• From Sports Illustrated: “In a stunning development that no one in the NFL expected, the Tampa Bay Buccanneers fired Super Bowl-winning coach Jon Gruden late Friday afternoon”
• From Fox Sports: “The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fired coach Jon Gruden and Bucs sources told FOXSports.com that defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has been tapped to be the team’s new coach.”
• From ESPN: “A Super Bowl title bought Jon Gruden time, but ultimately couldn’t save his job. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dismissed their fiery coach and general manager Bruce Allen on Friday, three weeks after the team completed one of the biggest collapses in NFL history, losing four straight games following a 9-3 start to miss the playoffs.”
• From TBO.com (Tampa Tribune): “With a ferocious lack of ceremony, it is over. Jon Gruden, who once was astride the football world, holding the Lombardi Trophy aloft, was dismissed by the Glazers in double secret Glazeresque fashion, his world reduced from the Roman Numerals in San Diego six years ago to a Friday Night Massacre initially relegated to the right side of the Bucs’ Web site under the heading ‘News.’”
• From TampaBay.com (St. Pete Times): “The Super Bowl trophy Jon Gruden brought the Bucs in his first season as head coach is polished and still glistens in the lobby of One Buc Place. But the shine finally wore off Gruden. The charismatic coach, along with general manager Bruce Allen, was fired Friday after the Bucs lost their final four games following a 9-3 start and failed to reach the playoffs for the fourth time in six years.”

And all I can say is it’s about time.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Gruden, I really do. I like his attitude. I like his work ethic. I even liked (and have a copy of) his excellent book, Do You Love Football?!: Winning with Heart, Passion, and Not Much Sleep. But it’s not like people hadn’t seen this coming. For years. Shaun King put it best when he told ESPN, “I wasn’t surprised. I thought it might have come a year or two too late. I think Jon came in touted as being an offensive guy and this team has struggled to find offensive consistency.”

So what happened? A 9-3 season became a 9-7 season, right? Wrong. As Peter King (SI) points out,

As for Gruden, six seasons without a playoff win was his undoing. The Glazer family fired Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen for several reasons. But not winning a game in the postseason since the Bucs beat Oakland in Super Bowl XXVII in Gruden’s rookie season was the biggest factor.

Since 2002, the only real light Tampa had seen was in 2007, when the team made it to the playoffs. This year looked to be just as special until Monte Kiffin revealed he’d be going to Tennessee to coach alongside his son. Some argue he should’ve gotten the top spot. Whether he was offered it or not, I don’t know, but I don’t think he would’ve taken it. And even if he had, maybe he wouldn’t have been all that. After all, some inside the team–Warren Sapp, in particular–paint Kiffin as someone who liked to take too much credit for his work while not giving any to the workhorses under him. For most in Tampa, the template of success was defined by Tony Dungy, and taking that much credit doesn’t seem like Dungy-esque move.

If you believe some of what’s coming out now, maybe that’s what went on anyway. In a recent interview with ESPN, receiver Michael Clayton hints at how things were in the sidelines, and paints a picture of a team ready for change:

Transcript:

I could see it coming. Definitely for what happened at the end of the season, but more so what has happened the five years that I’ve been here… I felt that we had to do something special this year, or it would be over for Coach. For us to start off the season the way we did–it looked so promising–and for it to come to a halt the way it did…losing the last four games, it was something that I knew it was a situation that could definitely go down. You just didn’t know when… You really didn’t feel that Coach or whoever was who had the hammer had any confidence in you, and you were out there playing for yourself. For a football team to win a championship it has to feel life family, everybody has to be on the same page. What it is, is you got a lot of guys playing while they’re hurt, giving it their all, and actually being successful on the field. And for a coach to not respect that and put a guy down… it goes from there. You reap what you sow, and there’s no way to have everybody on the same page when you have that type of treatment from your head guy… When people don’t know how it is, and for them to speculate, and for them to be right about it, I think it’s just a sense that everybody is getting a picture. I think everybody is ready to move on.

WR Antonio Bryant paints a different picture:

I’m very surprised, you know I felt very comfortable, especially in the environment. It’s a family atmosphere and everybody got along well, and it’s shocking, but that’s the nature of the business… I feel a sense of loyalty to anything that is Buccaneer. Jon Gruden was definitely a Buccaneer, he gave his all in everything. He was very devoted and a passionate guy about the game. I’m still a Buccaneer until March 1st and just the opportunity that he gave me, the organization, the ownership and the Glazers, I trust their decision in knowing that they feel they made the decision to do the right thing.

