Fried Rice

A personal editorial from Pic Jordan on the release of Simeon Rice

Just to set the record straight, I am not a big Gruden fan.  He decimated a top-notch defense over the last 5 seasons by failing to retain quality defensive players while wasting salary cap space and, more importantly, roster spots on washed up, over-the-hill, and injured offensive players.

Rice was, is and always will be a “Me” player.  Rice probably would be the first player, behind Keyshawn Johnson, to point out that while there is no “I” in TEAM, there is “M” and “E”.

It took Rice half of his initial season with the Buccaneers, 2001, to realize that Monte Kiffin had a regular player rotation on the DL to keep all four DL going strong on every play, regardless of down & distance.  Rice could not understand why he was on the sidelines on 3rd & long, a sack situation.  It took Rice that long to realize that a tackle behind the line of scrimmage on 1st down was just as important as a sack on 3rd. 

Once Gruden came to the Bucs in 2002, the only thing he did on the defensive side of the ball was to put a stop to the regular rotation of young players into regular game situations.  That decision came up to bite the Buccaneer defense in 2003 when key defensive players went down with injuries and the young defensive depth had little to no regular season game experience from 2002.  Does anyone, other Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, remember the 2003 MNF game against the Colts?

Rice is not the first Buccaneer in the Gruden Era released after attempting to play through an injury.  John Lynch is the foremost player that “Failed a Physical” to be released despite playing the final two games of the 2003 season with a bruised neck.  Lynch’s 2004 $4 million salary that Gruden & Allen spent on the likes of Charlie Garner, Derrick Deese & Todd Stuessie probably played a larger part in the decision than Lynch’s neck.

Joe Jurevicius was injured the 3rd game of 2003.  JJ stayed active for 2 more games before going on injured reserve.  At the first day of training camp in 2004, I was in the stands at Disney World.  A local reporter with locker room access told a few of us not to expect Jurevicius to be around long, Gruden does not like players that won’t play hurt.  Jurevicius played in 10 of 16 games in 2004 and released after the season ended.  Had Keenan McCardell not held out in 2004,  JJ may not have even made the 2004 roster as some WR needed to go in order to sign Tim Brown.

Gruden talked up the importance of having Rice on the field during mini-camp, similar to the way Gruden talked about the importance of having Warren Sapp during the 2003 season.  Like Lynch, Sapp was on a new team in 2004 while Allen was writing contracts for offensive free agents that could not last more than two seasons before being released. 

Gruden talking about the importance of a defensive player is the same as an owner declaring complete confidence in a head coach while in the middle of a losing season (see Tony Dungy’s book).  A player would be safer pictured on the cover of Sport’s Illustrated or EA’s latest John Madden game.

If Rice’s injury will take the next 4 weeks to completely heal and the 2007 regular season salary cap computations don’t take effect until the first regular season week, why release Rice now?  It can’t be so that he can find new employment, he can’t practice. 

There are one of two obvious reasons for Rice’s release to come now instead of months ago or waiting until the last minute.

1. This is payback for Rice’s comments a few seasons back that Gruden runs an undisciplined team.  Then was late for meetings himself.
2. The Bucs have need for Rice’s salary cap now.  That points directly to Duante Culpepper.

The irony of a Culpepper move is that he too is injured and didn’t pass a physical for the Dolphins.

There is a third possibility.  Brian and Joel Glazer forgot their history lessons and left Jon and Bruce alone at One Buc Place without adult supervision.

Make no mistake about it.  Simeon Rice will play somewhere in the NFL in 2007.  The Bucs better hope it’s not for a NFC South team and that Gaines Adams is only tasked with defensive assignments equal to his Wonderlic score of 7.