Forum: Talk Sports

Hard to imagine what St. Petersburg and Pinellas County would have been without Chuck Rainey. The short man in size but always so big in ambition was at the center of most St. Pete/Pinellas pursuits in business, tourism, politics and sports. He is out of it now, retired from all those competitions, which he relished. He is at this moment in the knee-fixing part of Tampa General readying for work to substitute new limbs.

Monsignor Lawrence Higgins and I visited our old crony at TGH Tuesday. It was fun. He had a peach of a room, one deserved by Pinellas County Commissioner of nearly 30 years, including nine terms as chairman. Big, roomy and overlooking a beautiful scene in Tampa - Bayshore Boulevard.

That same Tampa that was for so long adversarial in competition with St. Pete and Pinellas for big deals in sports. Tampa/Hillsborough got most—the NFL Buccaneers, the hockey Lightning, the old soccer Rowdies, the University of South Florida programs—but Rainey and his St. Pete/Piney land got a jackpot in the big league baseball Rays, on the verge of a World Series spot.

A World Series in St. Pete, in the Dome, why not?

Do that and all those hands across the Bay will be so worth while. Worthwhile? How about great, wonderful, particularly for this bum-legged politico who fought every fight. He did not win all the scraps, but WE, the Tampa Bay area did. The Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater,
Wauchula area did. Some in the groups wanted one sport, one arena, one playing place more than the others. But, in summary, this great place in which we live wanted them all.

Rainey went through the sports, and their sites prepared one by one. His 76-year-old memory is good, not uncommon among folks who live long. Then old days are not problems, the recent ones, sometimes. 

He ticked them off—the football, which he acknowledged may be in the proper place after all. The hockey, felt could have gone either way, in St. Pete or here, remembering the giant crowd the Lightning drew in a season at Tropicana Field.

But. He added, building the Arena, named for the St. Petersburg Times newspaper while in the heart of Downtown Tampa, got the hockey, not mentioning that the man behind it all was Tampa move-down Phil Esposito.

Then, came the baseball, which went to St. Pete because of the Tropicana Dome, now the sport’s home, like it or not. I do.  Fix it up, I say. Make it better. Make it as the Rays may soon want it—more baseballey.

“I am just glad I have stuck around too see it all happen,’’ to help make it happen, sir. Rainey caused discussion, competition, got things done, as did his advocacy.

Chuck Rainey is no tourist, no late arriving expert.  He’s been here, done that. He’s been there and done that and, he’s ours. His single dad moved to St. Petersburg in 1944, from Cleveland, a favorite departure city for so many of our contributors.  His dad, a financial man, sent Chuck to the Florida Military Academy, predecessor to the Stetson Campus. Rainey to the University of Florida, into his dad’s financial field, and into politics.  Gov. Claude Kirk named him to the Pinellas County, gave him a purpose, gave him a future. 

Now, whatever Chuck Rainey may or may not have done, he served and served, for nearly 30 years, made constituents and everybody else happy and unhappy, doing exactly what this bulldog of a man thought ought to be done. 

So, Chuck, here you are, all these years later, all these battles later, with the Rays about to play in the baseball semifinals, perhaps in the World Series in your beloved St. Pete, but you may have to watch it on television from Tampa General.

“I know, I know,’’ looking at his bum leg.

“Who cares?” He said. “We are all winners.”

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Not exactly a hurrah weekend for the Tampa Bay sports professionals, from Prague to Chicago to Denver.

The hockey Lightning, under a new ownership, coach, and a lineup stacked with newcomers of considerable credentials, the youthful and easy-to-support baseball Rays and the ready-for-changes football Bucs all got their straps handed to them worldwide.

The Lightning lost to the New York Rangers in Prague, the Rays dropped one to the White Sox in Chicago and the Buccaneers lost a grinder to the slightly tougher Broncos in Denver, 16-13. Sure each Tampa area team should have won. Sure. At home, they would have.

So, what now? 

Redemption, of course, and quickly. 

The Rays have another shot to wrap up the American division playoff best of five series against Chicago today in Comiskey Park.  If Chicago loses to the Rays today it’s over and the Rays return and get ready for either Boston or Anaheim, but if they lose they come back to Tampa Bay for the pivotal game.

The Lightning will end their European goodwill hockey adventure and return to their Channelside home-Dome here. The Bucs, well, they can return to One Buc and Raymond James with a special opportunity for their football redemption. The opponent? The undefeated North Carolina club that trounced the Chicago Bears 34-0. Yes, the Bears. Yes, 34-0.

The Carolinians did what they did while the Bucs lost, barely, but still lost, to a good Denver team. The Bucs lost to Denver because their offensive line could not block the Bronco defensive linemen. Those big guys sacked Tampa quarterback Brian Griese like he’d not experienced here as a Buccaneer—four times. He was hurried and harassed, and chased like a felon fleeing in a stripped suit. He was eventually knocked so silly that he had to exit the game. If there is an upside of this development, it got former starting quarterback Jeff Garcia into the game and he did well. He took the Bucs to a touchdown on a pass he threw to Ike Hilliard close the final score 16-13 .

It has always been close, this quarterback competition on the Bucs. Last year, it was Garcia, a cool one who can move about a bit if he must, and he took the team to the playoffs. Coach Jon Gruden has had a time with this position (who hasn’t?), but this injury of Griese may well make the decision for him.

