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This guy was handed a SuperBowl team by Dungy and then he gets a free pass. I think he has one quarterback for every team in the league.

sack, right on. that was Dungy's work. and what Gruden has done down in TB hasn't been equal to Dungy's work. Wonder if TB brass had it to do all over again, would Dungy be in Tampa still?

I like Dungy and used to live near him. He is a genuine class act and good man. However, Dungy couldn't win the big game. Gruden (who should join Cotillions) did.

Gruden is not losing power. He led the Bucs to the Super Bowl and that should be good enough.

Gruden is a bad coach who shouldn't be a head coach in the NFL. He won with Dungy's players. He did very little to win that game. Gruden got better breaks with other team's performances and got to play the Oakland Nursing Home in the Super Bowl that year. After the Super Bowl, Gruden has been crap.

JFKJR, I live in the Tampa Bay Area as well, and you're comments are dead-on. Gruden basically inherited a Super Bowl winning team...and then immediately began dismantling it. And it wasn't just the departures, but the manner in which they were carried out. What that front office did to John Lynch is shameful. But be clear people, Jon Gruden is no where NEAR as bad as GM Bruce Allen. That guy's got a special place in Hell reserved for him.

"However, Dungy couldn't win the big game. Gruden (who should join Cotillions) did."

Indianapolis Colts a year ago??? You must be on some sort of hallucinogen.

The rap on Tony is about the offense. Gruden was aces in Philadelphia with offense. Then took the pathetic Raiders to the heights. THEN the Raiders pulled a trade for him that was considered robbery from the foolish Bucs! I came back just to mention Bruce Allen and the Bucs organization. They are supposed to be worse than Dan Snyder. And Gruden haters..at least he won the big game once. And he had a cool black Corvette.

Couldn't in my sentence was past tense when I talked about Dungy. He had a team with oh 22 or 25 years of top picks who could not score. And they were not quite as good or disciplined as the 2001 Raisins. And did he make the Colts offense or did that little Manning guy?

I like Gruden but he has yet to win a Super Bowl or make a deep run into the playoffs with a team that is strictly his guys. And why keep wasting picks and salary and roster space with so many QBs?

if he won with dungys players then how come dungy couldnt win with them?as for the talib pick awful! the bucs need offense.mainly receiver.

Sadly, I also know what it's like to lose power!

Pray for me, please?

Good coach. Sketchy GM. Bucs are smart to only have him do what he does well..

Let the Bucs can him. Gruden would be unemployed for about 90 seconds.

So let me get this straight:

Tony Dungy wins the Superbowl with Peyton Manning.....

Jon Gruden wins a Superbowl with a roster of players that Dungy couldn't win with the previous season.....

But Dungy is the better coach?

And here's another question.... since we are giving Tony Dungy full credit for handing Gruden over a SB caliber team, Does Gruden get credit for turning the Raiders (the team he defeated in said Superbowl) over to Bill Callahan?

How about all the years that Dungy couldn't get Indianapolis over the hump with FAR superior talent? No mention of that? Do you think it would take Gruden 5 tries to win the big one with that roster?

Not for nothing, but if it it took Dungy 5 tries to win a championship with the likes of Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison (among others), then what is a realistic amount of time to expect Jon Gruden to win one while strapped by salary cap constraints.

Colonialhead:

You are exactly correct.

Dungy was a great guy who had no idea how to handle the offense. The Bucs would never have won a Super Bowl with Dungy as coach. Great guy.

Indy was the perfect place for Dungy to land. He did not have to do anything with that offense at all. Just rebuild the Defense.

Gruden is a GREAT coach.

I have been a loyal (sadly much of it) Bucs fan for almost 30 years. The bandwagon jumpers don't know the details.

I don't see any key offensive free agents putting Tampa Bay on their map!
JFKJR - Sideburn Sunday | 05/11/08, 10:38 AM


What "key offensive free agents" were out there? I would say that Jeff Faine and Warrick Dunn are pretty good players.

Adn NO, Gruden was not "handed a Super Bowl Team". Gruden inherited a good team that Dungy could not even get to the Super Bowl with.

The Bucs were right to get a coach who could get them over the hump.

Gruden is an offensive genius and deserves credit for the success of the Raiders the year afterf he left. He made Rich Gannon into a pro bowl quarterback. But the defense and the team he took to the Super Bowl was not his, plain and simple. The defense was put together by Dungy and Kiffin. Gruden made the offense good enough to put up enough points and the defense won them that Super Bowl. I give Gruden credit for winning it all but it was not his team.

c note you are right.

Good post.

The defense that Kiffin and Dungy built was spectacular....and is still pretty dam n good now.

The same could be said of Dungy in Indy.

He did enough on defense....but that Offense was there when he got took over the team. Hence Indy was a perfect place for Dungy to land.