Here’s my take: The attitude in Tampa is “Gruden took Dungy’s defense to the Super Bowl, and that was about it.” Fact is that on top of that defense he put in a pretty good offense, topped off by Brad Johnson, one of the best QBs in Buccaneer history. Who he then fired, before spending the next 2 years trying to reshape the team in his own image.

Of course, this wholesale re-imaging didn’t take.

The problem with Gruden stared when he came in. He wasn’t brought in to turn around a ship that had gone off course. He was brought in to put together the final pieces of a championship team who everyone knew was a championship team. The foundation had already been built by Dungy (and Kiffin), and it was a solid one. Gruden didn’t understand that, and instead wanted to rebuild the team in his own image. The cost? Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Joe Jurevicius, Brad Johnson, Keenan McCardell, Keyshawn Johnson… the list goes on, but the most important on that list? Rich McKay, who has a very well known acrimonious relationship with Gruden.

So maybe the problem with Gruden can be attributed to timing: had Gruden gotten the job from Sam Wyche instead of Tony Dungy, he would have done a lot better. (Mostly because he really couldn’t have done much worse.) But that’s just finding excuses. The truth is that it was his heavy hand that cost him the job. Some will argue that part of his problems were due to the draft picks the Bucs didn’t have because the Glazers gave them away in order to acquire Gruden. While I’ll concede that point, I’ll also point to the fact that this bound him for at most four years (two draft years, and two more years to develop talent). It doesn’t explain the offensive inconsistency of the past seven years. That’s explained by his love affair with geriatric quarterbacks, particularly in his pursuit of the fabled 11-QB formation, where all you field are quarterbacks. (He could only ever get 10. It was a shame, really.)

Now, the future awaits. For Gruden this is actually a great time to depart. There are jobs everywhere these days for teams that need to rebuild, and who don’t already have a strong foundation: Buffalo, Cleveland, Denver, New York (Jets), St. Louis, maybe Kansas City… My guess is that he’ll end up back in Oakland, given that the Glazers had to pry him from Al Davis’s hands and that Davis likes offensive-minded coaches.

What about the Bucs? Right now, it looks like Gruden’s successor will be Raheem Morris, while Allen’s successor will be Mark Dominik. Given Morris’s short history–six years as a defensive position coach in the NFL–I’m not particularly confident of the pick. Then again, last time we picked a defensive mind to coach the team (Tony Dungy) it turned out well, and this guy studied under Kiffin, who has a reputation for spitting out good coaches, so we’ll see. As for Dominik, I still don’t know a thing about him, other than he’s been with the Bucs dealing with personnel since 1995. I’m crossing my fingers.

One thing’s certain: 2009 will be a rebuilding year. While we wait, here’s video on the Gruden incident from ESPN:

Jon Gruden Fired

Why the Bucs Dropped Jon Gruden

If you haven’t been paying attention to the college football scene, if you’re one of those who watches professional level teams only — and given the very, very screwed up BCS system, I totally understand — then you, my friend, are missing one of the wildest football seasons in history. Here’s the lowdown, and I’ll start with my alma mater, USF:

Last week, USF (then ranked #18) beat West Virginia (then ranked #5). Now, this game alone made my weekend, but things got even more interesting:

• Auburn (unranked) beats Floirida (then ranked #4), 17-20, which drops UF to #9. (It should be noted that USF, then ranked #34, beat Auburn, then ranked #17, AT Auburn, two weeks previous this.)
• Southern California (then #1) eeks by Washington (unranked), 27-24, which drops USC to #2.
• Oklahoma (then #3) loses to Colorado (unranked), 24-27, which drops Oklahoma to #10.
• Texas (then #7) loses to Kansas State (unranked), 24-41, which drops Texas to #19.
• Clemson (then #13) loses to Georgia Tech (unranked), 3-13, which drops Clemson to #22.
• Rutgers (then #10) loses to Maryland (unranked), 24-34, which drops Rutgers to #20.

This culminated to put catapult USF from #18 to #6 in the country, at least according to the AP. (USF went from #21 to #9 in the coaches poll.) Not bad.

