Forum: Talk Sports

Good win. Solid. Not particularly heroic.

It was not a blockbuster performance by the mighty Tampa Bay Bucs, but, well, it was a win-is-a-win kind of win. A 24-9 decision over Atlanta at Raymond James Stadium on a hot Sunday afternoon.

Atlanta is not very good.  Indeed, Atlanta without Michael Vick may be facing a long season. They are 0-2.

The Bucs didn’t demonstrate they are strong candidates to play in the Super Bowl at Raymond James on February 1st.

Nobody expected Tom Brady to be lost already to New England already either, virtually eliminating the Patriots, I think.

These Bucs—who so missed wounded backer, Derrick Brooks, when he did not play—are 1-1 and not in the 0-2 hole with the Pats and nine other NFL teams. Eight teams are 2-0. In other years when the Bucs began 0-2, they did nothing.

It is a hard start.

The Bucs Sunday played just well enough to win.  Well enough and gritty enough. The gritty enough included overcoming 12 penalties—far too many - often an illegal procedure call. Coach Jon Gruden noted his team was the least penalized in the pre-season and the most penalized so far this regular season.  Not good. Perhaps some of the too-quick stars came because of not enough work of quarterback Brian Griese and his offensive associates.

By the way, Gruden, was high on the work of running backs, Ernest Graham, (68-yard) touchdown and bursts by Warrick Dunn, one for a score.  Both had solid games. Dunn plays like he is back home, which he is, and where he wants to be. Graham is a fixture here. They work together well, as they do with Griese. And, by the way, the offensive line provided enough quick opening holes for Graham and Dunn to dash through, then cut.

The Buc running game is vastly improved and gives Griese time to locate receivers on passing plays.

Gruden was about as complimentary of quarterback Griese as he is going to be, at least until he plays a near-perfect… no, a perfect game.

“He made great decisions in the running game. We won the football game. I thought he was solid. I thought he played pretty good.” Gruden said, noting he had a turnover late in the game. He did. He was hit from behind.

Somebody let the tackler through.

So, Griese’s pretty good game included a short touchdown pass to tight end John Gilmore and the effective game management Gruden singled out.  Running game selection was a part of that, and, well, the placekicking expert, Matt Bryant, was solid in a 33-yarder field goal. He is 3 for 3 on the regular season.

Coach Monte Kiffin’s defenders got better. The rush was quicker and stronger. They shut down Atlanta with only three field goals, when the score was 17-0. The line allowed the Falcons only 105 yards rushing.  That’s an A-plus. The front read well and rushed hard.

The secondary gets and an A-plus, plus.  Sabby Piscitelli and Aqib Talib intercepted passes. This may be the most improved group so far, the defensive backs. The kicking game, place-kicking and punt, seemed sound early. It will need to be.

The season has just begun. The Bucs are 1-1, not an admired 2-0, but a not bad 1-1 after that lousy opener at New Orleans, not won 20-24.

Of course, Atlanta went home certain Tampa had not beaten them, but that they had beaten themselves, and not won.

Brian Griese and his whole crowd will surely have to play better this weekend against Griese’s old team, the Chicago Bears guided by ex-Buc Assistant Coach Lovie Smith who is the head coach.

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Coach Jim Leavitt and USF President Judy Genshaft graded out with an A-plus Saturday night.

It was a justification night, and it can’t get much better than this night.

And, if I may, it was a see-there night for those who long, long ago said football at the University of South Florida was the move to make, a circumstance proven over and over again along the way and affirmed with a flourish with that 37-34 USF win over the University of Kansas before nearly 60,000 at an electric Raymond James Stadium.

The jumping jacks livened to a crescendo when a wiry, young USF freshman from Brazil, by way of Lake Wales, named Maikon Bonani kicked a 43 yard field goal to break the 34-34 tie for the third USF win in a game of back-and-forth and 700 yards passing. The big, loud crowd of 58,755 likely set a record for high fives after the good field goal.

Surely the political architect of USF, former congressman Sam Gibbons, was high-fiving somebody at the Canterbury Tower residences. Gibbons fathered USF, made it happen. Oh, sure, plenty of others were involved, but, well, he was ours, and he was a ranking man in the U. S. House of Representatives.

I have looked at the old USF plat many times. The original plans had a football stadium written in at the northwest corner of Fowler and 30th in North Tampa. Writer Bill Beck, suggested the stadium be named Schlitz Stadium, for a fee, since Schlitz was planning to build (and did) a brewery there. In time, in a break for USF, old Tampa Stadium was built and so the Bulls played there and later in the comfort and on the good grass of Raymond James Stadium.

Worked out. But, for years the late USF President John Allen held football, then basketball away from his college campus. He felt it promoted gambling. He beat those of us who favored more sports—football and basketball—me, other writers and sportscasters, George and Leonard Levy, Ed Rood, Art Pepin, the students, the world.

In time, Cecil Mackey came in as president, gave basketball and the Dome the go sign. Then as the college grew and grew and as the Tampa area grew and grew, football worked with forward-thinking President Betty Castor, the late athletic director Dick Bowers, and the pressuring alumni wanting USF to challenge Florida, Florida State, Florida A&M.

The intercollegiate sport may well have seen its roots lock into place with the performances in the last two years offered by Genshaft and her head coach, Jim Leavitt. Leavitt, a Tampa Bay guy, wants to do what he does, coach and win here.  He’s home. He does not want to go anywhere, not even Alabama. That feeler came and was returned.

