Category: Sports

It’s still hard to believe.

The year was 2010. The Bucs were a resurgent 10-6 under Raheem Morris. Josh Freeman, 22, was living up to franchise-quarterback expectations with 3,451 passing yards, 25 TDs and only six interceptions.

The year was 2011. The score: USF 23, Notre Dame 20.

What happened?

* Former Buccaneer John Lynch was the color analyst on the Fox Sports telecast of the Bucs-Atlanta Falcons game last Sunday. He’s articulate, knowledgeable, and, increasingly, candid in his analysis and criticism. This one wouldn’t pass the political correctness test, but it resonated with anyone paying attention. After quarterback Mike Glennon ran for a first down, once again showing unexpected agility, Lynch safely commented by quoting Glennon. “People see me as a tall, lanky white guy, but I can run.”

* The controversy over the Washington Redskins’ name continues apace. A New York Times story recently quoted Washington owner Dan Snyder as saying that while the franchise doesn’t “intend to disparage or disrespect a racial or ethnic group,” it won’t be changing the name. For context, the article noted that a number of college teams have changed nicknames and mascots in the last few decades, such as the Stanford Cardinal (nee “Indians”) and the St. John’s Red Storm (formerly the “Redmen”). The latter, however, should have come with an asterisk. The St. John’s “Redmen” were so named because the football team back in the 1920s wore all-red uniforms. It had nothing to do with Native Americans.

And, no, don’t look for the Florida State Seminoles to be doing any nickname changing. FSU actually consults with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, even sharing a percentage of paraphernalia sales and establishing a course in Seminole history. That’s not exactly Chief Wahoo (the Cleveland Indians’ demeaning caricature) out there astride the appaloosa, Renegade, at Seminole home games.

* We know from the Rays’ success that there is no automatic correlation between payroll and winning, although the biggest MLB spenders typically win more than their less affluent competitors. For the record: The World Series matches the ($154 million) Boston Red Sox and the ($117 million) St. Louis Cardinals. Falling just shy: the ($148 million) Detroit Tigers and the ($216 million) Los Angeles Dodgers. Making it to the post-season, but losing in the first round: the Oakland A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays (identically at $61.9 million). For what it’s worth, nobody topped the New York Yankees ($228 million), who didn’t make it into the playoffs. Too bad.

It was the worst-kept secret that Raheem Morris was on his way out as Bucs’ head coach three years ago. There were those mounting losses. But there was the devolution of discipline that was a function of the 30-something Morris hanging out with the brothers at places such as the Blue Martini. Then came Greg Schiano, the antithesis of Morris, a white disciplinarian from Rutgers. It hasn’t been pretty on or off the field. What’s still hard to fathom is that this is a franchise that fired Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden.

* The Buccaneers did the right thing by agreeing to buy enough unsold (discounted) tickets to get home-game blackouts lifted for the remainder of the season. It’s called savvy–and necessary–PR to help keep fans engaged in the product. Only possible downside: If the Bucs don’t turn it around after this fan-unfriendly 0-4 start, it merely means more people will now be able to see losing, frustrating football played at RayJay.

*The Rays continue as one of the most successful franchises in the Major Leagues with six consecutive winning seasons. That they’ve done it without bloated payrolls gets them additional respect among their peers. But a dubious distinction comes along with it. This year’s Rays became only the second team in MLB history to win 90 or more games and finish last (30th) in attendance.  The first? Last year’s Rays.

* Hardly unexpected that Tampa is in the hunt for college football’s national championship game in either 2016 or 2017. Tampa’s competition for 2016 is reported to be Jacksonville, New Orleans and Glendale, Ariz. Those reportedly vying for 2017: Jacksonville, Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Once again, we are reminded that Tampa’s track record–including the successful hosting of four Super Bowls–makes this town an automatic player in recruiting such mega events. But it’s also a reminder that such bids are about more than RayJay and Tampa. Area tourist attractions and the region’s hospitality industry are major selling points. This is very much a Tampa Bay pitch. The inaugural game will be held in the Dallas suburb of Arlington in 2015.

* For obvious reasons, it’s really, really hard to root for the New York Yankees, but it’s always been easy to feel good about their Hall-of-Famer-to-be closer Mariano Rivera. He’s that good, but he’s also that uncommonly classy. How appropriate that Rivera, 43, retired when he was still at the top of his game. He had an excellent final season and ended it with an emotional–and hitless–stint against the Rays last week at Yankee Stadium. That’s not the way so many iconic athletes–think Hank Aaron and Willie Mays–finished their careers. There will be no more like Rivera. Make that no Mo.

* Increasingly, we’re seeing school districts, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, limiting the tradition of cheerleaders wearing their uniforms to school on game days. What used to be a tradition is seen in some quarters as a dress-code double standard. Perhaps the rule of thumb should always have been: What’s appropriate for Friday Night Lights is not suitable for algebra class. Of course it isn’t. And maybe we don’t need to further reinforce the in-crowd dynamic all too prevalent during the high school years.

