Thanks for the Lomardi Gruden

  So six years removed from standing on a riser and hoisting the NFL's Vince Lombardi trophy following his Superbowl XXXVII win Jon Gruden is unemployed. Late yesterday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired it's head coach after a disastrous end to it's promising season.

  I have to say my take on Gruden's firing is one that I've been expecting for two years. In fact following the 4-12 effort of the 2006 season I took the picture above at Gruden's final post-game press conference thinking he was going to get the axe the following day. He didn't.

  Over the last six seasons I watched how my childhood team played on the field and the way Gruden captained our ship. When I shot for the team I had the chance to be around the coach and found him to be very much off the field as he was on the field, intense.

  That intensity and what his former players have said about his coaching philosophy and demeanor left me with a bad taste. It wasn't the attitude the team held when Tony Dungy was building them into a dominant team. It sounded like Gruden was not a good role model period. But as long as your winning those things can be brushed aside. I guess after starting 9-3 for the season and then tanking the whole month of December to no post-season appearance will change that.

  Along with Gruden the Bucs also fired his puppet of a General Manager Bruce Allen. The way Gruden ran Rich McKay out of town and brought in his Oakland buddy Allen just didn't fly with me. The two of them seemed to go after the troubled players and questionable types. That thinking also doesn't fly in Tampa. Tampa ain't Dallas, Oakland or New York.

  So it looks like the team has decided to give Raheem Morris a double promotion in one month from Defensive Backs Coach to Defensive Coordinator to now Head Coach. That's pretty good considering he's only 32. And the Glazers appear to be naming Mark Dominik, 37, as the new GM of the Bucs. With these two very big changes it seems like the Glazers are saying, "We want to invest for the long haul."

  As a fan I'm expecting some rough waters the next couple of seasons. There will inevitably be rookie mistakes made by Morris but hopefully Dungy and Gruden have left a good enough foundation that it won't crumble like it did during the Leeman Bennett era.