“I love it,” he said. “I do. I love Florida, the Tampa/St. Pete area. I love the beaches, like the Bucs, like the other state teams when we don’t play them. Love USF. Love my guys. Love to recruit for USF and Tampa/St. Pete. I’m a lucky guy,” Leavitt said. 

Ah, but, most of this season still lies ahead, including Florida International, just ahead, then at North Carolina State, and so and so on.

“I know.  I know,” which Leavitt likes to say. “We’ll be all right. We’ll be all right,” which he also likes to say. Then to a question, “no, I never thought I’d ask a freshman from Brazil to kick a 43-yard winning field goal, but I did and he did.”

Ain’t America great?

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The Lightning Makeover Is Complete

The Tampa Bay Lightning, with a great name, great fan base, and great property in this wonderful place we all call home, have it by the shorts.

The team was lousy last year. Maybe worse than that, if you can be worse than 30th in a 30-team league. So, the Bolts, as headline writers want to call them, became an obvious inviting sports property, candidate for a new head coach, and the home of the number one draft pick overall — offensive swifty Steven Stamko, Canada’s best already being compared, by some, to the best Lightning of them all, Vinny Lecavalier.

The franchise Phil Esposito brought to Tampa on a from-the-gut hope for glory won a Stanley Cup in 2004, then went up for sale after, along with choice Channelside property in downtown Tampa around it, finally being bought by Hollywood movieman Oren Koules and former player Len Barrie. Changes were made quickly. Indeed, the new head coach, Barry Melrose, played at Toronto, then became a hockey analyst for ESPN.

Melrose is big, handsome guy, just dandy with the public and the media. He has no shoulder chips, smiles a lot and enjoys the public, and said he re-entered coaching because “I like to have a dog in the fight.” He will like it here. If he wins, he’ll like it more. He’s a good addition to Jon Gruden of the Buccaneers and Joe Maddon of the baseball Rays.

Now, new coach Melrose has a strong fan base in this sunshine city. The team has averaged 17,800 or more for the last four seasons and simply captured Tampa Bay with their Stanley Cup team. Some of the heroes of that achievement are here, notably Lecavalier, who has just been given a hockey lifetime contract probably worth more than so many of us put together, surely more than me and the other hackers, which is good. He is the best on the club, one of a tiny few in the National Hockey League and who is without a selfish or self-centered bone in his chiseled body.

Had to keep him. The new men in charge clearly knew that. And alongside him will be keys and stars like Marty St. Louis, as selfless and uncomplicated as Lecavalier, and Vinny Prospal, back after being dealt away. Others of importance are about, too, but not here, sadly, is the wonderful Brad Richards, whom somebody traded away.

And, oh, Mike Smith returns in goal. You — and even I — know how important an unflappable tender is. There are 12 new players on the team, so you’ll need a program.

The preseason games are about here, then the real ones. The Lightning have games in Prague and Germany to get used to each other.

“They tell me Prague is a place of culture,” said Bill Wickett, the Lightning public relations director and Michigan graduate, “which is fine and a good opportunity. Many say hockey guys don’t have culture. Maybe some will rub off on us.”

The Bolts play in Europe and early in America against the New York Rangers, considered a good draw in Europe, Wickett said.

Don’t know how he knows that.

Do know there’s plenty we don’t know about this Lightning club with its new owners, new coach, 12 new players and Vinny and Marty.

Not sure about the hockey we can expect, but with one of the owners a Hollywood innovator, we can expect some pre-game and halftime goodies — hey, maybe even a moving searchlight moving back and forth over the dome and Madonna singing the national anthem.

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Running back Earnest Graham is a pounder, a hard-yards man, probably not big enough at 5-9 to do what he is assigned to do for the Bucs. But this grateful young man of 28 thanks the Lord about every night he has this chance and that he is doing it well enough to pay his family’s - and some friends’ - bills.

The Bucs most often asked him to get the tough three first down yards inside the pile, or outside of it if there’s room there. If there is not, make it, EG, quarterback Jeff Garcia may suggest. Got-to-get-it is a characteristic of this young man of guts and hopes of glory, for his team.

He’s a good one, E.G. is, has no ego.

Bucs running backs coach Art Valero once said of EG, “You could win an awful lot of games with a team full of Earnest Grahams.”

We are calling attention here to a young man who was a star running back at Florida but who went undrafted after his 2003 season, signed by the Bucs, a free agent later but was cut. He had a tough time of it the next three years, moved from here to there, with wife and kid were evicted from their rental property, but he kept football as his goal.

His struggles were not unlike those of his single mom in Naples where he grew up in a hand-to-mouth circumstance until the Bucs in 2007 saw him as part of a runningback committee. There were a bunch of them. None was tougher, determined to make it than Earnest Graham, and this year, Warrick Dunn has joined the competition.

Anyone younger than E.G. says he helped them. Older players want his resolve.

His minister has referred to that part of his persona, like Coach Valero when he said he would take a team full of E.G.s.

They all include his non-complaining attitude. He told all when he was sweating every down, and deep in the Buc depth chart, he told himself to be patient, to listen to the coaches, to do his job, on special teams are as a third string back, to appreciate that he had made the team, the roster.

“I never treated special teams like an insignificant thing.

“I was a third-stringer and I thought I should be treated accordingly. I never was assertive about asking about playing time. I just kept my patience.

Then, E.G. got a break, one created by the most expected of developments. Early last season, Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman were hurt. Graham substituted for them and rushed for two touchdowns against the Rams the third week of the season. Graham came through, when called to start. The Bucs made the playoffs with E.G. starting 10 games.