This is not just redemption time for the mighty Bucs but opportunity time. Tough as Carolina may be, Tampa is familiar with the team, plays them twice yearly, and usually well.  There is no fear there, no awe.

Also, the Bucs truly could have been moving into a place for a surge, good word to use these days. The Bucs are still 3-2. A win Sunday would have pushed them to 4-1. And check the way the rest of the schedule unfolds.

The Bucs have the Carolinians at friendly RJS and before a Bucko crowd. Then, Seattle, no powerhouse, comes to Tampa. The Bucs then hit the road, to Dallas and Kansas. Dallas is living on memories. Kansas City has bad problems. The Bucs then have a bye and Minnesota here, Detroit there, and New Orleans here. Guarantee you know that, realizing the games will come one at a time.

Certainly, the Bucs’ result Sunday at Denver and we all want Griese to fit back in, then suit up and get on with his work for the Buccaneers.

He’s got to get his retribution against the Broncos who knocked him about on Sunday, a mile high out here.

Or, take it out on whomever he will next play, while assuring victory on the scoreboard, not just retribution.

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While presenting the Gators slow-developing, wide-margin (38-7) Florida smack-down of Arkansas from Fayetteville, Saturday, ABC and ESPN had asked if viewers thought the Gators could win the national championship despite the loss a week ago to Mississippi.

The result was 93% of those interested in replying said no, the television reporters said.  There are a couple of considerations. One, most Gators would, and others as well, would assume the proposition included assumption Florida would lose no more regular season games. Remember, a week ago after the Mississippi game, oldtime Gator alumni were already reviving their old battle cry, “wait’ll next year!’’ And two, it’s simply too early. Few conclusions can be made on the Florida college football teams yet, they are good and they are still in every title chase in which they are involved.

In truth, Florida fans, and especially alumni roll, lead the world in pessimists.

Florida is indeed going to be okay. In football, college and pro, unbeaten streaks of any length are so hard to achieve. The pros will kill for two, cash them in for four. The bigtime college boosters want almost as much. But, the Gators likely will not go undefeated from here on in. Look at those Southeastern Conference opponents ahead for the Gators. 

Also still on track, despite their single setbacks, are Florida State and the University of South Florida Bulls, who surely should not have lost Thursday night to Pittsburgh before such a great hometown crowd they lured Thursday night to Raymond James Stadium.

The Gators are going to be fine. The Bulls are going to be fine, if they put the Pitt game behind them, as Coach Jim Leavitt is assuring them this weekend to do. And, Florida State clearly better and certainly tougher than expected, will be fine as well. That wondrous win over Miami in a hurricane band at Dolphins Stadium should prove their worth to themselves and to their boosters.

Those Seminoles, and those who led them so effectively Saturday in Miami, get an A-plus from us all for their guts, their stamina, and their resourcefulness. My, what they experienced in one great win, a victory, an achievement of a career. Their quarterback, Christian Ponder, was a marvel.  He passed well. He ran as he had to, swiftly and productively, in and out and around.  Anyone with a Seminole drum would be beating it now. But, I think Ponder’s third down-play calling and execution was sterling. If he made a mistake on one play, he made up for it on the next.

The Seminole defense, despite the Miami final total of 39 points was as good as it had to be. The protection of Ponder in the pocket was praiseworthy. The punting was as good as it had to be, the place-kicking accurate, the kickoffs deep.

Miami, well, the Hurricanes need most to hang in there. There is nothing new about this kind of a game, or this kind of a result in such a rainstorm. It does not rain any harder, or any longer in Miami than it does in Tallahassee or Tampa.  And, the weather did not affect the outcome.

It was a wonderful college football game, one which Seminole young Robert Marve of Tampa did fine. Think about it. Breaking in, as he did as a rookie, against the Noles, in a storm. The game would have been a storm enough. Has solid career ahead of him.

As do the ‘Canes, the ‘Noles, the Gators, and the Bulls.

Only nervous ones now should be those teams who must face these Florida studnicks.

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None of this just happened, just as in recently - just as in simply.

And “this”, meant here, refers to the big-league Rays being the product of Tampa Bay, a product of which those hereabouts surely are getting prouder.

Remember, the Rays are relative newcomers to the upper echelon of major league baseball. Oh, some among us have been around the majors forever, it seems, and St. Pete and Tampa Bay as long as any place, but the Rays are in the hunt for it all, and with a shot at it with a class team and club, all the better. And, at the moment, the Rays are one win into the playoffs and 1-0 in the American League five-game playoffs at Tropicana Field against the major-league-pioneering Chicago White Sox.

Yet, even as the White Sox and Rays are locked in a contest along the road each hopes will lead to the World Series, the place in which they are competing still gets rapped — Tropicana Field, a big old round tilted concrete dome that was built for everything and nothing. It fills both needs. It’s okay. It’s okay. If it hadn’t been there the Rays would not be here. It is indoors: baseball simply in Florida simply must have that option. Tampa built Raymond James Stadium for the Bucs and the Times Forum on Channelside for hockey and other big-time events.

Years ago, Tampa Stadium became home to the U. of Tampa Spartans, the Bucs, the Bandits, the Rowdies and all manner of college bowl games, as well as a fourth Super Bowl next Feb. 1. Tampa deferred to St. Pete’s efforts with Tropicana Field and look what that has meant to that city. Now St. Pete is looking into a new baseball stadium — covered, of course — perhaps closer to the great growth on the east side of the real Tampa Bay. But these seem not to be the best of financial times for such ventures, some say. Sports seem so far immune to the sagging economic trends around us, so far.