This week, the streak of upsets continued, as Illinois (unranked) beat Wisconsin (then ranked #5), 31-26, and what was the biggest shock of them all, Stanford (unranked), who came in as 41-point underdogs, beat the University of Southern California (then ranked #2), 24-23. (In NFL terms — if this can even be spoken of in NFL terms — that’s like the Dolphins actually beating the Patriots this year.) The streak may have been stopped by LSU (#1) who won a very close game against UF (#9), 28-24.

How does this all fare for USF? Rather well, I think, aside from making the #5 spot a rather precarious position for a team to be in (it seems an accursed number this year). See, Louisiana State (ranked #1) just knocked off Tim Tebow — err, I mean the University of Florida (ranked #9), 28-24, so that pretty much pushes them out of the national title picture, by virtue of the fact that they’re now a two-loss team. Wisconsin is sure to get knocked down a few notches for their loss, meaning the #5 spot is open. And ex-#2 USC — well, their loss just cost them a shot at the national title, plain and simple, unless catastrophic upsets happen over the next few weeks. (Come to think about it, catastrophic upsets wouldn’t surprise me in the least bit.) So what does this mean? That this week’s AP poll (at least, the top 10 part of it) may look something like this:

1. LSU
2. Ohio State
3. California
4. South Florida (USF)
5. Boston College
6. South Carolina
7. USC
8. Oklahoma
9. West Virginia
10. Oregon

Now, this is all just a somewhat educated guess. And you may be wondering why I put Ohio State over California. Simply put, that team’s been putting the hurt on all their opponents, and they may well be considered a better team by the rather fickle AP poll. This is where I tend to trust the Coaches poll a bit more, though not by much. That poll will likely have USF at #7 this time around (currently it has USF at #9). Come to think of it, the Coaches poll may leave them at #9, and their rank may stay at #6 (or lower) in the AP poll after that performance in FAU. (Dear Bulls: next time, please don’t lose the ball 4 times to the 90th ranked defense. kthxbye!)

As of now, the national title picture looks to be an LSU/Ohio State or LSU/California match. Of course, should any of those teams fail, USF will be rightly in contention for the national title. LSU/South Florida, perhaps? Outside shot, it may be, but it seems a lot of outside shots have been making their way true this year.

I know a few people reading this will tell me “Do you think USF could be X (my team), which is ranked below them, in a match?” I think Sports Illustrated put it best:

You have South Florida No. 4. Do you honestly believe USF could beat [fill in more traditional school here]? Why shouldn’t I? The Bulls have already beaten Auburn (on the road) and West Virginia. In doing so, they’ve shown off an incredibly fast and suffocating defense, one that helps compensate for a thus-far ragged offense. It’s the same exact formula Florida rode to a national title last season. The biggest difference for South Florida: the extra word in its name.

So my answer, like SI’s, is a resounding “yes!” Unlike too many teams, USF’s been beating who it’s supposed to beat, and on top of that beating those it wasn’t supposed to beat. In fact, in a recent comment board I saw someone say “Do you think they could beat West Virginia in a rematch? I DON’T THINK SO!” Of course, this makes no sense, because USF’s beaten West Virginia twice in a row, once at West Virginia, once at Tampa. And could they beat the more traditional Florida powerhouses (UF, FSU, Miami)? Yes. Even with Tebow.

The next few weeks carry a deceptively strong test for USF. I say deceptively strong because any one of the teams they’re about to face — Central Florida, Rutgers (#21), Connecticut, and Cincinnati (#20) — can surprise them, Rutgers and Cincinnati, especially, and because they’re either ranked or ranked lowly it would be easy to underestimate them. As we’ve seen this year, this is the single biggest mistake a team can make. Just ask USC.

Go Bulls!

[Edit: Poll numbers just came out. Here are the new rankings:

1. LSU
2. California
3. Ohio State
4. Boston College
5. South Florida (USF)
6. Oklahoma
7. South Carolina
8. West Virginia
9. Oregon
10. USC

I was surprisingly close.]

Feel free to retire now, Tony. After last year’s incident (his son’s suicide), there’s no better way to end a spectacular career than this. While you’re at it, maybe you can convince Favre that it’s time he retired as well. Have Steve Young or Trent Dilfer give him a call, will ya?

To be fair, I think the game was rigged. Did you notice that the only time it rained was when the Bears were on the field? Don’t know about you, but I think God was playing favorites here. Call it a hunch, but I think it was because the Colts’ owner (Irsay) and coach (Dungy) both thanked Him after they won the AFC championship while the Bears and their fans just poked fun at New Orleans using that while “The Bears finished what Katina didn’t” slogan. Just a hunch.