By the season’s end, E.G. had set a Bucko record for consecutive games with a touchdown — six.

All this now and the football world before him with a year’s good credentials, and a new house he bought in South Tampa. His mom is there and she said, of his success, “just give him a little bit more” she adds. “No more than what he deserves. Because he’s earned the right to be paid. No more than he deserves. Because he has earned the right to be paid,” his mother told ESPN Internet, which did a thorough piece on Graham.

She can remember the bad times when her boys were growing up in South Florida where one son strayed, but never Earnest. Of him, Cadillac Williams said when he first arrived in Tampa, “we worked out together, and he helped me. He’s a humble guy, a family guy. His attitude rubbed off on me. His rough times, he just kept grinding. This is a league about taking advantage of the moment. That’s a mindset E.G. has,” said Williams. “I couldn’t be happier for him.”

And, folks. Earnest is in precisely the right place at the right time The Buckos need him badly. And he needs their challenge.

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There was not a nickel’s worth of difference between those two National Football League teams in New Orleans Sunday — the Buccaneers and the Saints.

Of course, that nickel’s worth just may be the difference at the regular season’s end when the Saints make the playoffs by the margin of that winning effort over the Buccaneers in their house Sunday.

Neither had the look of a team that may be coming to Tampa for the Super Bowl.

Now, on specifics, Bucko loyalists surely can declare New Orleans wouldn’t have scored the winning touchdown as it did, on a Drew Brees touchdown pass for the 24-20 difference had all-world linebacker Derrick Brooks not been sidelined with a leg injury. It was over the Brooks backup. Brooks is never out, never injured. Reminds us of the how valuable great players are. And, for another, on the 84-yard Brees touchdown pass, corner Ronde Barber fell down turning to the ball. Barber, like Brooks, is all-planet. Ira Kaufman did an in-depth story for the Tribune Sunday on Barber and Brooks. The Saints got two big breaks there. Breaks, well, the football bounces. Stuff happens. 

Perhaps the biggest setbacks for the Buckos with this loss is, Tampa and New Orleans are in the same division of the NFC, and again, there is not much difference in the abilities of these two teams. And, the Buckadoos do get the Saints in their house the next time around. The game at New Orleans was plenty loud, and the fans badly needed some good news. They got a perfecta — Ike is headed west and the Bucs went south.

On the Buc side of the ball, well, the offensive line needs help, or shoring up, if that is possible. Quarterback Jeff Garcia is no Gene Kelly. Certainly no Brett Favre. But, thought here is Garcia is as good as he is going to get. The TV guys kept saying Garcia and the marvelous Joey Galloway were not in sync because they’d not worked together more. They were certainly not together repeatedly. Garcia, no pup, has had aches and bruises. He will have more, more today, more later. Aging bones and muscles are slower to heal, if they do.

In truth, how the head coach moves with his quarterbacks is a fascination. He started Garcia because he was No. 1 last year and won the division, and well, he felt he wouldn’t make the mistakes younger guys may. Didn’t really make many Sunday. Guess here, and it is only a guess, is that the head coach will have to think whether to go with Garcia next week, and make no final decisions on that position for a while. But, he can’t afford many more losses, even if they came because Ronde Barber fell down and Brooks was out. The Brooks situation can be awful. He’s not only a playing star, he’s the leader.

The defense, up front and in the secondary, generally did fine, but cannot give up the too-frequent long gainers they did Sunday. New Orleans is not the best offensive team they will play. The secondary stood out, as did some of the down linemen and linebackers. Defensive boss Monte Kiffin will have them looking at themselves and their New Orleans game work repeatedly this week.

Frankly, the Buc special teams likely were the stars of the day, despite a rotten punt late in the game by Josh Bidwell. He had enough beauties, one downed at the Saints’ 1-yard line, though New Orleans promptly passed out of trouble. And field goal kicker Matt Bryant had something of a redemption afternoon in Saintdom. Missed nothing. But, among the special teams, best work was by the coverage teams. The Bucs were all over the kickoffs and punt return kids. The Tampa counterparts were more effective. Dexter Jackson will break one, one of these games, one that won’t be called back as they seem to be, all too often.

Can’t suggest how many games this Gruden team will win this year. Won’t try. So much of this team’s future lies with how the coach handles this quarterback situation, now that this game is on film and these Buckos are 0-1. 

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Over your large glass of orange juice from Auburndale frozen concentrate, a stack of three medium-sized but thin buttermilk pancakes, three slices of lean bacon and glass of cold milk, these breakfast additives:

Outback Bowl bigshot Jim McVay, at their meet-greeter in Ybor the other night, said, “Thank heaven, football’s started.” Though he then went home and saw his old Banditball buddy, Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, lose to Vanderbilt.

But, surely so much of the sports world welcomes football — preps, college, pros — back among us for six months, including the fourth Super Bowl to be played in Tampa, and the big deal prep curtain-raisers Friday night, the serious college and NFL games today and Sunday … What is the outlook?

Florida State opens at home with three quarterbacks in the first-team mix. Coach Bobby Bowden, it appears, is accepting more sideline game help from associates. FSU and QB Christian Ponder can handle Western Carolina. This is an important year for FSU, perhaps the last for Bowden.

The Florida Gators entertain old nemesis Miami, which has a fine new quarterback from South Tampa, Robert Marve, to test the Gators at The Swamp where bullish quarterback Tim Tebow continues the defense of his Heisman Trophy. Florida, with Tebow and the new speed around him, should win, but Miami has won the last six meetings.

