Gary Shelton – Three games in, and the Bucs are winless. And helpless. And hopeless. And clueless.

Colin Cowherd – The Bucs offense is the worst offense in the NFL in the past two decades.

Martin Fennelly – We don’t even know if the Giants played well. We couldn’t tell. The key to victory was their plane touching down safely in Tampa.

Bucsstats.com – I had taken for granted for so long that football was supposed to be fun to watch. I mean, of course it was fun! It was football! But watching the first three and a half quarters of this game was like watching a documentary on the history of the tampon. And I refuse to do that again.

Raheem Morris – “We were clearly out-manned today,” he said. “We were beat by a grown man team today, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Out-manned us, out-gunned us. They were the better team today, clearly.

Martin Fennelly – The plague year is only three games old, but already the new Bucs head coach is acquiring that faraway stare that comes when worst fears come into view. It’s like the look on Jonny Voight and Ned Beatty’s faces when they get out of their canoe in “Deliverance” and realize those guys with the bad teeth aren’t with the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

John Romano – Get ready for blackouts: Tough call for the Glazers. Do you keep fudging ticket sales so you avoid TV blackouts, or are you better off hiding this team from as many people as possible?

John Romano – Team motto:  No excuses, no complaints, no first downs.

Bucsstats.com – The Bucs sucked so bad and played with such little enthusiasm and life that I deliberately chose to watch something else. I can’t tell you the last time I didn’t watch an entire Bucs game live from beginning to end. I finally did watch the rest toward the end of the evening, just for the sake of completeness.

Ok, it didn’t take me too long to peruse the web for those quotes, because they are plastered everywhere.  I didn’t even dare take the time delve into some good Buccaneers forums, because I know the vitriol contained in those forums would be a bit more hostile.

My turn….

Since beginning to attend Bucs games every week in the late 90′s I have never witnessed an embarrassment on such a grand scale as the putrid display that was on the field yesterday.   The numbers have been rehashed and rehashed over and over at this point, so I’ll spare you a stat session, but there are three that stick out to me.

86 yards of Total Yards, 16 minutes of possession, 5 first downs

Any reader of this site is fully aware of the lack of confidence I have/had in this current version of our beloved Buccaneers, so after the first two losses, I have been uncharacteristically calm.  Yesterday’s though was the real topping on the cake.  I thought it would take me longer before I personally was angry about our ineptitude, but 3 weeks is all it took, or maybe just a 24-0 home drubbing was all it took.

This is what everyone asked for though, hence the title of this post.

Called Out #1 – Steve Deumig

You truly are a moron.  You spent 7 years skewering Jon Gruden to the point that the fans turned on a coach that won 3 divisional titles, 1 Super Bowl and had a winning record.  To me the worst part of it all is, even though you are a moron, and rarely say anything that has any merit (Bucs didn’t offer Albert Haynesworth money, Jon Gruden hated Mike Alstott, talking about the dead football players at sea, etc, and when I say etc, this list is long) you have such a following on the Tampa Bay radio airwaves, that people actually believe the caustic filth that comes out of your fat mouth.   You gave the fans no choice but to hate Jon Gruden,  and once they did on a noticeably vocal level, the Glazers (they’ll be Called Out real soon) had no choice but to make a change.  I hate you Steve Duemig.

Called Out #2 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers Football Fans

Not every single one of our fans falls into this category, and even more acutely, not every fan that wanted Jon Gruden gone falls into this category, but the majority of our fans do.  Bucs fans are not the most knowledgeable in the game of football.  Actually, I would put the majority of our redneck fans in the bottom half of NFL fandom and their intelligence as it applies to NFL fandom.   Most are bandwagon fans, something that I despise more than just about everything on Earth.   What really makes me mad though is the fact that you listened, and were allowed to be riled up by a rambling idiot on the radio, to the point that our owners were forced to listen to your retarded asses.  You are the majority of ticket holders, so they really had no choice.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you Bucs fans.