20 point lead. Blown. In 15 minutes. No offensive scorring from the team who won. A-frigg’n-mazing.

“Never, ever, ever, ever give up.” — Winston Churchill.

True, the Cardinals are pretty much horrible, but that has nothing to do with their players’ tallent. Maybe their heart, but that’s a matter of leadership. Their problems have everything to do with coaching: Dennis Green must go. I’ve always been under the impression that the Cardinal’s coach (and former Vikings coach) doesn’t deserve a head coaching job in the NFL, and hasn’t deserved one for a while. This just cements it.

Edit:

Coach Green turns red. Punches mic, curses the media, and walks off during the after-game interview. With video.

Read the following sentences out loud:

• Google are buying Yahoo.
• Argentina have done well in the World Cup.
• Before yesterday, Microsoft were doing better in the stock market.

Odd, are they not? Read them again. Sound them out. Something isn’t quite right, is it? Now, compare them to the following sentences:

• Google is buying Yahoo.
• Argentina has done well in the World Cup
• Before yesterday, Microsoft was doing better in the stock market.

Which of these two batches sounds right? Anyone who paid attention to English in grade school would emphatically state that the second batch sounds right. Yet, this common sense grammar is increasingly being attacked and shredded to bits by the Internet media, bloggers and news soruces alike. This poor, deranged group believes that because an organization is comprised of more than one individual, it can rightly be referred to in the plural on a consistent basis.

Newsflash: This is wrong. Not just wrong in the “oops, I don’t know how to use a possessive apostrophe” sort of way, it’s wrong in the “All your base are belong to us” sort of way. It is an affront to the basic constructs of the English language.

So what would posses writers everywhere to abandon common sense and go around describing one country, team or organization as a “they” in order to be consistent when it comes to whether something is referred to in the singular or in the plural, to have it one way, all the time, every time? The problem here is that one of the basic laws of English is being violated: if there is one, you refer to it in the singular; if there are more than one, you refer to them in the plural.

Where does this nonsense come from? Why is Argentina no longer singular? Why is “Google are going to do something” being used in lieu of “Google is going to do something”? It’s an abstraction, plain and simple. The speaker (or writer) is shortening the sentence at some point by making one abstraction, and in order to not break the rule which states that you should not use both plural and singular when referring to the same thing, the writer instead elects to make another abstraction as opposed to correcting the sentence. Here’s what I mean:

The following paragraph shows how people would generally speak:

Brazil is expected to win the World Cup. Why, just recently, they beat Japan, who was playing poorly anyway.

Obviously, this is incorrect, even though the speaker can safely presume that the listener will understand the sentence as follows:

[The team from] Brazil is expected to win the World Cup. Why, just recently, they [the Brazilians] beat the [team from] Japan, who was playing poorly anyway.

In order to correct this sentence, Internet writers could have done the following:

Brazil is expected to win the World Cup. Why, just recently, the team beat Japan, who was doing poorly anyway.

However, instead of doing the common sense thing, writers (especially sports writers) have given in to the pressure of bad Internet grammar, and have opted to make a few more abstractions in order to shorten their word count while unifying the sentence structure. For example:

Brazil are expected to win the World Cup. Why, just recently, they beat Japan, who were playing poorly anyway.

This is obviously wrong. The writer, while keeping in tact the plural referencing within the sentence, is presuming that the reader will understand the following:

[The] Brazil[ian players] are expected to win the World Cup. Why, just recently, they beat [the] Japan[ese]. who were playing poorly anyway.

The problem here is two-fold. First, the writer is presuming the reader will make all the correct abstractions (and for the most part, the writer is correct in making this presumption). Second — and this is the most important — the writer is destroying the flow of the language. The sentence is almost unspeakable! In this case the writer is trying to make plural references universal, even though plural references obviously have no place in some arenas. Here are a few more examples:

• Canada: singular. Canadians: plural. Usage: Canada is doing better. The Canadians have gone all out this year.
• Iraq: singular. Iraqis: plural. Usage: Iraq is doing well in this year’s games. The Iraqis have already made an impact.

Now, there are instances when something that seems like a singular is actually correctly referred to as a plural. Examples::

• The Tampa Bay Lightning were not able to defend their championship status.
• The Miami Heat have just beaten the Dallas Mavericks!