Expect Jim Leavitt and the South Florida Bulls to do a number on Central Florida at Orlando, and thus the 3-1 big-school start (for the record, but only for the record), won’t matter if Florida or Miami wins.

And, the Bucs, at New Orleans? Coach Jon Gruden says veteran Jeff Garcia will start, despite a bruised passing hand little finger, and he’s counting on him. It won’t be a long count. He’s got a bench full of quarterbacks, between which there seems to be little difference.

This is an important game for the Bucs. It is a division game. The 1-0 start is so important to a team like them, in need of early wins, for confidence and to sell tickets and suites.

The Saints are favorites because the game is in New Orleans, and New Orleans has been so abused lately. That won’t make the Saints play better. The quarterbacking will - just as quarterbacking will make the Buckos play well enough to win.

And Besides Football...

Golf and sports lost a unique man this week when Tommy Bolt, terrible tempered, tempestuous Tommy Bolt died. In Arkansas. I wasn’t sure he’d moved back there from his beloved Black Diamond, up the road from us a bit.

I knew him long and well, as did Lloyd and Annie Farrentino. Lloyd bought the Bardmoor property in Pinellas in 1969 and held big women’s tour tournaments there, along with Bolt and Ben Hogan. He also made Bolt his professional at Tarpon Woods out near Tampa Bay Downs.

Bolt loved his reputation as a hot-tempered golfer, which he was, and his reputation as a thrower of golf clubs record distances. He would not retrieve them, but his wife Mary Lou would.

Once, on the 18th hole, Bolt had 29 yards to the green. He told his caddy to give him a club. The caddy asked if he wanted a 3-wood or a 3-iron. Neither, snarled Bolt. Those are all the clubs you have left in the bag, Mr. Bolt.

And always, when he saw me, if at the Masters, or at Tarpon Woods, Bolt would yell, “Come over here, Tom Mac-Ewen - you little son of [so and so, for he was delightfully profane] and talk to ol’ Tommy and do a story. I need the good publicity.” And I would do that, and always get a good story. Hit them straight, Tommy.

Rays Will Make The Postseason

Been to several Rays games these last days. Sat in the stands with son-in-law Richard Grammig in the good seats. The Rays, generally, are fun. They play well and they play hard. These Rays are going to make the playoffs. They have no downside and surely are playing for their manager, management and fans.

The fan support has improved in direct relation to the team’s play. The fans are loud and into it. The noise level — especially at the New York Yankees games where the Yanks supply so many of the fans - is raucous. The fans deserve a better ballpark. Now, the fans are demanding that they do.

Babaloo.

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If old friend Leon Denton were alive, and how I wish he were, if I told him Monsignor Laurence Higgins had an 80th birthday this week, he would have said: “Ain’t it a blessing?”

And those who know Monsignor Higgins of Tampa and the St. Lawrence Tampa would boomed a you-bet in acclamation, as some close friends did at a small surprise birthday lunch which industrialist and great Higgins admirer Joe Capitano, and his family, arranged on Wednesday in Capitano’s Ybor City.

“Don’t deserve it. Don’t. Don’t,” Father Higgins repeated at its end. But, his eyes Irish eyes were smiling. Not in his 80 years has this wise, kind and experienced man lost a twinkle that seems to be so characteristic of the Irish. They surely have learned to smile through the worst of times, as did Higgins, through his troubled childhood in County Derry, his expulsions from two schools before sticking with the dreams of a hopeful and loyal parents, settling down in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons before leaving for the All Hallows Seminary in Dublin, and in time, the priesthood.

Oh, yes, he played sports, hard and tough, starred, set a record or two for red cards earned or game expulsions. But, he was brainy, devoted to his religion and his personal development. He wanted to be fair and he wanted to be tough, and he is, even now.

Moreover, at 80, he looks 60 - or is it 50?

“It is 55,” said former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, at the lunch Wednesday.

Younger, even, said tireless aide Polly Murray, who works beside him every day. “Never quits. Never. Never says no.”

Monsignor Higgins formerly retired as the leader/priest at St. Lawrence. But he is besieged by requests from former parishioners regularly for weddings, baptisms, special sermons, last rites, invocations, etc.

Did I mention that in every drive/campaign begun here since his arrival from Miami to begin St. Lawrence with four in attendance at a restaurant there he has been involved in the planning, the plotting, the politicking, the pushing, the election campaigns and everything else that produced old Tampa Stadium? Reworked the place, as well as the Rowdies, the Buccaneers, the Bandits, the Tampa Arena, the Super Bowls here, the Outback Bowl, the South Florida and University of Tampa sports programs… and more, plus some that did not make it.

On a personal note, he has been a sounding board for all of us who have sought to advance this great place in which we live, as well as a wise and experienced counsel to those of us who sought it here or elsewhere. Those of time spent here remember a deal for Tampa Bay, won with the good fight, but lost as it should have been. We should never forget this.

A Tampa/St. Pete/Wauchula-area committee good citizen Cecil Edge headed and on which his daughter Shannon and late Miami Dolphin owner Joe Robbie were such factors (I went along) convinced the world soccer people to bring the World Cup to Florida. Idea was old Tampa Stadium, the Rowdies, and Miami would be the key areas utilized.

When the international committee voted later, we herebouts (including the most cooperative Rowdie owners, Cornelia and Dick Corbetts), Tampa was kissed off but Orlando was included. The official reason given: The old Tampa Stadium walls were too close to the field. PHOOEY! Disney made the decision to get involved, and the World Cup went to Orlando. That was it, though never admitted.

“I remember. We did everything we could do,” said Father Higgins.