But, major league baseball was not knocking on our door. We knocked theirs first. We did our work - we had to. They liked it. They knew about it. Spring training and Florida had been a fit for years.

“In 1982, well, that was the first time we got going,” said Jim Cusack, good progressive citizen, former FBI agent here, and among the official posse trying to find a baseball franchise. Among those on that franchise-pursuing team were Frank Morsani, treasurer and auto agencies owner, Bob Humphries, Jack Boggs, promoter Mark Ganis (still at it but in Chicago) and plenty more of ideas and influence.

“We made the move for Washington,” said Cusack. “Bought some stock. Went to Washington and met with Bowie Kuhn, baseball commissioner. He was against it and told us to sell our stock back to Gabriel Murphy. You (me) were there. You wrote about it.”

The Tampa Bay group would get the next available franchise, by purchase or expansion.

“In 1984, we began dealing with Eddie Chiles,” said Cusack. “We went (me too) to Texas and met with Mr. Chiles. We gave him a check. We bought that team. Then, George Bush - whose dad was then the U.S. President, and I think he was the governor - opposed that. We came home, thought we had the team.

“Chiles changed his mind, or, had it changed. We went for Oakland, thought we were getting somewhere, but, had to fight city hall. Hate to say that, but it was so.”

Morsani sued baseball through attorney Tony Cunningham and eventually won some money, but, still had no team, nor did his associates. Cusack and others were not included in the suit.

Much changing has been done since those futile times, including the Rays arriving and now firmly one of ours.

Would they have done better at a new stadium elsewhere in St. Pete, or along Channelside on that big stretch of city property near the port? Will they do better than they have in these recent weeks at Tropicana Field? Been winning and selling out, and Thursday hit a new plateau with an opening win over the White Sox in the playoffs before another sellout crowd. They look pretty snug these days in that Dome, despite its location and wild inside roof interferences.

Bet it would dress up nicely for World Series games.

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Jesse Palmer has a thing or two going for him.

He’s tall, young and dark-haired. He’s a television talent who is a bachelor and a lead in the reality show named “The Bachelor.”

He’s a college football analyst for ESPN in Bristol, Conn., and works pre-game and post-game shows on ESPN and ESPN Radio.

He’s a former Florida Gator quarterback (1998-2000, 27 games, fourth all-time in passing efficiency) where he played for and learned from Coach Steve Spurrier) and his marvelous recall ability allows him to recount virtually every play he wants to, or must).

He’s a Canadian who learned his football up there, “outside my igloo, on the tundra”, had a film shot of his talents, and sent it to the Gators, who suggested a visit. He went to an LSU game, loved it, and when Florida offered him a shot, he rushed to accept, sharing work with Doug Johnson.

He played with the New York Giants for a time, then found openings in television acting and commentating. He is good at what he does, as he was detailed and self-critical humorously in introducing himself at the annual Outback Deloitte Kickoff Luncheon. Nearly 1,000 were on hand at the A La Carte Pavilion for the function which bowl executive Jim McVay and the Outback people produced, with Palmer as the star and Channel 13’s Chip Carter as the emcee.

Palmer has an admirable - even enviable - memory. He is funny enough, qualified enough and experienced enough in his sport and his craft to invoke trust. He said just about what the audience wanted him to say. None there could leave dismayed.

He talked college football throughout, for that is his main game.

Sure, Florida had the shots to beat Mississippi, but misfired or fired blanks at close range. Sure Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was off, but, wasn’t the rest of the Gators, even the sidelines, in the last minutes? They may have thought Johnny Reb wouldn’t be that tough. But, Palmer said, that is the way this season is going to be: upsets, upsets, upsets, as with Southern California and Georgia going down. But, they’ll be back, and others will fall.

“Vanderbilt is tired of Georgia and Florida players going on the field assured they are better,” said Palmer. “They are saying you are not and they aim to prove it. Vanderbilt is 4-0,” as is Kentucky, someone popped up, “and I think they are for real. Only in some of the conferences out west,” are there a lot of undefeated teams and that is because they have not started conference play.”

Palmer said Alabama may be the toughest team he’s seen, offense and defense, and Auburn may be the fastest. He declared the SEC East the best small unit of teams. But, he has no idea how good, or bad, Tennessee is.

Palmer dwelled on the University of South Florida, saying they are fun to watch, noting quarterback Mark Goethe is underrated, along with the team. The Bulls are undefeated. They have Pittsburgh tomorrow at Raymond James. Win it and the Bulls may be on their way to the best yet.

Palmer made it clear he’s living a life little expected when he was in Iglootown. And he was totally accepted by this city in which he will work events this busy, busy sports time in Tampa Bay.

The women in the audience cheered his acknowledgement of his role in “The Bachelor”, and the men when he mentioned working with 20-something women. Both cheered when he talked college football, obviously a favorite of that audience.

In the end, the former Gator quarterback passed four autographed footballs to the audience. One was intercepted by a hanging banner. Tampa, home of the Bucs, knows about interceptions.

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Bucs coach Jon Gruden called it a classic National Football League game - to which I add, it ended about the way it should have, Tampa the winner by 30-21. Indeed, it might have been better had it ended 23-21, the final score a bullish one-yard Earnest Graham bust for the final touchdown with 1:56 minutes left. 23-21 would tell the world, or those who care, that the Bucs were just barely better than Green Bay, but better.

