Michael Clayton Quasi-Interview

I just watched the latest “Behind the Flag” episode from Buccaneers.com, this one with Michael Clayton. First things first, I don’t know if it’s just my perception or if they did something different, but the video quality on Buccaneers.com looks ten times better than it used to. Maybe it’s just bigger. I’ve heard size matters, but that’s usually followed by “don’t ever call me again”, so I’m not sure what to think. Whatever it is, good work by the Bucs web people.

The interview itself shows Clayton as a soft-spoken and humble worker who is just trying to get better. Of course, Scott Smith constructs his questions that way and give him nothing but light, airy softballs. As a result, there’s not much that stands out as very interesting. But there are a couple of points he touched on that deserve note.

Clayton made it a point to say a couple times that he has been “making the most of his opportunities”, which would suck if he really thinks that’s true. One of the reasons Jon Gruden slashed his opportunities so much is because he dropped so many balls after his rookie season. Last year, things improved and maybe he’s just thinking of that and not taking his entire body of work into account with that statement. I hope so. I hope he doesn’t think that the only reason he’s not doing better is because he’s not getting thrown to. This season Gruden’s doghouse has been demolished, so he really has no excuse — not even a weak one like being in the doghouse.

Speaking of Gruden, Clayton brought up his offense and how “conservative” it was. This was in the context of talking about Jagz’s penchant to throw the ball downfield more, but he had no problem making the comparison. Clayton said Gruden’s analogy for his offense was “fishing for bluegill”. Bluegill prefer shallow water and will bite at anything, which is kind of funny considering he had 80 catches his rookie year. I guess that makes Tim Brown and Bill Schroeder the dead fish stricken with red tide.

Anyway, that’s about it. He talks about his Generation Next foundation and his work with troubled high schools, which is very nice. But mostly, he’s confident, he’s excited about the season, and he’s happy to be a Buc. In other words, a perfectly packaged Buccaneer official interview. Next up: Why Josh Johnson thinks terrorism is bad and America is great.