“But, must we talk about that on my 80th?”

No, no, sorry. You are looking great, Monsignor, not 80. Your color is good, weight is right, hair no thinner, nor grayer.

Ain’t it a blessing, Leon Denton would say.

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What are the Bucs going to do this season?
Don’t know.

What?

Don’t know.

But, you are supposed to know, or at least predict.

Maybe. But this season, at least for now, they are iffier than ever.

What does that mean?

There seems to be too many questions. Oh, they got some defense because they have Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber, Chris Hovan and others on the rise, but they also have committees at quarterback and running back in back of an admired offensive line. Overall, the team is iffy. Got a punter and a field goal guy the head coach says is a keeper for now, but still iffy.

It appears senior quarterback, Jeff Garcia, will be the chairman of that position committee, also consisting of Luke McCown, rookie Josh Johnson and Brian Griese, who should have won the starting job by now. He surely should be the future.

Expected star Carnell Williams can’t stay healthy, but pounders, Ernest Graham and Michael Bennett, can, and speedster Warrick Dunn is back here where he belongs. The trouble is, the backs starting out are not Bo Jacksons. They aren’t going to be All-Pros. But, there are all-star hopefuls among the pass receivers. A couple can motor, like Warrick and Joey G.

Now, a big part of the iffy tag comes on that offense Head Coach Jon Gruden so wants to develop into stardom and point-production. He, and his chosen aides have to keep the iffy guys working and learning until they can breakout regularly as Dexter Jackson did the other day. Be reminded that Tampa’s 32-year-plus (been that long?) is not overcrowded with long kick return breakaway touchdowns. When Ike Hagins finally busted one years ago, the first - albeit preseason, the standing ovation was extended. 

The biggest IF is if the Bucs can do much beyond a break-even season, or slightly better. If Garcia can do just enough to make the year a positive and earn another playoff spot. Of course, you got to get to the playoffs to get beyond.

So, you guys and gals, take it one game at a time, one step at a time. And, because this Bucko team can be anything from a loser to big-time winner, well, that’s why we still buy the tickets in these lousy economic times.

So, we have declared the Bucs iffy for this season just ahead. We believe they have potential enough to challenge for the NFC South division title, among New Orleans, the opening foe away, Carolina and Atlanta.

Tough, but, ehhhh, winnable.

There’s no stick out favorite. Each has holes. Some beyond our city limits will like Tampa/St. Pete because the Bucs won it last year, and, won the Super Bowl under Gruden not that long ago. Some also know how much the organization would like too win one more for owner Malcolm Glazer.

Want another? Did we remenber that the Super Bowl is at our place this Feb. 1?

And that class, is enough for the Bucs and the iffies of the moment.

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That 56-10 Florida win over Hawaii Saturday at the Swamp in Gainesville likely suited most Gators, but not all. So many of the Florida allegiance would have preferred 56-0, which they can argue it should have been, surely could have been.

It matters today. It won’t tomorrow. The reality is that clearly these 2008 Gators are pretty doggone good, or seem to be. Hawaii made a dozen costly errors - point providing errors. Florida largely felt that the officials misadministered the yards-lost infractions.

These Gators of Coach Urban Meyer are fast, very fast. They’ve got a couple of world-class burners who start quickly and speed across the field at an impressive breakaway pace. The look back suggests these Gators are deep, hungry, and already just dandy in the eyes of those who saw them with that 56-10 blowout (that should have been 56-0) over a Hawaiian team that will win some games. Hawaiians aren’t going to turn the ball over that many times again this year.

And by the way, some of those turnovers were forced by a Florida defense that may be better than thought.

So, even the crankiest of Gators had to leave that envied, marvelous Swamp facility with at least some of these thoughts:

The Gators are okay, not bad. Are they ready for Miami, then Tennessee? Against Miami they’ll face a talented Tampa Plant product named Robert Marve, whose dad could play the heck out of this game. His son can, too. Against Tennessee, they’ll be playing a team that wants to beat them as badly as Miami, Auburn, Georgia and Florida State does. Can Florida beat Miami and/or Tennessee?  Sure, each or both, but not with the game they played against Hawaii. Think Hawaii could beat Miami or Tennessee? Humph.

The Gators do have that speed, both as a team and individually. They have a dandy offensive line, a far better defense than even “Two Bits” Edmondson could have hoped for. The punt game is acceptable. The kickoff game is not (as with the Buccaneers). Field goal game? Uncertain. The passing game with quarterback Tim Tebow is fine because he is always such a threat to run, and often does. The running game needs one back with size. Their stars are fine, but small. And, those backs and receivers, along with solid tight ends of range and size certainly make the game easier for quarterback Tebow.

Tebow is so big and strong he seems unlikely to be injured, but stuff happens.  You can hear the opposing cornerbacks of about 175 pounds whispering oh, no, . . . when he pulls the ball down, tucks it against his 6-3, 265-pound Christian body and heads straight at them like a truck he will probably one day endorse.

A television commentator offered after the Gator game that Tebow had a good day, but not a great day, considering his repeating candidacy for the Heisman. He’s probably right. Although, this young man seems absolutely genuine when he says his winning the Heisman the first time was only as important to him as much it was to the University of Florida. He seems so selfless.

After the win over Hawaii, he did not just wave to his 90,000-plus fans at the dressed-up, renovated Swamp, steamy and hot after a lousy pre-game drenching, but he ran around the west side of the stadium slapping each hand held there for him to anoint.

Good man, Tebow, and a good team it looks like. A good record is likely.