And, the Bucs in this one had the crowd, the home field, a tad more of the breaks, in Brian Griese a better quarterback but who is not All-NFL, and the wonderful advantage of the weather, just as Green Bay used to have when it was a home-and-home deal and the Buckos would still have to go to the frozen tundra for a return game. No more. There’ll be no more regular-season Packers for a while (three years, probably), no more snow games. Yet, the temperature was, officially, only 81 at kickoff, but the humidity, well, that’s different.

Was the heat a factor? Green Bay will say it was. The Bucs can ask, Who cares? Green Bay favored the Buc franchise idea 100 per cent. The Pack family wanted to come to Tampa, and now they have again.

Now, I’m not sure the game Sunday was a classic. But what it was, was hard-nosed football, and the only results that will matter down the line today and tomorrow and forever, for Bucdom, are that it was a W and the Bucs got more smash-mouth experience against some champs at smash-mouthing, and at coming from behind to win, twice, and at giving quarterback Brian Griese time to work (he was not sacked) and receivers time to free up a tad.

It gave these Bucs some confidence, a continued lead in their decision, and big-time game experience. Coach Gruden also pointed out the workmanlike game of ups and downs, and back and forths, and of thrills enough to give “our loyal fans something to cheer about.” They had that, and they did that. They also grumbled and squirmed when the Bucs blew a 20-7 lead, then a 20-14 lead before the 30-21 final tally.

It is clear these Buccaneers are a work in progress. But, there is progress and the record is 3-1, “the wins over the Chicago Bears up there and then the Packers here,” said Gruden proudly. Don’t forget, he said, to give the defense out there some credit, especially Derrick Brooks. It could now be declared Derrick Brooks Day Sunday, in celebration and a reminder of the Brooks work in the Green Bay game.

Gruden said they might want to erect a statue, “or a whole line of them out here for him,” the linebacker out of Florida State. Brooks was a menace. He played against the Pack despite wounds. Green Bay better hope he doesn’t get them again before he waits for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Once Sunday Brooks slammed into running back Ryan Grant so effectively his helmet forced the ball to be freed so Brooks’ teammate Jermaine Phillips could pick the ball off the Raymond James perfect turf and take it 38 yards unmolested to the north end zone to advance the Buc lead temporarily to 20-7.

This Packer game was one of two totally different halves. The Bucs led 13-7 after a dull first two periods, with two Matt Bryant field goals of 23 and 36 yards and a Griese pass of 8 yards to tight end Alex Smith the point-makers, followed by a Buc lead passed, then a Tampa resurgence winning it with another Bryant field goal and an Ernest Graham 24 yard run to the 2 and his TD run.

Graham had a fine day, and teamed with Warrick Dunn to gain nearly 200 yards. They were the workhorses carrying the football. Each would run, make or lose a yard or two, then bust it (Graham) or dance (Dunn) for more. They did that all afternoon, but best in the second half, as the Pack may have wearied, and the Bucs been revved. Gruden liked their work, and so did the crowd Gruden lauded. The spirit of the crowd may well have lifted Matt Bryant to kick three field goals, the last of special pressure for Green Bay had a 21-20 lead with only 2:26 left. He had to kick it and he did. He had a three field goal afternoon, and hit on two extra points.

He kicked Sunday though his infant son died this week. Coach Gruden gave him an option - your choice, do or don’t. After the game Gruden said it may have been the right medicine, to play and to win and to do what he does and will do.

So, the mighty Bucs, as the late Coach John McKay liked to call them, are 3-1 and not many teams are. And, Bucs are in the hunt still. Not all would have suggested this might be so. But, by golly it is, and Brian Griese, and Dunn, Graham, the ageless Brooks, the gallant Bryant, and all of those who have played this game for all of you out there, are a bit better than they were just no-time ago.

Are they contenders? All teams with less wins will say sure. Do they need to get better? Of course, and they will, without crippling injuries. Need to improve where, specifically? Depth up front on both sides and in the secondary. The Pack completed too many long passes. Work is on the pass rush. Griese? He’s your man.

There is trouble just ahead. The Bucs are off now for Denver, then home for Carolina and Seattle, on NBC. Tough, but these are the Bucolas.

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It has been a long time. And, these Florida Gators of today might lose to the University of Mississippi Rebels in Oxford, even Jackson, but never again at their own, new, loud as it can be house. Not in their spruced up Swamp.

And this year Ole Miss didn’t seem to have much in football, politics, yes, as they played host to the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama Friday night, but football. . . well, not enough to upset the No. 4 Florida team of such great speed on their own campus in Gainesville.

Nah, the Rebels were a little too hokey, and had a coach with the surname of Nutt. The crowd of almost 100,000 in that orange trap, on ESPN with a Heisman Trophy candidate named Tim Tebow and a roster full of fast receivers, featuring Brandon James, most from the football gold mines of Florida would be too much.  And oh, don’t forget Florida recruited Rebel quarterback Jevan Snead before Tebow, but Snead chose Texas, then Ole Miss, for whom he had an All-American day Saturday against the Gators.

So, with all that on the Gator side, plus the wonderful football setting of The Swamp, I would’ve never thought, until the last seconds when time ran out in a team outscrapped, by the barest of margins, oh, say a point on the game’s final minutes, that these Gators might have fallen.