“Lightning” and “Heat” serve as both singular and plural. (You’ve never heard of “Lightnings” and “Heats”, have you?) In none of these sentences, however, is it OK to eliminate the team name and keep the plural referencing.

• Tampa Bay were not able to defend their championship status.
• Miami have just beaten Dallas!

Contrast that to this:

• Tampa Bay was not able to defend its championship status.
• Miami has just beaten Dallas!

In all of these examples it is understood that the speaker is referring to the team associated with the city. Yes, the team is comprised of a group of players. Yes, the team is usually referred to in the plural. Still, only the second set of examples actually obeys the laws of English, and as such it doesn’t make much sense to eliminate the team name and still keep the plural referencing. For example, New York is only one city, and the team from New York is only one team. To say “New York are loading up on quarterbacks” is no more correct than saying “The New York Jets is loading up on quarterbacks.”

A pluralistic description of a team is due to the fact that most teams have pluralistic names: Bulls, Seahawks, Raiders, Hornets, Thrashers, Senators, etc. That’s fine, and if the team name is referenced then the team should by all rights be referred to in the plural. When the name is not mentioned, however, it is not OK to talk about it as if the team name was there.

The Miami Dolphins is going to the Super Bowl.

Man, am I ever glad the New York Times never decided to make that abstraction. For years, the laws of writing stated that if you spoke of something plural you stayed in the plural, and if you spoke of something in the singular, you stayed in the singular. Apparently, this is no longer the case.

This is wrong, plain and simple.

Flagrant violators to this basic rule of English include most blogs, most Internet forums, and most sport-related websites. I point out sports-related websites because there are cases, especially when it comes to large news outlets, in which both the correct and incorrect styles are used by different departments. Here are two examples from the BBC:

• “It is a style, though, that Ecuador have moved right away from.”
  (from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5093548.stm)
• “Microsoft has admitted it was late to spot the threat from the net.”
  (from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5086994.stm)

When a news source as respected as the BBC can’t even get its own act together, what hope do we have?

All in all, here’s what it boils down to: When referring to one unit, such as a sports team or a company, go ahead and talk in the singular, even at the cost of having to transition later on from singular to plural, but use common sense. When it comes to sports, if the team name is mentioned, you will likely need to use the plural. That’s perfectly OK. If only the city or country of origin is mentioned, please do the English language a favor and refer to it as singular. I’m pretty sure the team members wouldn’t mind. Finally, cut down the abstractions. English is screwed up enough as it is without any new nonsensical abstractions, so the less of those there are, the better it is for all of us.

[Editor's Note: Maybe I should reprint Strunk and White: Elements of Style here. I'm sure it'll help more than just one or two people.]

Basketball: The NBA Finals
Here in South Florida, it’s hard not to get at least somewhat excited about basketball these days, even if you’re not a fan. The Heat are in the finals and it’s hard not to pay attention, especially when every news program, radio jockey, newspaper cover and half the billboards from West Palm Beach to Key West mention Shaq, Wade, or the team in some way, shape or form. In fact, the gym I just joined is owned by Shaq himself (60% of it, at any rate).

And yes, I’m well aware of the fact that the Heat lost to the Mavs yesterday; I do read Mark Cuban’s blog, after all. Still, Go Heat!

I’ll admit, I enjoy the occasional Orlando Magic or Miami Heat game, but I’m honestly not a big fan of the sport. I know, I know — I should be, right? After all I played basketball when I was a kid (I can’t even count the number of summer basketball camps I was sent to), I’m surrounded by it, and basketball is an extension of the Catholic religion to most Puerto Ricans. (It’s in the Catechism… somewhere…) But I’m just not a fan. (Which means I’m going to Purgatory, at least for a while.)

Ice Hockey: The Stanley Cup
Strangely enough, I lean more towards ice hockey. Yep, hockey. In South Florida. Over basketball. Go figure. Maybe I should consider moving to Canada, instead. (Hey, Quantum, DMOS, cdlu: anyone got a spare room somewhere?)

As you know (or can probably guess) if you’ve been reading this blog, my favorite team is the Tampa Bay Lightning, and has been since the early 1990′s when there was no Ice Palace in downtown Tampa and they played in the middle of a cow field in the Florida state fairgrounds. Nothing like the smell of cattle dung during a hockey game; almost made me feel I was out in Wisconsin during winter, save for the frostbite and all.