Now, if only Meyer can find somebody among the 50,000 students there who can kick off into the end zone of The Swamp…

Babaloo.

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During his robust and rousing years, his years of worldwide travel, his I-dare-you times, Stew McDonald was an envied man. Tall, athletic and about as good a barefoot water-skier as you’d ever want to watch.

He looked a bit like Lee Marvin, did the carefree dangerous things Lee Marvin did in the movies, had a fine formal education and did, some say, most of everything he wanted to do while living a long adventurous life.

And, Stew McDonald almost never, ever wore shoes.

He used to come to my Tribune office regularly.  He appreciated the media and some of those in it, and he knew a story when he was doing it, whether barefoot water skiing, or cutting ads for the big-time television ads which he wrote and directed.

The zestful, imaginative Stew McDonald died this week after a long eventful life surrounded by family. You and I will remember Stew for his verve, his big smile, his barefooted acrobatics - wondering how in the heck he could put those feet of his down on the hot Downtown Tampa concrete this time of year.

Anyway, Stew said he did not like shoes, ever, and cast them aside after the Air Force.

Of course, growing up in Wauchula I wondered how Merle and Bob Revels could go to my Hardee County High without shoes, along with others, but they did and never once winced, far as I could tell. Hey, they lived in Ona, not a show place. I lived in Wauchula, a shoes place.

Stew was as a yankee who went to Cornell, then our University of Miami where he was the president of the student body. He joined the Air Force, learned to fly, drive boats and cars fast, chose our sunshine over the snow, and dived into water skiing hereabouts in the Fifties. He worked hard with Dick Pope (inventor of barefoot skiing) and started his ski school here in Tampa that he directed. From then on this adventurous man water-skied the world over and posted countless TV ads for many of the big corporations.

Tampa, generally, had been his base all this time and Floridians have been his friends.

Stew McDonald was easy to know, easy to like. And, yes, yes he is in the Water Skiing Hall of Fame.

Now, don’t forget, these world-class barefoot skiers do about everything their counter part on skis do - twists, turns, acrobatics, and jumps - and they have the competions that the on-ski athletes do. Much of all that is now, and has been, was perfected at the wonderful McCormick Water Ski School just north of I-4, between Tampa and Plant City, Florida.

“I’ve been barefoot since I was a boy,’’ Stew told our Bob Scanlon once. “I never liked shoes. I had to wear them in the service.  I took them off and I have never worn them since, oh, except to weddings of special importance.”

He perfected the routine of leaving a jumping ramp at 42 miles an hour.  America and Australia pioneered the sport, but, no one was more important to it than the late Stew.

He made it clear that it was Dick Pope and the Cypress Gardens Family that made it all go.  He reminded me that is was a man named A.G. Hancock, a Central Florida banker, who made the first barefoot ski, and the Popes who made it a world-wide popular sport.

But the man being lain to rest, our own Stew McDonald, surely was the all time champion of barefoot waterskiing.

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The Buccaneers have won it all.

The Lightning have won it all.

The Rays might just do the same.

The Devil Rays - thankfully, shortened to just the Rays - are winning at a record pace, planning for a pennant race, perhaps whispering about the playoffs, while their opponents are talking openly that they are that good.

The Rays are 79-50 and leading the toughest division in baseball, the Boston Red Sox/New York Yankee crowd, by nearly a half dozen games.

They are averaging about 25,000 a game at Tropicana Field and that average will increase in the days/nights ahead with the Red Sox and Yankees coming to this place of ours. The Rays of 2002 drew 1.06 million for the season. These Rays are on track to draw 1.8 million, and, yes, Rays officials were meeting yesterday at the Trop to prepare for the playoffs, Rick Vaughn confirmed. 

Vaughn is the Rays public relations boss. After he’d been here a year, he said he’d never leave as lousy as the team was then. He hasn’t. He won’t. He lives on a lake in Palm Harbor. He and wife sent a daughter to the University of Florida, another to Central Florida. He’s converted. He even talks a little crackery, but still sun burns easily.

When Vaughn took the job, the Rays were lousy, and had been for a while. Not any more. Boston slugger David Ortiz even says so. So do the other opponents being beaten up regularly, early and late. It is characteristic of teams with quality and depth in pitching, hitting and defense to do that. 

The Rays use a simple formula: beat ‘em every whichaway.

They had only one bump, one slowdown, but it was brief. The pitching has been steady and stalwart. A wonder was how the Rays have handled adversity… as in injuries. Studs few could afford to lose included Carl Crawford and slugger Evan Longoria. Those two went down and out prior to a recent road trip. The Rays won without them.

Carlos Pena has come on as of late to pick up the slack. He’s a clutch man. The kind you’d want batting in the pinch and, boy, can he hit the ball hard,

The pitching, overall, has been wonderful and well placed, starters and relievers, with Maddon the overall man in charge as manager. Manager Joe Maddon is an intellectual that directs with such calm and skill. He reminds many of the late John McKay, who was the first Buc head coach.  He could be a pain, but he would be so with big words and complete sentences.

McKay came here from the University of Southern California, proudly. He always read a book on plane flights - usually historical novels - and had a solid vocabulary. He was a compulsive reader and a man of great quotes.

Maddon has used The David of Florence and other art pieces in his references. He has a red face that can get even redder when making a point in the face of an umpire.

And, I suppose it is manager Maddon who is responsible for this team without letdowns, so far. They make so few mistakes. They make so many crisis plays at the plate, in the field, and on the bases, and even in the dugout, there is never any dismay, tantrums. You would never see Joe throwing a bat, but you’ll see this man stick out his chest and chin if that is called for.