* Hands down, the best sign–with the best impact–at last Sunday’s Rays-Orioles game had to be:  “What would DeJesus Do?” This was a reference to Rays’ outfielder David DeJesus. Well, what DeJesus did was to lead off the Rays’ 3-1 win with a home run.

* An eminently catchable ball hit a Trop catwalk in that same game and gave Baltimore a 9th inning run. And in such a close game during the stretch run for a playoff spot, it could have cost the Rays a lot more. Ultimately, however, it will. Catwalk baseball is unacceptable. Ground-rule gimmicks, while not deal-breakers, will factor into relocation–either to Tampa or out of the Tampa Bay market.

* It’s still hard to accept, even though economics mandated the move: Vinny Lacavalier doesn’t play for the Tampa Bay Lightning any more. But we hear he’s been well received by his new team, the Philadelphia Flyers. Of course, he’s been well received. He’s Vinny: a class guy, a community asset and a very good hockey player. But Philadelphia? With its mutant fans? In the same conference as the Lightning? That still rankles.

I’m one of those USF fans (as well as an alum and a former media relations manager) who feels blind-sided by what has happened to the football program. The rap against founding head coach Jim Leavitt was that, however successful, he couldn’t get USF to the next level, which was winning a league championship and going to a BCS bowl. It certifiably wasn’t happening. But under Skip Holtz–and now three games into the Willie Taggart era–the program has embarrassingly devolved. Imagine, it was barely two years (Sept. 3, 2011) ago that the Bulls upset Notre Dame–NOTRE DAME!–in Touchdown Jesus, Ind., and have gone 7-19 since.

And after an 0-3 start that includes RayJay losses to the likes of McNeese State and Florida Atlantic–and Miami looming next–the Bulls are looking at a likely third consecutive losing season.

Plus, back on the schedule is the University of Central Florida, the school that USF wouldn’t deign to play after their four-year contract expired, but now is a fellow member of the new American Athletic Conference. While winless USF was losing to FAU last week, undefeated UCF was knocking off Penn State. The Bulls and Knights meet in late November in Orlando.

And the school that once felt it was slumming to play UCF could likely find itself the second-best team in the I-4 Corridor.

* The Bucs have lost both of their games in the last seconds. Cut-to-the-chase headline in Monday’s Tampa Bay Times: “Deja Ewww.”

* Speaking of, Tampa resident and ex-Buc John Lynch, who’s now with Fox Sports, was part of the broadcast team for the Bucs’ literal last-second loss to the New Orleans Saints last Sunday. Lynch is good at what he does, and while he didn’t pile on with criticism, he didn’t exactly pull his punches when analyzing the Bucs’ inconsistent play. To wit:

>”Another foolish penalty for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,” observed Lynch after another exercise in blatantly undisciplined play.

>”A lot of dumb plays. … They’re swimming upstream.”

>”He’s (head coach Greg Schiano) got to get this team to make an adjustment, and he’s got to do it in a hurry. … It’s fundamental football.”

* The Bucs are good enough to be undefeated and undisciplined enough to be what they are: winless. But they’re not in the same class as the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars, the least of the three in-state NFL franchises. The network affiliate in Orlando (Jacksonville’s designated secondary market) even apologized to viewers. Here’s what the CBS affiliate said in a crawl during the Jaguars’ televised loss to the Oakland Raiders: “In accordance with NFL policy, WKMG must carry all Jacksonville Jaguar away games. We apologize for any inconvenience.” Ouch.

* The Tampa Bay Rays, as we well know, continue to have attendance problems. They rank 30th out of 30 Major League Baseball franchises with an average home-game attendance of 18,750. MLB commissioner Bud Selig has been less than subtle in his critical comments–and it’s known that he also speaks for some owners who contribute to a profit-sharing formula that helps subsidize underperforming markets.

Here’s a microcosmic look at two games last Wednesday. The Rays, very much in the post-season hunt for an American League wild-card berth, defeated the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at the Trop. Attendance: 19,215. That same night the Cleveland Indians, no less in the AL playoff hunt, lost at home to the Kansas City Royals, 6-2. Attendance: 12,085.

While the Rays, as noted, rank last in MLB attendance, the Indians are 28th with an average of 19,400. And they have history, mass transit and a first-class, fan-friendly facility in Progressive Field. Arguably the Indians are a more problematic franchise than the Rays who play in a poorly-located, inferior facility in an asymmetrical market with no mass transit and negligible tradition. But some of those factors will definitely be eliminated if the Rays remain in the Tampa Bay market.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning considers goalies Ben Bishop and Anders Lindback co-starters for now. That means one of two things:

>The Bolts have excellent depth this year at this critical position. A major upgrade in store.

>Neither is good enough to earn an uncontested starter’s role. Another struggling year in goal looms.

Three things seem assured on the subject of the Rays’ future in Tampa Bay.