But, it was that kind of a game, that 31-30 outcome ending when the right side line was not knocked down but high stepped, as a Rebel defender got a big hand up on a long arm and swatted the Florida place kick away.

Ole Miss has got to get the kid a special trophy of his raised hand that blocked the point that would send the dramatic game into overtime.

In truth, overtime would have been judicious. Remember now, the lead in this one changed repeatedly. Both teams led repeatedly. Both teams had good breaks and both had bummers. Both had stunning plays, mostly on offense and special teams, though the field goal block cannot be topped, for drama and execution. Tebow surely will remain in the Heisman race, and Snead surely is in it now. He called the plays well, and he made so many of them work, an 85-yard outcome deciding touchdown pass in the fourth period will haunt Florida’s Major Wright forever, and make Ole Miss highlight films the same length of time.

Turnovers, surely they contributed to both sides. Florida got the worse of that but some of them, as always, were self-inflicted. Penalties, went both ways. It was not a pussycat game. And Mississippi appeared to be bigger up front, both ways. Ole Miss on offense opened more and bigger holes. That was a surprise.

Arkansas is next for Florida. 

The Gators need a better running game, aside from QB Tebow and Harvin, though Percy Harvin is a whizbang with the ball, and Tebow, well, all that big guy does when he keeps the ball is run over people. Near the goal line, he’s the go-to guy. The Gators need help up front, both sides, but who doesn’t.

The schedule gets no easier, but then it never does.

And, as I was going to suggest, unless you think it is premature. . .Wait ‘til December. 

Think on this.  Ole Miss is in the west division of Florida’s Southeastern Conference. The Gators are in the east. In time, the champs of the east and west will meet in Atlanta for the SEC title game.

But I remind you all out there, in this case, you may not have to Wait ‘til December, Johnny Reb.

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The economy is in the tank, temporarily, we all hope and say, but big deal sports are thriving here in Tampa Bay. Blue sky days seem surely to be ahead for this great place in which we live.

“Those involved were smart to work these deals out, and now, we can say we are dang lucky to have these special attractions that the bad economy isn’t likely to affect,” said Paul Catoe, who heads that convention and tourist agency that has a couple of new names.

Hey, we got the Super Bowl coming in February, with Reid Sigmon again in charge. He updated his committee on progress this week. He didn’t have to say that even though the economy is unrecovered, the drama, interest, public relations boost won’t be diminished. Remember, the Super Bowl was here in 1991 when the first Gulf War began. An annual NFL Friday night party was cancelled but the NFL substituted an exhibition of league memoirs, artifacts and other exhibits south of Tampa Stadium on game day and Jim Steeg’s idea now is annual and has become a marvelous circus time.

Also, while black helicopters circled the stadium and security was beefed up with Ray-Jay entry searches, that game is remembered for the National Anthem rendition of Whitney Houston and the makeable wide right north field goal try that Buffalo’s Scott Norwood missed to hand the win to the New York Giants, 20-19. Norwood ran off the field and probably is still running. Giants owner Wellington Mara went to his grave grateful to him and was always pro-Tampa in voting for Super Bowls, including the one upcoming. There were no security problems at all.

“But,” noted Leonard Levy, a member of all the committees still, “the Super Bowl coming will be sensational and packed. It has a corporate base, this event. And, it is one of many just ahead.”

Beginning almost immediately are the eagerly-awaited, first time here, baseball playoffs featuring the sports surprise of the year, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are a fine, complete team. They could go all the way, with home games at Tropicana Field in St. Pete. The Rays have been packing them in and will continue to do that.

Now, folks, think of that awfully long possibility of a Super Bowl at Raymond James and a World Series at the Trop and the annual college Outback Bowl, which has become a big-time postseason game. Dreaming? The Rays have a dream team managed expertly by Joe Maddon. The Bucs, well, they are but just beginning their impossible dream, trying to repeat the 2002 Super Bowl championship season no one could have predicted.

So, now that we have mentioned the World Series and Super Bowl dreams, the Tampa Bay Lightning have already begun the quest for another Stanley Cup, heading soon for Prague wih the New York Rangers for two game, then returning to their St. Pete Times home base the next week for their long regular season of games Tampa fans seem to have embraced.

The team is hopeful. Got a cache of new players but a cadre of those embraced here as Tampa stars, like Captain Vinny Lecavalier, darter Marty St. Louis, the wise Vinny Prospal and the experienced Chris Gratton, and somewhat lame Paul Ranger. New shooter Steve Stamkos got preseason raves. Barry Melrose is the new head coach, an outgoing television personality recently but former a fine player and solid coach. He’s a tough-guy coach, he says. The Lightning should do well on the ice and at the gate. Fine organization with a new, outgoing, ambitious owner who has bought a home within minutes of the arena.

That’s the professional lineup ahead. The undefeated colleges in this early going are the University of South Florida Bulls, at North Carolina State for the weekend, and Florida Gators, hosting Mississippi in Gainesville. Both are 3-0 and should be 4-0 by Sunday. Florida State hasn’t yet found an offense, but will. Miami will continue to improve with quarterback Robert Marve of Tampa soon to become a star.

But, that’s not nearly all of the sports biggies ahead here.

The Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game, Catoe tells all, is scheduled for Tampa Stadium — FSU is in the ACC — and the Southeastern Conference basketball championship tournament is booked for the Forum in March.