Clearly, owner Stu Sternberg was right when he saw this team as a wise investment - plus a great adventure. He was wise when he picked Joe Maddon as his manager, and, this as the time to push for a new home of the Rays.

Although, the Trop is far less of a hassle when the Rays are winners. 

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CrackerJack Jock Jack Harris used to ask his audiences loudly, “What Do You Think of Your Rowdies/Bucs Now?,” after a particularly good or lousy performance.

He could have, perhaps should have, done that Saturday night from his broadcast booth at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bucko circumstance was perfect.

They lost 23-17 to a good Jacksonville Jaguar team that did not play particularly well either—didn’t have to—23-17, giving a decent crowd on a rain threatening night little about which to cheer, notably early and late and helping with the traffic because of lack of zest.

CrackerJack could have, in reviewing the cheerless developments of the night these, among others:

Buc turnovers early led to a 10-0 Jax lead.

Senior starting quarterback Jeff Garcia started and got the loss. He did throw for a score and played decently after a slow/unsteady start. He seems to be a favorite of Coach Jon Gruden. He was the starter last year, taking Tampa to the playoffs. Brian Griese came on next and was fine, followed by Luke McCown, who was 11 of 14, threw a touchdown pass, ran for 29 yards on a scramble, which was about all the running game the Buckos showed — or have.

But, McCown had a chance to win the game late, and did not, or could not. And therein lies a big-time problem for the Bucs. Who of those quarterbacks who played, and youthful, talented Chris Simms, will Gruden keep, and in what order or depth? Bet here, hope here, hope out there in Fanland, is, they don’t have to make that decision today. Got Houston in the preseason left. Got time.

The Bucs missed top receiver Joey Galloway against Jax, but despite drops, wideout Maurice Stovall seems to have the right stuff. So does aging Ike Hilliard and so does little-used so far, but talented, Warrick Dunn. Don’t forget about Warrick.

The Buc defense will be fine. Defensive Coach Monte Kiffin will see to that. They hurt some people but they had a couple of injuries, too. All-World corner, Ronde Barber, is better than ever. A cornerback with the team’s most engaging name, Aqib Talib, is going to be a real keeper. He will hit you.

Kicking game? Punting is okay. Place kicking on kickoffs should be higher, deeper. An NFL team can’t miss as many field goals as the Bucs and Matt Bryant can be better. He’s got the wide-rightis.

The mighty Bucs ought to be a little better now. There ought to be three quarterbacks out of what Coach Gruden has assembled. He wants so — and so do the fans Cracker Jack addresses regularly — to have a quarterback to whom he can flip the football, and tell him to do his job.

Tired of writing these post-game dadgumit columns.

But, dadgumit, the Bucs got the best personal facilities, the best stadium, the best playing surface, best pirate ship with the loudest cannon, superb marketing, understanding and patient owners, devoted coaches, and this great place in which we live behind them.

Dadgumit, Buckos.

Right, CrackerJack Jock Jack Harris?

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During the heydays of the old, lovable, winning Tampa Bay Rowdies of Rodney Marsh, John Boyle, Eddie Firmani, Winston DuBose, Farrukh Quarishi, Mike Connell, that crowd, sitting in the southwest end zone corner of old Tampa Stadium was the late Bern Laxer, owner of Bern’s, up and coming steak house, along his side was young David, his son. Bern would have a bug in his ear so he could listen to Cracker Jack Harris of WFLA, call the game on radio.

The Rowdies were big. The place was often sold out. The crowd, including Bern would sing We Are The Rowdies. . . . A Kick In The Grass. . . along with everybody else. It was fun, friendly times.

“Dad loved it ... loved soccer and the Rowdies. I did, too,” said David Laxer, boss now of the great Tampa landmark restaurant his dad began with a few tables in his original Bern’s, now so big and sprawling. “I grew up with it and with soccer, with the Rowdies, too. Never lost my passion.. Neither did dad,” who died as a result of an automobile accident years back. He was sideswiped.

David has made that clear his passion remains.

“In 1970, Dad and Mom (Gert) bought acreage on Waters out by Benjamin Road and the Veterans Expressway to farm organically for our restaurant. We did then. We still do,” said young Laxer, like his dad a tireless worker who adores Tampa.

Now, Laxer will fulfill a dream he shared with his dad. Laxer (above, center), and partners Andrew Nestor (right) and Hind Howard (left), who have shared the dream, are buying a United Soccer Division team and building a stadium in which the new “Rowdies” will play. Yes, they own that name of the old club Cornelia and Dick Corbett owned, had. Good. It is all good.

The neat soccer stadium will have a permanent seating capacity of 5,500. It can be expanded to 9,000 with end zone inclusions, and, perhaps by 1,000 more to 10,000. Big enough. Ambitious enough. In those other days of the full Tampa Stadium the Rowdies were leaders in the biggest of leagues, playing Pele and the New York Cosmos before wonderful crowds.

The Rowdies of those days — of owner George Strawbridge — did not fail: the league did by insisting on going directly against the National Football League. That idea belonged to Donald Trump, whose latest flop here in Tampa was a downtown tower near the Platt Street Bridge.

This Rowdie team will begin in what is considered the second-level soccer league. They will be in the city of the headquarters of their league, the United, which old soccer friends Francisco Marcos and Matt Weide now head.

The sport is going to fill a need, said Laxer, “For soccer fans, for sports fans for our broad sports experience in Tampa. We needed to have soccer back. We needed to have the Rowdies back and kicking. We need to have the chance to sing our song — ‘We’re the Rowdies’,” said Laxer.