Now here’s what’s even stranger: even though I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale for 2+ years (wow — has it been that long?), I’ve yet to go to a Panthers game. Surprising to me because I live about 15 minutes from where they play, whereas in Tampa it would take me about half an hour just to get to the Ice Palace. I guess that means I’m less of a fan of the sport than I am an admirer of it. Oh well.

Of course, the news now isn’t about the Panthers or (sigh) the Lightning, it’s about the Carolina Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, who are fighting it out to see who wins the coveted Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch any of the games since I don’t have cable and they’re not televising it on regular TV, at least down here. (Ah gots me a flat screen with them bunny ears shoot’n way on top the teevee there.) I’ve tried to keep up by reading CNNSI and ESPN on the Web, but it’s just not the same, and I refuse to spend my evenings at the local sports bar (Miller’s Ale House) to watch the Hurricanes and Oilers. Lightning or Bucs? Let’s go for it. Anyone else? I’ll usually pass, thank you.

Soccer: The World Cup
Now, neither one of those are the really big news, regardless how tall and heavy Shaq may be, compared to the World Cup, which starts today in Germany. (To paraphrase Obi Wan, I feel a shift in the blogosphere. It’s as if a billion voices were cheering as one… or something like that. I need to watch more Star Wars.) I’m tempted to do a rundown on all the countries and who I expect to win (Brazil), but I won’t. Sure, I like soccer, but c’mon: can I really add anything to what’s already out there? If you’re looking here for information on soccer you’re probably not interested enough in the sport to really care, and if you are, I’m sure there are — quite literally — a million other places you can get much better information on.

With that in mind, I’ll help those of you who want to know just enough about what’s going on to be conversant with some of your more extreme folks. (Since Fort Lauderdale is covered with South Americans and Europeans — not to mention Cubans who probably spent a good deal of time in Russia and Europe — there are a lot of those around here.)

Teams to Watch:

(1) The United States. They’re in a tough division, facing Italy and The Czech Republic. If they go past the first round, people may finally start respecting them, before they likely get blasted away by the Brazilians. (They’ve got a harsh road ahead of them, and tons to prove.) Oh, and they’ve pretty much dominated Mexico lately, as well as CONCACAF. In 2002 they made it to the quarterfinals in the World Cup. Currently, they’re 5th in the world standings (just under Mexico and tied with Spain). With a player as dominating as Oguchi Onyewu and Landon Donovan on the roster, they may just surprise some people. (Gee, guess who I’m rooting for.) Or, they may just flop, in which case America will care just as much as they care now. I mean, let’s face it: the only way Americans will care about soccer in large numbers any time soon is if they make an appearance in the title game itself. (I may be crossing my fingers, but I’m not holding my breath.)

(2) Germany. The tourney is being played at home which, as time has shown, is a huge advantage. (Can you give me any other reason France won in 1998? I don’t think so.) With a prolific and high-scoring midfielder like Michael Ballack, most teams would be sitting pretty.

(3) Brazil. Let’s face it, short of an act from heaven or hell, Brazil is poised to own the tournament. For the US’s point of view, unless the US can be at the top of their class (should they beat out either Italy or the Czechs and move on), this team will probably hand them their flight tickets home. With FIFA World Player of the year Ronaldinho and star side-kick Kaká both playing on the same side of the ball, it’ll be hard for any team to stop the Brazilians, who’s love of the sport is nothing short of religious fanaticism.

(4) Argentina. Next to the Brazilians, the Argentineans are the generally favored team. Currently they’re 8th in the FIFA rankings, but don’t let that fool you. With a player the caliber of Lionel Messi, acknowledged to be one of the best in the country’s history, this team can’t be counted out.

(5) The Ivory Coast. Surprise, surprise! This ought to tell you the power of the World Cup: the current civil war taking place in that country has undergone a cease fire throughout the duration of the tournament in response to the Ivorians’ first ever World Cup entry. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this team doesn’t have a pool of talent to draw from. “This is a team that’s laden with top-tier talent from the world’s finest leagues. Defenders Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue anchor Arsenal in the English Premier League, while strikers Didier Drogba and Aruna Dindane can score against anybody. Throw midfielders like Didier Zokora and Bonaventure Kalou into the mix and this is a team that will cause plenty of problems for Holland and Argentina.” (source)

(6) Italy. If Francesco Totti, “The Next Pele” (according to Pele himself), doesn’t implode, Italy could be in for a golden run. In fact, some predictions have the Italians playing the Brazilians for the title. Me? I’m just watching to make sure they don’t get the best of the US. Yes, I’m biased. Live with it.