OK, that’s enough for now. We have our hands full, first off with the Rays and their playoffs, then the World Series, and the Outback Bowl which Jim McVay runs, then the Buccaneers and their longshot quest of being the first NFL team ever to win its way to a place in a Super Bowl in their own house.

Now, it’s not like we haven’t pursued an impossible dream before. The Bucs at San Diego in 2002 and an unpredicted 48-21 victory there over Oakland, a national collegiate championship at Florida in 2006. and these stunning, slick Rays of manager Joe Maddon today.

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University of South Florida head football coach (and so happy to be that) Jim Leavitt has a barrel of good characteristics, and - some believe - a couple downsiders that seem to go with the job. He says his solid Bulls will have all they can handle this week at North Carolina State, despite being rated by the betting line as an eight and a half-point favorite.

The game’s up in Raleigh and it’s at night and the Wolfpack have a solid team, he said, with this qualifier: “But I don’t mind playing them there. They’ll give us all we want, but, should we be favored? Yeah. Play like we should, and we can win. Fumble around and they’ll get the crowd going and they’ll come out of the bushes,” Leavitt said, speaking his mind. He’ll do that.

“What I don’t want to do is go back down south and have to play a team like Florida International,” which the Bulls beat, but not with any ease. “It is tough, just tough, to convince your kids they got a chance to get beat at a place like that against a team like that. I’m sure some coaches of teams of bigger reputations than ours have the same problem getting ready to play us. But, now, we are into it, the meat of this schedule. Oh, I mean I know beating Kansas (37-34) was a clutch thing and a big thing, but, we did it and it’s in the books.”

No. N.C. State is not Florida State, not North Carolina, but “Those guys can get you,” Leavitt said, grinning. He finally got to grinning. Tough man, Leavitt. Can grimace, can bluster, can rant on the sidelines with the best of them. But, he can surely grin well, and laugh and cheer and throw his cap in the air with the highest throwers.

Leavitt’s Bulls, quarterbacked by Lakelander Matt Grothe, are good and getting better with each game. They are physical, ambitious and know how to win. Grothe is versatile. He can tuck it and run. Has some receivers. Could probably use a bruising back, but who couldn’t? Grothe is an all-star candidate, and is being pushed now into the race for the Heisman Trophy, the one the quarterback with the Gators has in his place after last year.

A win for the Leavittmen this weekend and they can return to Tampa for two straight against two big-name teams, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. A win and a 4-0 record will get them a strong national ranking, recruiting points and, best of all, a possible sellout of Raymond James Stadium (like the mighty Bucs), their Tampa home and one the Bulls nearly filled for the Kansas game. After Pitt and Syracuse the Bulls go to Louisville and Cincinnati, before RJS here for Rutgers and Connecticut and the finale at West Virginia. Too early to project, I guess, but wildly loyal USFers could dream that that last game could be very important.

Much in these dramatic weekends directly ahead lies with Leavitt strategies (and those of defensive man Wally Burnham and the other coaching associates), but so much also hangs on the good health and wise and gritty play of quarterback Grothe.

Why, if these football Bulls get down to those opportunities, and all they could mean in money to raise, fan base to grow, students to thrill and national attention aroused, somewhere, all of those who originally opposed the sport might form a Bulls alumni club.

A warning: Don’t be around Jim Leavitt if such a dream came true. He could hurt you and not want to.

In the movies, after such a dreamy story, would come the disclaimer that all of the above is fictional and any similarity with real folks is coincidental, to which I add, and intentional.

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Chicago Bears fans had to leave shuffling out of their neat, new stadium mumbling the woulda, coulda, shoulda lines.

Buccaneer fans everywhere, including the few at Soldier Field, screamed their woulda, coulda, thank gosh, we dida lines.

It was that kind of a game that would not give people a kitchen or bathroom break, the second straight Tampa Bay Buccaneer Sunday squirmer, a 27-24 outlasting of the Chicago Bears in their own den.

Surely Tampa quarterback Brian Griese, dumped by the Bears before coming back home to Florida may have been tempted to have shot the place a bird from the exit tunnel, but, his dad would have taught him to settle for the win alone.  The elder, Bob, who played a bit in the NFL as well, would shake his no-no finger at him, his 407 yard, two touchdown victory in their old house would be enough.

But, those numbers did not tell the whole story of young Griese in Chicago on Sunday.  He quarterbacked every second of the ecstatic win. He again brought the Bucs back from the edge of adversity, but, beyond that, when Chicago’s quarterback, Kyle Orton, playing better than he can, took the Bears out front with time running out, the wise and gifted took these Bucs of Tampa Bay the length of the field and into a position for reliable Matt Bryant to kick a 21-yard field goal from directly in front of the uprights. Bryant is on a roll, likes being on the spot. He would have kicked it from the parking lot.

Now Griese can throw passes high, low, behind and otherwise out of reach of receivers (and did just that at Chicago, but, usually on first down, not third) but he’s just doggone good and he got better at Chicago.  He likes being a Buccaneer. He likes his receivers, maybe his tight ends best, or maybe he sees them easier. And he surely likes Antonio Bryant, Ike Hilliard and Michael Clayton, if he can stay healthy and catch the ball.

Griese had to throw swell Sunday. The Bear defense virtually took away Warrick Dunn, except for a couple of pass receptions, and Earnest Graham. The Bucs had little ground game. But, Griese’s passing and the catching made up for that. 

