of both? Don't the fourth-quarter failures say something?

So is Gruden a victim or villain?

If you look at the complete canvas, he is probably a little of both. If you acknowledge the 2002 season as a wonderful coaching job - and it was - then you also have to say his fingerprints are on the last two seasons. Credit and blame travel in the same direction.

Win, and the world writes sonnets. Lose, and the reasoning gets stale, the games look painful and the players seem to tune out.

Still, if you ask around the NFL, you will find lavish praise for Gruden as a coach. He still has the drive, the imagination, the knack for calling the right play at the right time.

Is it enough?

In his last decade of coaching the Dolphins, there was a question asked of Don Shula. Is Shula a good enough coach, it went, to offset his shortcomings as a general manager?

For Gruden, that seems to be a question, too. Everyone says he is a good coach. But can he be a CEO?

In the NFL, coaching isn't all about the blackboard. It's about chemistry and vision, about inspiring loyalty and leadership. Can Gruden guide? Can he build? Can he heal? We'll see.

This season should tell us much about Gruden. With Michael Clayton and Carnell Williams, he has better weapons. The kicking should be better. The defense still should be good enough to keep games close. Still, not a lot of people expect anything serious out of the Bucs.

The Bucs need to show realistic growth this season. They need to be more aggressive in the early going, more poised in the fourth quarter. They need to look like a team on the rise again, rather than one on the descent.

If, on the other hand, the team stumbles backward another step, more questions should be asked, and with more volume.

Yes, Gruden was a good enough coach to win a Super Bowl.

Better question: Is he good enough to win another one?

[Last modified September 11, 2005, 20:38:32]