With all that said, you can keep abreast with what’s going on over at ESPN’s Soccernet and Sports Illustrated’s World Cup website. Check out who’s playing who in the different groups. Finally, check out the calendar of events. If the US can make it out of the first round — as I’m confident they can do — they’ll already have done more for their name on the world stage than ever before.

Maybe that’s part of the mystique of it all. Or maybe it’s because of that mystique that I get this feeling. It’s like the feeling I used to get as a little kid when the old movies came on the TV at 11pm. It always made me feel lonely. To me it felt like the end, like some small form of death. Weird, isn’t it?

Thanks to the Internet, that death has lost some of its sting. Check out NBCOlympics.com for video and information about this year’s Winter Olympics in Torino. It’s a good way to re-live those glorious few moments when we watched those who would themselves be like unto the gods of old, at least for a short while.

Linky to the giveaway.

Note to the management: if your team sucks nothing about it will ever be considered cool. There are, of course, cases where even if your team’s good, its colors and logo suck — for example, the Cincinnati Bengals, who look like they’re constantly trick-or-treating — but those cases are few and far between, and the “D-Rays” are not in that boat (no pun intended). “Devil Rays” is a pretty cool name and your color combo is A-OK. However, you may want to consider fielding something better than the AAA club you have playing there now. By the way, the blue and green thing’s been done, by a team well on track to go to the Super Bowl this year.)

That said, Ski has temporarily moved his focus across the Bay to “The Trop” and is asking readers for a few suggestions on new team names. I posted the following list over at Ski’s BestBucsBlog, but if you have any thoughts on the matter, head on over to Best Bucs Blog and jot down your thoughts, or at least read what others (including myself) are thinking about this.

As for suggested names, I originally posted the following list of suggestions. (If you’d like to come up with logos for these, it’d be great.)

Edit:Ski has updated Best Bucs Blog with a poll featuring a few of the possible names. Get some practice before the 2006 election and head on over to vote for your favorite team name.

1) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (eh, why not?)
2) Tampa Bay Jesus Rays
3) Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Saint Petersberg
4) Tampa Bay iRays
5) Tampa Bay Flashers. (Mascot: Mamma Guava)
6) Tampa Bay Punishers (Now owned by John Travolta)
7) Tampa Bay 0wn3d
Tampa Bay 2001 Mons Redners
9) Tampa Bay Marlins (Why not, they’re probably leaving Miami anyway)
10) Tampa Bay Hurricanes (Yeah, as if Tampa’s ever seen one of those)
11) Tampa Bay Thunder
12) Tampa Bay Manatees
13) Tampa Bay Catfish (Ever been fishing in Tampa Bay?)
14) Tampa Bay Dianetics
15) Tampa Bay Southern Yankees
16) Tampa Bay Roughriders

Or, just in case they KEEP sucking…

17) Tampa Bay Black Holes (also “Tampa Bay Vortex”)

You’re dead to me Matt Bryant.

Mind you, I’m not about to kill the guy, but he did kinda give that game to the Bears. *sigh*

13-10 Bears over the Bucs. (Mind you, my money was on the Bears, but that’s beside the point). At least it was a close game, and the Bucs looked generally good, especially Chris Simms. Then again, that’s what hurts so very very much.

After looking at the stats, my first thought was “WTF?!” Here’s what I mean:

Game Location
Atlanta
Advantage Falcons

Total Offense
Atlanta: 443
Tampa: 258
Advantage Falcons

Quarterback Performance
Atlanta (Vick): 306 yards, 2 TDs, 0 int
Tampa (Simms): 118 yards, 0 TDs, 1 int
Advantage Falcons

Third Down Conversions
Atlanta: 11/17
Tampa: 2/8
Advantage Falcons

Total Offensive Plays
Atlanta: 74
Tampa: 46
Advantage Falcons

Turnovers
Atlanta: 1
Tampa: 2
Advantage Buccaneers

Rushing
Atlanta: 150
Tampa: 140
Advantage Falcons

Time of Possession
Atlanta:36:02
Tampa: 23:58
Advantage Falcons

Final Score:

    

30 — 27

Yeah. Exactly. Go figure.