Can’t win without a running game? Phooey.

How good is Chicago?  Well, about like the Bucs.

In the division, the Bears will beat people, surely. They are good enough for that.

Defense alone will keep them in it and their quarterback, Orton, is doing fine. But, surely Buc fans are delighted if Orton made Griese available. If he can control the occasional throws to nowhere, this team, early as it is, has a shot.  The schedule is playable. Green Bay is here Sunday. Don’t have to go up there any more and beg the Heavens for no snow. 

So then, how good are the Bucs?

They’re okay and they have a chance.

I like the starting quarterback Gruden chose, like his backups.  Like his running backs, but maybe could use a bruiser—maybe. Maybe Graham can do it.

They need a couple more offensive linemen, but who doesn’t?

I like the defensive back so far, certainly more than last year. Like the special teams, as long as Dexter Jackson is healthy. Like the improving linebackers, though a healthy, full-speed All-World Derrick Brooks, is surely missed. And the kicking game is solid with PK man Bryant and often forgotten, but vital, Josh Bidwell. 

So, so, far, well, around the NFL, the Bucs are, as usual, overlooked. 

But, who cares?

Right now the baseball Rays are the hot ticket, the hot item, the headline makers. They deserve it. 

Think how long it was before the Buccos deserved it, but, they did eventually.

Ain’t it a blessing?

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Tennessee won the pre-game coin toss at Knoxville and that was about it for the thousands of Volunteer fans who came out to see their team prove they were not quitters, as a mouthy Florida Gator said they were a year ago.

Of course the Vols didn’t quit a year ago, or Saturday, though the Gators handled these latest Vols about as handily this time. The final was 30-6 for the Tim Tebow-led Gators, compared to 59-20 in Gainesville. This year, however, this Tennessee team could not have won if the game were still going on. This Vol club doesn’t seem to be as physical, nor as fast, and the new quarterback, well, he’s new, and he was hounded all of the nightmarish day by a Florida defensive line that hustled all afternoon.

TV announcer Gary Danielson kept reminding all that after being beaten soundly a year ago by Florida, the Vols turned it around for a fine season. Good.  Hope they can do it again and I hope Coach Phil Fulmer can too. He’s such a fine man, but he can’t beat the Gators.  Steve Spurrier beat him six times out of six, when Spurrier was the Florida coach (and might beat him again this year for South Carolina). And now, Urban Meyer has beaten Fulmer four times. 

This Tennessee team seems not to have the speed of those of the past on both sides of the ball, and boy, does the quarterback have a long way to go. Every now and then, Tennessee would show speed and muscle but not often enough.

And, where is there a better place to present a team to all that grand old Neyland Stadium will hold? So, it is now clear these Volunteers of Fulmer, such a friend of the Outback Bowl here, will get better and will be in a bowl game. The team is simply not what it has been.

They made too many errors against the Gators, who made too few. They don’t have a quarterback of the abilities and know-how of Tebow. Don’t have the team and individual speed of the Gators. If the Gators and Vols held a foot race among four of the fastest on each side, the Gators just might finish one-through four.

And, no, quarterback Tebow is surely not among them.

But, Tebow may be as tough as any Gator, though he’s not the kind to call any players on any team quitters, as a teammate did—but, count on it—won’t again. 

Notice that in the repeated showdown situations how the quarterback called his own number for the most difficult, the toughest situations, almost all the three and short situations, he’d go straight-ahead, or straight-ahead and just before the scrimmage line flip it over the line to a tight end?  He’s a weapon.

So are others. None is more of a threat each time he gets the ball than Brandon James, the punt returner that burned the Volunteers for a touchdown.

Okay, we have concluded this is a decent Tennessee team Philip Fulmer has but certainly a vulnerable one. We have concluded it will be a bowl team if its vast numbers of followers can stick with it to a bowl game in the sunshine, or, a fun city somewhere.

So how about the 3-0 Gators?

Not bad, not bad. Surely, they are now very much in the Southeastern Conference championship race and in the big bowl pool.

Bear Bryant used to say, “Awe shoot, you can get anybody ready to play Auburn, or Notre Dame, but, beat a big one (like Tennessee) and then try to get them ready at Mississippi State or Mississippi at Oxford, well, that ain’t as easy.”

The Gators are a bit better than some of us thought.

Tennessee at Tennessee before 95,000 is a load anytime.

But, looks like the Gators got more fast people than some of us thought, may have a bigger and better offensive line and a strong defensive front and secondary and a solid kicking game all around.

These Gators may be the best in a while. They are now off to that kind of start, with Tennessee a W.

Could be a fun time for the Gators… again.

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Bubba Huerta was talking to Lee Kynes, Richard Gonzmart and myself at Columbia restaurant Thursday about his late dad’s (Marelino) days as a head football coach at the University of Tampa (1952-1962) and other stops along his gridiron experience. Bubba mentioned a moose of a player from Plant City named Fred Cason. I asked for a Cason story he most remembered.

“Well, it wasn’t about what he did, but what he did not do,” said Bubba said, a solid Tampa citizen. Kynes is a bright young lawyer with the Ben Hill firm, grandson of Jim, son of Jimbo. Gonzmart owns the Columbia and 25 Sheppard show dogs, one with a gold crown over a once-abscessed tooth. Gonzmart’s special interests have always been what you might expect.