“I’m just glad dad bought that property in northwest Tampa where we can build this new stadium and put this new franchise. A coach and players? Later. Right now we have plenty to do and we will need all the help we can get from old Rowdies and new ones.”

He started to hum, but interrupted, by saying, “Oh, we will still have land out there to farm okra and tomatoes and mushrooms.”

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This is a pretty memorable anniversary for professional football in Tampa. It is the anniversary of it all — undistinguished as it was — we surely should be reminded, or, well, enjoy being reminded.

The Tampa Bay Bucs have surely been impressive, with well supported with fine facilities, appropriate colors, and they’re civically involved, winners of a Super Bowl, and about to host a fourth Super Bowl at universally appreciated Raymond James Stadium.

Well, driving east on Cass Street with Sam Bailey Field and Ed Rood Stadium and the University of Tampa on my left, and Tampa Preparatory Academy on my right, where historic Phillips Field once stood, it hit me.

A man named Mac Mascioli got us into this professional football business right there at old Phillips Field 40 years ago. Mascioli came to Tampa and said he wanted to produce a first-ever pro football game at Phillips the second weekend in August, 1964. Do it, he was advised. He did. He lost his shirt.

The project was a financial flop. It matched the New York Jets (just before Joe Namath) of Weeb Ewbank against the Buffalo Bills of Lou Saban of the new American Football League. Optimistic Mascioli added end zone seats to make the capacity 17,000, so he could make his cut. He charged $3.50, $5.50 and $7.50. He sold 5,288 tickets, none in the endzone.

“Was that the game we split the take in the ticket offices where we were picking up quarters off the office floor?,” Bill owner Ralph Wilson asked a few years later.

But, also in the game, the Bills won 26-13 and their new place kicker, Pete Gogoliak, kicked an NFL record 57-yard field goal.

Mascioli said he lost $23,000. Don’t know. He left Tampa and opened a bar in Miami.

And Tampa was introduced into the pro football family. Three years later, old Tampa Stadium was built, nine years later, the Super Bowl was held here.  And now another one is coming Feb. 1, 2009.

The game forty years ago was truly the harbinger of virtually everything that has happened in sports in Tampa. Mascioli was the architect of all of this when he simply tried to promote a preseason game here and lost $23,000. Maybe he needs a bust erected here somewhere. He clearly was before his time. He has returned but only for a visit, but never for another sports adventure here.

You can’t really say he started it all, because Tampa only got into the big sports business when Tampa Stadium was built years later, and the new Raymond James Stadium was built after that.

I don’t know if Mascioli has returned and sneaked into Raymond James Stadium to enjoy what some can say began with him but if he hasn’t, he should. Maybe someone should salute him sometime.

For you out there and those who appreciate the Buccaneers, Bulls, Spartans, and the Lightning and those who were once Rowdies, I can say thank you.

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Give them an ‘A’. The Buccaneers, I mean. 

For their 27-10 win over New England Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium. I do.

Had the fine Patriot quarterback, Tom Brady, played it would have been an A-plus. So, should the Buc grade then be reduced to an A-?

No, the Bucs played who they played, though not with their No. 1 quarterback of the moment, Jeff Garcia. They played quarterbacks Luke McCown, Brian Griese, Chris Simms (above) and draft pick Josh Johnson (one pass completed).

Indeed, I give the Buckos two straight A’s; the other for the first game over the Dolphins in Miami. Indeed, the two wins alone, without any breakdown, should be the worth the two A’s.

Couple of other key points. Coach Jon Gruden may not have an Eli Manning or Brett Favre rostered, but by George, he does have that cluster of five he’s assembled from which he surely can find talent enough to work. It is his decision on which to keep. Chris Simms, thought by some a valuable trading possibility, may be playing himself onto the final Buc roster.

He played beautifully against New England, confidently, effectively, grittily. He needed to do that and he did. Young Brian Griese was dandy. He needed that sort of a game and got it out of himself. Luke McCown played like the veteran he is. And, we know absolutely about Garcia.

Coach Gruden has developed a nice problem for himself ... well, he has, along with general manager Bruce Allen, and the rest of the roster committee. They got a position full at running back now, with the veteran Earnest Graham being pushed. A neat addition has been Warrick Dunn, the little guy with the big heart and big resume. Good man, Dunn. Hope here is he makes it. May need his speed and community spirit.

An A? Sure, here’s a little-noticed reason: no penalties, except on special teams and there are only a couple. None, man. No killer holding penalties. No illegal-motion penalties. No clips. No personal-foul penalties. Someone might want to make it known to these Buccaneers that when I presented their alumnus, Lee Roy Selmon, for possible election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Canton, I was able to declare that he was never penalized for personal foul in his long career. Never. He said he saw an official reach to throw the flag on him, but who changed his mind. 

Gruden’s problems — pleasant ones — include a decision to keep one or two of his veteran quarterbacks, Jeff Garcia or Luke McCown. Guys seem to be so similar only a coach could make such a call. Bet Brian Griese is kept and we all hope Chris Simms is, too. Such a talent (6-4, 220, and like Griese, with the family genes). Griese, by the way, is on a roll. Both like it here. So do their NFL alumni dads.

A question. Will a solid trade possibility for Griese or Simms be a consideration? Simms missed a year because of a flattened spleen. He’s okay, now. I suppose the popular answer, if all stay healthy, would be to keep Griese or McCown, Simms and Garcia. I suppose. Eh?

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