35 – 36

Just finished watching what’s been, hands down, the most exciting game of the season for the Buccaneers. 36 – 35 over the Washington Redskins. If you didn’t see it, you missed a seriously, extremely, absolutely great game.

Talking points:

• The Defense: Good stuff, especially from Rice. Allowed too many running yards, though.
• The Offensive Line: Great job protecting the QB. Much improved.
• Mike Alstott: The A-train’s back, baby, and he looks as good as ever. Way to pound it in!
• Joey Galloway: I feel the need… the need for speed! (That’s what I’m talk’n about!)
• Chris Simms: Talk about improved! This guy not only looked like an NFL-grade quarterback, he looked like an All-Star. Rookie mistakes? A few, but he still performed when he needed to. I BELIEVE!

As for any Redskins fans, that was a superb game. No shame in this one. Only way it could’ve been any better or more exciting was if it had gone into overtime.

The Bucs deserved to lose this game. That’s what you get when you overlook a team that’s got nothing to lose. Gah!

At least the ‘phins beat the New Orleans Baton Rouge San Antonio Saints.

13 – 27

(Normally I wouldn’t really bother putting up a score like this, but considering what I went through last week, I feel it fitting. )

Being a Tampa Bay Bucs fan living in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area isn’t easy. This past week, the Bucs played the Dolphins, and because of it I took a lot of crap during the week about how the Bucs were a weak team who, at 4-1, had yet to play a team with a winning record; How the blood would flow from the field in Tampa when the Bucs played the Dolphins, who now sported a rejuvenated Ricky Williams, as well as one of the best rookies this year in Brown (RB); How Tampa couldn’t do squat without “Cadillac” Williams.

Looks like a lot of people forgot that Tampa’s still got a heck of a ground game, a nice set of receivers, strong depth at all positions, and — of course — the top defense in the NFL, which has allowed no more than 16 points a game yet this season. But who cares about these details, right?

As of Sunday, October 16, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went from being a 4 – 1 team to being a 5 – 1 team, beating the Miami Dophins, who are now at a sorry 2 – 3.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Just like sushi.

By the way, the Bucs are now at 5-1. Did someone say “playoffs”?

(Note: It’s true, the Bucs have yet to play a team with a winning record. In fact, except for their division rivals in the NFC South, they don’t play many tough teams this year. It’s not their doing, though. I mean, who could’ve guessed when making out the schedules that the NFC North would suck harder than a Hoover this year? Heck, most people predicted the Bucs to be something closer 1-4 at this point in the season.

And, for the record, so long as it doesn’t adversely affect the Bucs, my attitude is “Go Dolphins!”)

Edit: I’ve been listening to a bit of sports talk from 620 WDAE, and it sounds like a few people over in Tampa are ticked at Gruden for “disrespecting” Mike Alstot, and not letting him play. After listening to people calling in, I can’t help but think of the following expression: “You can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that make him angry.” Some of these guys are seriously — I mean seriously — ticked that Alstot got only one play yesterday. These guys are yelling bloody murder! Over what, football?! Gimme a break. Guys, stop playing your Madden 2005 and watching Sports Center, and go work your third job, lackeys; your kids’ mommas can use the back-owed child support.

Gotta say, though, the DJ’s egging the crowd on rather nicely. Bravo, Sports Animal!

After someone mentioned playing FIFA 2005 for the XBox (or PlayStation 2, I forget which), I decided to drop by the FIFA website to see how US men’s soccer was doing. For years, the US has been the laughing stock of the soccer world, even after we hosted the World Cup, and after making a strong showing in the last World Cup tournament. To my surprise, the US is doing very well in the rankings.

In fact, they’re at #6 in the FIFA rankings, doing better than powerhouses like England, Germany, Colombia, France, Ireland, Spain, and about 195 other countries. I’m not a huge soccer fan — most Americans aren’t (neither are most Puerto Ricans, for that matter), though I do watch a match once in a while, which is more than I can say for baseball — but this is pretty cool. Maybe the sport will finally be a little more respected in the US. I’m guessing this won’t happen ’till the US men’s team wins the Cup, like the US women’s team did a few years back. Good luck on that, though if Brazil can lose to France, they can lose to anyone.

Just for kicks, I decided to see how Puerto Rico was doing.

Wow. Puerto Rico actually has a soccer team.