The bullish Cason, a heckuva player, had the flu and was a very sick dog. Coach Huerta, his son said, forgot to report it. But, the resourceful Chelo got the tuba player out of the band before the game, put him in Cason’s uniform, and sat him on the bench the whole game. It worked. The opponent worried so much about when “Cason” was going in, Tampa got ahead and stayed there, winning the game.

Cason did, however, contribute in more practical ways to wins, said Chelo’s son.

And yes, that I remember, too, said Chelo when I recalled when Charlie McCullers dropped a Tennessee kickoff in the end zone, kicked it a bit forward trying to pick it up, then finally got it when the first wave of rushers was past him He broke to the sidelines, “and I think went for a touchdown of 100 yards,” and later, Coach Chelo Huerta said, “When he went by me, I could see the headline in LaGaceta (the Spanish newspaper based in Ybor City) screaming, “Chelo Huerta, Coach of the Year!”

Tennesseee won the game something like 60-6. But, for one brief shining moment…

In truth, Chelo Huerta was right for the University of Tampa job. He built a big fan base. He won. He was always a story.

For a while, his office was on a barge on the Hillsborough River in front of the University of Tampa. It was nice, pleasing for recruits. Not many football offices are/were on rivers, and it had a dart game for potential Spartans to play while waiting to meet Coach Chelo, a charmer.

The first time I saw the board, Chelo was throwing darts at it from his desk. He was pretty good. But, that day, Paul Straub came in the front door and was standing by the board. Two possible recruits were sitting with him. He hit the board a couple of times, then threw two darts particularly hard that hit Coach Straub in the leg and stuck. The kids winched. Straub reached down and pulled the darts out without winching.

“Got to be tough at Tampa,” he said.

He had one wooden leg, lost in World War II. The recruits were told later but signed, Chelo said.

Chelo would go on to head coach at Parsons College and Wichita, where he played a heavily-favored Frank Kush Arizona State team. Huerta head coached 104 wins and was extraordinarily popular at all of his stops, none more than here in Tampa where he returned to head the MacDonald Training Center. To the end Chelo, worked with young people, so many of special needs. But I know of nothing that gave him more pride than being in the uniform of the United States Air Force as a pilot for his country, with coaching a close second.

“You got it,” said his son.

“Two pretty lofty goals,” said young Kynes, he of that family in kinship with the Huertas.

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That field of dreams on which some 30,000 looked and embraced it was so many times denied us all, so often a deal dead. Tampa Bay has always wanted big-time baseball beyond the appetizers of spring, and was so long and so often tempted after longtime efforts of persuasion came close but were in the end denied.

Then, with the Buccaneers of the NFL in old Tampa, the soccer Rowdies proven and so many apparently on the side of Tampa for big-league baseball permanency, two farsighted workaholics, Bob Humphries and Ed McGinty, and a few others decided to go for a major league franchise, one way or another, by theft after enticement, or, the more formal expansion route.

But, they needed help from the monied and the influential beyond their own means. They went to see a Tampa visionary, the well-connected Frank Morsani, and asked if he would head the effort. Yes, he said, if the group was a good one and wanted him. And it was — oh, with people like Ted Couch, Art Pepin and Joe Casper, for starters.

Well, they went after the Minnesota Twins first. Minnesota had let it be known the Twins would like a change of venue, or, as they all say, a different deal. Morsani and associates went to Washington, D.C. to do a deal for 42 percent of the team. It was looking good, until Minnesota owner Carl Pohlad said he’d do the deal and keep the team in place, just what baseball itself wanted to hear.

The Morsani team regrouped. By now a rich man with close Tampa ties, Bill Mack, joined the effort and went after the Texas Ranger, Jim Cusack was the Mack man here. George W. Bush was the governor of Texas at the time. He frowned on the Eddie Chiles agreement to sell in a Texas meeting with Morsani. I was there. It was a deal… until the commissioner of baseball, Peter Ueberroth, vetoed it.

Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s talked of moving to Tampa for a while, but that faded away, too.

Finally, the majors decided that Tampa Bay was a candidate, then a choice, but… the expansion committee awarded the franchise to a group other than that of Frank Morsani, one that would in time be led by Vince Naimoli, who would name them the Devil Rays. Now, the Devil Rays are the Rays, owned by Stuart Sternberg. Might want to repeat that and on a separate line.

The Rays, the league-leading, wonderful, inexplicable, positively impossibly good Rays are owned by a group headed by Sternberg. They are solid, from catcher, around the horn, through the pitching mound, bullpen, outfield and bench, managers and coaches and batboys, through the announcing booth to ole Rick Nafe, the former lineman now a baseball executive of the finest club anywhere.

Tampa Bay Manager Joe Maddon — boy, is he good, and cerebral — says his team is winning so wonderfully consistently because they can hit, field, run, play all-around defense, hit in the clutch, communicate, think, come from behind, effect double plays, bunt, win on the road, and I guess that’s about it. But, they have to be there today, and there tomorrow.

After years, numb in some sports around here, Joe Maddon is fresh air. Yipes, he even mentioned The David in Florence. He likes wine, novels, good music, talks in complete sentences, and is not boring. Well, he has himself a dandy club that represents us all, and well: the mighty Rays of Tampa Bay. As does Stuart Sternberg, the man behind it all.

And, in baseball, at last, Maddon and Sternberg do it very, very well.

It was not always so.

Ask Frank Morsani.

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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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