Called Out #3 – Ownership

If I’m disappointed in the fan base allowing a babbling idiot to influence them, I have no real words to describe how I feel about you guys allowing this same idiot to influence  you.  Maybe you had no choice, by all means, the fans hated Gruden, and so did Jeff Garcia and Michael Clayton, so I guess you had to get rid of the guy!  How could business people with the savvy and acumen that your theoretical resumes contain, allow a bandwagon led fan base, to influence your business decisions?  I am just totally without words to describe how letdown I am at this particular fact.  To top that off though, you made a rash decision on the future of the team.  Were you that worried the Broncos were going to hire a guy in Raheem Morris that was not at all qualified to be a Head Coach?  That could be the only explanation; you saw a coach on your own team, and although he wasn’t ready to lead an organization, you feared him leaving so much that you just handed him and Mark Dominik the keys to the car and just said screw it.   Bryan and Joel Glazer, you make me sad.

Called Out #4 – Raheem Morris

I certainly can’t fault you for getting a job that you were not ready to undertake.  You take those opportunities in life, and you run with them.  Once you became the coach though, and you realized you were over your head, you actually built a nice little staff around you to take away some of the full burden of coaching an NFL football team.  Then your ego got in the way.  Jeff Jagodzinski didn’t want sorry ass Byron Leftwich to play, you did, and instead of having some debate on personnel  with another young and up and coming coach (little worried huh?) you gave his ass the boot.

***Editors Note – I have received an email from one of the few people in the Tampa Bay media who I really respect, and he re-iterates to me with full confidence, that Jagz was fully behind Leftwich and that is not the reason he got fired.  I didn’t want to change this piece, but wanted everyone to know this.***

Regardless, of what their beef was, Jagz was a Raheem hire that 11 days before the start of the season, he bailed on.  This is after an offseason of the players praising the new scheme put in place by Jagz.  Raheem felt threatened a little bit, and made a rash move, which is generally what happens when someone who isn’t quite ready to be the boss, becomes the boss.  You took it a step further even and traded Luke McCown away. Complicating matters even further is the fact that the guy you are “married” to at QB, the guy you traded up to draft, looked so awful at camp, that you can’t even justify him getting some run now that we suck.  You are putting into the game, a guy that Jon Gruden, the same Jon Gruden who all our fans think is the worst personnel manager of all time, drafted for gods sake.   You seem like a nice guy Raheem, although your public speaking skills are awful, but your in way over your head.   Lame Duck coach in year 2, if you make it there.

…

Signs of horrible coaching

1. Running the ball less than 10 times
2. Too many dumbass penalties at the worst possible times
3. Getting less than 10 first downs
4. The unit that you should have coached up the best looks the worst on the whole team (DB’s)
5. Having the Romeo Crennel stare off into space look on your face on the sidelines

Players that looked good against the Giants

Players that looked awful against the Giants

1. Byron Leftwich
   
2. Everyone else

WDAE Radio Host, Steve Duemig, Mugshot

I find it hard to believe that a man like Steve Duemig continues to have listeners to his radio show, as well as a job at this point.  For all those who don’t read this site regularly, this is the local 3-6 PM radio host on the biggest sports radio station in the Bay Area, 620 WDAE The Sports Animal.  

I promise to not delve into all of this morons transgressions, because it would take too much time, and I’ve already done it on this site multiple times.  

His latest bout of mental retardation came today during his show.  I was running some errands this afternoon, and with a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth about what the Bucs have done so far, I figured I’d listen to the man whose main goal each day is to bash the Bucs.  His certainty today came from the fact that the reason that the Bucs didn’t sign Albert Haynesworth, had to do with monetary cash flow issues that the ownership was feeling.  He claimed that there was never a chance the Bucs were really in on Big Al.  He claimed that the Bucs are not in danger of losing the franchise or anything, but that we would be hanging dangerously close the salary floor by the time the season started.  

