The Times: “Gruden = Bad, Dungy = Good”

I have to hand it to the Times; they do have balls. And as much as I despise most of their Bucs beat reporters, I do have to step back and admire the impudence it takes for them to pull their pants down and waves their collective dicks at their readers all for the purpose of satisfying their own personal agendas. There aren't many professions where you can get away with that. Imagine you paid a contractor to build you the tudor-style house of your dreams, but when you came back to check on the progress, he was building a Victorian. Why? Because he likes Victorians better. Newspaper readers pay for, among other things, impartial and factual reporting. It's part of the deal and what makes real newspaper sites more reputible than, say, what you're reading right now.

Of course, all this is leading up to a ridiculous anti-Gruden article from Rick Stroud. Stroud must have been sitting at his desk and racking his brain [sic] for an angle where he could criticize Jon Gruden despite a 9-7 record and a trip to the playoffs with an overflowing injured reserve list. Some media folk (Howie Long comes to mind immediately, as does the Times's own Gary Shelton) have even called this Gruden's finest year of coaching in his career. Then, Art Valero went to the Rams and took the opportunity to get some stuff off his chest.

"It's nice to work for someone that you trust and you know when he tells you something, he means it," Valero said of [Scott] Linehan. "I didn't have to roll my eyes and wonder if it would change by the time he got down the hall."

He also had something to say about Gruden's decision to rest his starters for a couple weeks.

"We have the healthiest team no longer playing in the playoffs," Valero said.

Stroud must have had priaprism after he read that. An ex-coach was willing to dog Gruden! That's all he needed to let loose.

... inside those walls, it can be a pretty lousy place to work.

That's thesentiment oftoo many assistant coaches, front office personnel and beloved players when they get away from Jon Gruden.

You can choose to look through pewter-and-red glasses and kill the messenger. Fan-site chat rooms are ready for you.

Stroud goes on to make a very generalized point about Gruden having a big ego and making everything all about him. In reality, Gruden called a bad game. In a season where he made some fantastic calls in difficult circumstances, he called a shit game at a critical time. It's frustrating, but it happens. It doesn't mean that Gruden has somehow lost the team or that he's on some Donald Trump-ish ego ride. That's not looking through pewter-colored glasses (which most people call sunglasses,) that's just being objective. In fact, players backed him up when they were asked about their coach at the end of the season.

"We're a well-coached football team, no doubt about it," [Ronde] Barber said.

And you know a Barber wouldn't hesitate to say if he thought his team had been outcoached.

"I always expect Jon to be my coach," [Chris] Hovan said.

And just to make sure you know where the Times stands on their coaching preferences, John Romano pens yet another sappy tribute to Tony Dungy, the man who coached Tampa Bay seven years ago.

You see, Tony Dungy has always understood the world was larger than him.

Which is the exact opposite of what Stroud said about Gruden. This is the third year in a row the Times has done a year-end piece on Dungy. In 2005 they did one because his son committed suicide. In 2006 they did one because he won the Super Bowl. Now this year they're doing one because he might retire. But he might not, too.

Funny how situations can look similar and yet be so different. His last bosses insisted that Dungy leave after a playoff loss, and his current bosses are begging him to stay.

He just couldn't write a Dungy article without getting a Buccaneer dig in, could he? None of them can resist their chances to take shots. It's sad because their subscribers deserve better than their paper's top reporters treating their product like their own, personal blogs.