First, St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster is–and has been–more of a barrier to progress than even Bud Selig, the problematic commissioner of Major League Baseball. In the name of “protecting taxpayers,” Foster has been playing that legally-intimidating, Tampa-targeting, “tortious interference” card since he came to office four years ago. Selig voices MLB’s consensus concern that baseball revenue-sharing shouldn’t be a permanent subsidy–especially for a winning franchise.

Second, the lease that binds the Rays to the Trop through 2027 decreases in leverage each year. For a serious suitor, one that has ridden out the recession and is enamored of major league-market status, a lease buy-out would be part of the cost of doing business.

Third, everything’s on hold through the MLB playoffs, the World Series and St. Petersburg’s mayoral election.

* Debuting head coach Willie Taggart called it a “nightmare.”  Not everyone would agree. It wasn’t that good. Taggart’s USF Bulls were routed and embarrassed by McNeese State, 53-21, Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Yes, THAT McNeese State, a 3-touchdown underdog 1-AA team that was supposed to come to town for token opposition in exchange for that $400,000 guarantee.

Among those most interested in that shocking result: the fledgling American Athletic Conference and the University of Central Florida. The AAC, USF’s new home, is what morphed out of the old Big East. It has lost luster and will not have an automatic BCS bowl berth after this season. It didn’t need this credibility hit.

As for UCF, it is now in the same conference with the school that felt it was slumming by playing the Knights from 2005-08 and has kept them off the schedule despite UCF’s lobbying. Now they are fortuitous  peers–and must meet. On Nov. 29, USF will travel to Orlando to play UCF, which defeated Akron, 38-7, in its opener. You can bet UCF has had it circled for a while. You can bet it’s emboldened. Nobody wants to be the second-best team in the I-4 corridor.

*Once again the issue of compensating big-time college athletes is in the news. Here’s the bottom line.

First, if schools would only recruit legitimate student-athletes, that would take care of half the problem. Student-athletes understand the value of a diploma, exposure in a public arena and a life time of key contacts to help leverage or launch a career. An education can be its own reward to those inclined to consider the concept. But most big-time football and basketball programs are convinced they can’t compete at the highest levels without lineups top-heavy in mercenaries.

Second, the schools, television networks and the NCAA hype high-profile players. Player names, numbers and visages are marketing staples. Until recently–as in Heisman huckster Johnny Manziel–player autographs had been common-practice perks for alums, boosters and assorted fans. When players are treated as commodities and note that their head coach makes 10 times what the president of the United States does, they often act accordingly. Especially the sham “student-athletes” marking time until they can leave early and “graduate”–to the pros.

* This Sunday the International Olympic Committee will make the call in Buenos Aires as to what will be the last sport allowed into the 2020 Summer Games–to be held in Tokyo, Madrid or Istanbul. The final three supplicants making their case: a baseball-softball tandem, wrestling and squash. No, that’s not a typo. Squash.

* Sure seems a stretch that Bobby Riggs would have conspired with mafia sorts to throw his outrageously ballyhooed 1973 match against Billie Jean King. Among the understandable doubters: BJK herself. Actually, she’s insulted by intimations that she couldn’t have beaten Riggs, 29 years her senior, without a mob fix. Although if memory serves, she wasn’t insulted enough to not participate in the ultra-hyped “Battle of the Sexes” that seemed to equate a world-class, career-prime female tennis player with a 55-year-old hustler/has-been with a pitty-pat serve.

* The obscenely payrolled circus that is the New York Yankees was at the Trop last weekend. How weird that the Yankees are the vehicle for the last go round for both Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera, the most reviled narcissist and the most revered player in the game today. Not fair.

* Not that it matters now, but Rodriguez, 38, failed his first drug test in 2003. His Yankee tenure was tainted long before the Biogenesis scandal. There’s $114 million left on his contract. It’s the price the Yankees are paying because they are the Yankees. Too bad.

* Keith Olbermann’s new TV show, eponymously titled Olbermann, is now up and running on ESPN2 at 11 p.m. week nights. The network is characterizing it as the sports version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Anyone else remember when the games and players were the top programming priority–not preening, know-it-all personalities?

*Once again the issue of compensating college athletes is in the news. Here’s the bottom line.

First, if schools would only recruit legitimate student-athletes, that would take care of half the problem. Student-athletes understand the value of a diploma, exposure in a public arena and a life time of key contacts to help leverage or launch a career. An education can be its own reward to those inclined to consider the concept. But most big-time football and basketball programs are convinced they can’t compete at the highest levels without lineups of mercenaries.

Second, the schools, television networks and the NCAA hype high-profile players. Player names, numbers and visages are marketing staples. Until recently–as in Heisman huckster Johnny Manziel–player autographs had been common-practice perks for alums, boosters and assorted fans. When players are treated as commodities and note that their head coach makes 10 times what the president of the United States does, they often act accordingly. Especially the sham “student-athletes” marking time until they can leave early and “graduate”–to the pros.