My Conundrum
Many of you who read this, are going to be pissed off when you’re done, so if you don’t care about anyone else, than you might as well stop now.
Since I was 17 years old, I have been attending Buccaneers games practically full time. I have sat in the club section on the east side of the stadium, random sections from scalping tickets and then section 119, where my tickets currently reside. I have probably only missed 10 games or so in that span of 13 years. One of the main reasons that I left FSU and Tallahassee was that I was tired of riding the Greyhound back and forth between Tallahassee and Tampa during football season, and ended up spending consecutive weeks back in Tampa when we had home games on back to back weekends (not exactly a proud moment in my Academic life!). I have a Buccaneers ship tattooed not on my back or some place that nobody can see it, but on the side of my ankle for gods sake! Anyone that knows me, or anyone that reads this blog with regularity will attest to the passion and the love that I have for the Buccaneers.
I have been an angry Bucs fan now for going on month number 6. I’m not mad that we sucked (although I am mad about that), because we have been a bad team before and I wasn’t really mad then. I am mad now because I don’t like the direction the management and the coaching staff has at this juncture. Doesn’t mean I don’t love my team, just means I’m disenchanted by their rhetoric. When this season ended, I essentially swore off my tickets in 2010, barring a monumental reduction in price. That was all fine and well while I was still fuming over our 3-13 campaign, while I still hadn’t received my invoice and while I hadn’t really thought about football season without my friends in 119.
As I got my invoice the other day, it was honestly a strange moment for me. I generally look at it with a “damn, I have to pay this big bill” face. When I got the invoice this time, I didn’t have that face, because in my heart of hearts, I didn’t intend on paying it. There was no need for a “damn, I have to pay this big bill face.” It was a sad moment honestly, as I contemplated not going to football games for the first time in 13 seasons.
The longer I sat there and stared at the bill (which had no reduction in price by the way), I thought to myself, I have to have a plan for this. So I formulated one. If I’m happy with the offseason and the draft, I will leave open the possibility of re-upping my tickets. If what Mark Dominik has hinted in the past few weeks, that the Bucs will not be players of any sort in Free Agency, then the same stance I have taken the past few months, if the Glazers are going to be cheap-asses then so will I, will end up winning.
I think for my own mental well-being, I’m praying for Radio and the Glazers to do something productive this offseason. P