Old Man Muir Still Likes Gruden

Between the Jerramy Stevens and Chris Simms media storms, Jon Gruden has taken a bit of a public image beating over the past couple weeks. But offensive line coach Bill Muir got off his rocking chair to defend his boss and let everyone know that he does, in fact, know what he's doing.

"I can only tell you this because everyone will think I'm sucking up to the head coach, but for all of those Gruden haters out there, I really don't care,'' said Muir. "They don't know what a real football coach is supposed to be like. I've been around a real football coach or two in my life - this is a real football coach. End of story. He's a real football coach.''

It's very nice of him to say, but I don't think at this point that any Gruden-haters are going to change their minds. That includes Martin Fennelly, who wrote a scathing piece on Gruden yesterday based on Simms's chalkboard screeching.

... you can't discount how many men leave Gruden's loving arms feeling betrayed. It's not just bad guys, it's not just sour grapes.

You could put together a fine team, both sides of the ball, with Bucs who have left convinced Gruden is a snake. It didn't end with John Lynch. Now Simms is aboard.

They're all wrong?

Huh, so there are some guys who got fired from their jobs and wound up having bad things to say about their former boss? Do tell! I also don't believe the John Lynch thing. I looked really hard just now for any quote where Lynch had something bad to say about Gruden. If someone knows of one, let me know in the comments where it is, because I sure as hell couldn't track one down. Here's what Lynch had to say about his dismissal in 2004 after he heard Bruce Allen's news conference about it:

"That was nice," he said. "It was. I happen to think they've made the wrong decision, because I can still play. But I respect the decision they've made. I know it wasn't easy for Bruce. What I respect is they've got tough decisions to make, and they at least talk to you about them."

Oooh, scandalous. Anyway, I didn't want this to turn into another the-media-is-out-to-get-the-Bucs tirade, so I'll stop now. But I'm seriously considering a subsection of this site that just keeps track of the negative press the Bucs get by their local media. I may have to buy more server space for the endeavor.