Silence Speaks Volumes
Ron Gibson
By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 4, 2010
TAMPA - Now the real season begins.
Now we wait.
It's time for ... Glazer Ball!
You know, the game where you never know who's winning, or has the
ball, or anything.
Will they run it, throw it or fire it!
We'd say the Cone of Silence had been lowered, but it's never been
raised.
The Glazer mystery train left the station after the Bucs' 20-10 loss
to Atlanta to end Year One under Raheem Morris, with no guarantee that
next season won't be Year One under Bill Cowher.
Can we get a little Owner Speak here?
Who knows where the mystery train will go.
The Glazers lead the league in deep, dark tunnels.
The record: 3-13.
The number that might matter more is about 20,000 empty seats for the
finale at Raymond James Stadium. That must have seemed colder than the
cold to the owners.
It's in the Glazers' hands right now - Morris' future and a lot of
other futures.
If you think you know what they're about to do, you're wrong.
There has barely been a peep from the Glazers.
"Shocking that our owners have been quiet?" Morris said with a smile.
"Our owners are always quiet. I don't know where you've been the last
seven years. I've never heard our owners say anything publicly.
They're quiet in the office when I'm talking to them."
What about a vote of confidence?
"No, no, man, that's not their job," Morris said.
He's right. Their job is to be Glazers.
Glazer Ball is better than Arena Ball. Anything can happen. After last
season, well after it, actually, the Glazers, without warning,
launched Jon Gruden's television career.
There are reports that the Buffalo Bills have had "stealth" meetings
with Cowher. Note from Glazers: It ain't stealth if it gets reported.
The Glazers know stealth. They learned from the Parcells fiasco.
They're all about stealth. Right about now, the Glazer brothers don't
even know how many Glazer brothers there are - now that's stealth.
One of three things is about to happen. Don't rule any of them out.
1) Morris has a fireside chat with Glazers and comes back with staff
changes (try offensive coordinator and offensive line coach) and more
experience and a few less chest bumps and better game management and
fewer goofball moments, and he and General Manager Mark Dominik make
those draft picks in April. This seems the most likely scenario.
2) The often star-struck Glazers truly reach out to the five-star
Cowher, who'd fill some seats, at least next season. What, exactly,
does Morris deserve at 3-13? Ask yourself, honestly: If Raheem Morris
and Bill Cowher were both out there, who would you hire?
3) Cowher might cost too much. And think of the G-men handing over the
biggest coaching salary in football and maybe still handing it over
for nothing, in a season when there's no season, a possibility given
impending NFL labor issues.
Actually, there is another possibility.
4) The Glazers fire themselves.
Because their fingerprints are on this mess, too. They chose to go
young (why was Gruden fired, after all?) and they chose to go with
Morris and they wanted a quarterback developed and they helped choose
the now-fired coordinators. And now they drop the hammer? Shame on
them.
But, 5) There is little or no history of owners firing owners. And
shame does not really figure into business models.
Morris says he is at peace.
"I stand here and coach until I go. My mom and my pops were both laid
off and I was 13 years old, and nobody told them that they were going
to get fired. That's just the reality of the world we live in ...
"This game is not for everybody. I tell people that all the time. If
I'm sitting around here worrying about getting fired, then I've got my
own issues, I'm fighting my own demons, and I'm not. I'm very
confident in what I do."
There was a whistle in the distance, the mystery train going on down
the tracks. Everybody get your Glaze on
--
Email - rsgi...@tampabay.rr.borg
Replace borg with com
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
Chuck
Bill Cowher is unlikely to return to the NFL as a head coach next season, ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting.
The former Steelers coach is now a CBS studio analysts, and on yesterday's "The NFL Today" pregame show, he refused to address
reports about where he might coach next season.
Cowher has talked to the Buffalo Bills about their head coaching position, and recent reports have said that he was interested in
the job.
Many league observers saw Carolina as a good fit for Cowher, one reason being that he lives in North Carolina. But Panthers owner
Jerry Richardson has offered John Fox and his coaching staff the opportunity to return to the team next season. Fox, after the team'
s Week 17 win against the Saints, was non-committal about whether he'll accept that offer and return next season.
The Tampa Bay Bucs have also been floated as a possible landing spot for Cowher, but Raheem Morris has so far survived Black Monday.
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james
They are pretty much the same.
james