Tampa Bay & Tony Dungy

[ferdville]

Let me make it clear that I am not criticizing Tony Dungy. He appears to be a solid coach and a good citizen. However, I can remember the uproar last year when the Bucs cut him loose. It was an "outrage."It was "inexplicable." It was the doing of the "good old boys network." He was a "defensive genius." These and many more like them were tossed around as if the Bucs would never win another game. When Gruden was hired the critics turned (justifiably so) to the outrageous compensation Oakland required to send Chucky off. How time changes things in just a year.

 

[FRANK RIZZO]

Good points. But If it wasn' for Dungy and the solid foundation he layed with the defense this team would not even have gotten a sniff this year.

 

[Dungy]

Tony Dungy helped build the Bucs to what they are today but the best thing that happened was the transition in ownership. The death of Hugh Culverhouse (previous owner) made it possible for a new owner to come in and continually invest in the team. This was a little bit of a change because usually when the Bucs had good players the previous owner would trade them for extra money on the bottom line as opposed to retaining them for further development. If anybody disserved credit it should be the new ownership. Even though the Bucs gave up a few draft picks for Gruden the new owner (Glazer) gave up $8 million, that would not have been down under Hugh Culverhouse.