Of course, not only 3 hours later, Mr. Haynesworth himself divulged the reasons why he is not a Buccaneer.  

“I felt comfortable with [Tampa Bay coach] Raheem [Morris], he seemed to be a good person and he’s going to be a good coach, and I thought they had a lot of upside.”

“I looked at the roster of the Redskins and looked at the roster of the Bucs and they cut a lot of starters, I mean they were older guys, but they cut five starters the day before,” Haynesworth said.  “And then you look at the ‘Skins and their team wasn’t old, and it’s not young, it’s in that middle age group like my age type of guys.  And you know having all the names we do that are really good players out there, even great players, I definitely thought we had a great shot at making a nice run for the playoffs and hopefully winning our division and getting deep in the playoffs.”

Now I might have not a single morsel of inside information, but that to me, doesn’t sound like the words from a man who wasn’t really offered a significant contract by the Buccaneers.  Hell it doesn’t even sound like the words of a man who was offered the exact same contract by the Buccaneers as he was by the Redskins.  It sounds like a man who chose a team based on his perception of talent on the team, and by his perception of the cuts that occured the day before.

For all the silly rednecks who love listening to this buffoon’s show, please stop.  Duemig spits out more garbage than any local sports radio host I’ve ever listened to in this country, and I travel extensively for work.  The main problem with the man is he concocts bullshit theories, and then runs with them as though they are true.  On top of this, he will certainly never admit to being wrong.  I find it my duty to point out the toxic garbage that flows from his mouth whenever he decides to open his mouth and let the dump truck loose.

 This is a man who has blown relationships with local writers, national writers (all will name unmentioned) and supposedly got into a fistfight with a local (very big) writer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and a respected member in the Tampa Bay community.  This is the same man who openly campaigned for the release of TE Jerramy Stevens due to his past transgressions, than subsequently was arrested weeks later for an alleged DUI, cue the “all people mentioned in this post charged with crimes are guilty until proven innocent” line.  HIS THIRD INVOLVEMENT WITH FREAKING DUI’S!  Duemig also was the same genius who broke the story about the Buccaneers being moved to Los Angeles in 2000, about Phil Mickelson’s alleged gambling debts, and in all of these scenarios, his “unnamed sources” always take the fall for his preposterous musings.  

There is one thing I’m sure of…he has had it out for Jon Gruden since the day he replaced Tony Dungy.  The only time in which this stance was not apparent was when interviewing Gruden, he would act like he liked him (coward), but with no Gruden around he made no bones about hating the man. No matter the results on the football field, the campaign remained strong…to run Jon Gruden out of town.  Well, apparently his venom finally got him his wish.  

It is being reported now from the St Pete Times, unabashed Gruden haters as well, that the Glazers not only sought the advice of a few players on the football team, but also sought the advice of the fans.  

“We talked to a lot of people, but we not only talked to the players, but (also) out in the community getting a feel for the team,” co-owner Bryan Glazer told the Times today at the Super Bowl media center in Tampa, Fla. “We get opinions and we mix them all together. We just took our time making that decision.”

“Our fans are our stockholders. They’re what we play for — the people in our stadium and the ones that watch on TV. That’s what it’s all about: winning and how they feel about the team. If they don’t feel good about the team, then there’s something wrong. . . I think you all know the sense that’s out there. It was time for a change.”

“I THINK YOU ALL KNOW THE SENSE THAT’S OUT THERE!” –   That is classic.  The funny thing to me, is I’ll give the man credit for the first time in my life.  Although he helped me personally propel a cause I had undertaken (the ouster of ex-Rays owner Vince Naimoli via Oust Naimoli) to a national stage, by allowing me to talk about Oust Naimoli on the air, I never liked the guy, and never will.   He did accomplish his goal though, Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen are gone, let’s see how long he gives the new regime before calling for their heads for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.