Former Buccaneers and Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp is having a retirement party in Tampa this weekend to benefit the Tampa Children’s Cancer Center.
In promoting the event, he gave an interview to Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times in which he had some interesting things to say about the coaches he had in Tampa Bay.
Asked about winning the Super Bowl in 2002, Jon Gruden’s first year as the Buccaneers’ coach, Sapp suggested that in reality, former Bucs coach Tony Dungy deserves more of the credit than Gruden.
“I always say this: The damn cake was already in the oven,” Sapp said. “It was just a matter of when it came out. All Jon had to do was put the icing on it.”
Of course, you could also make the case that a big part of the cake was in the oven even before Dungy got there, considering that defensive stalwarts like Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch were drafted when Sam Wyche was the Bucs’ coach.
Sapp does give Gruden credit for making the Buccaneers’ offense accountable, but Sapp suggests in the interview that he prefers Dungy to Gruden. He also suggests that he didn’t much enjoy playing for longtime Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, saying that Kiffin is the main reason Sapp left Tampa Bay.
“Me and Monte had the rockiest relationship — a stepson-to-stepfather relationship,” Sapp said. “It was always his defense, and he barked people out of the building. It was too much about him.”
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June 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
GeauxSaints12:
Sapp likes Dungy but doesn’t like Chucky and Kiffin. He gives credit for the Bucs SB victory to Dungy and whines about Chucky and says he left TB because of Kiffin. Sapp clearly doesn’t like whites and he’s a big mouth racist and you give him a free pass because he’s black.
If Sapp was white and said those things about two black coaches, you’d be having PC hissy fits. It’s a true example of your delusional PC double-standard hypocrisy.
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June 27th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Robo769 wrote: “He should leave the premadonna, constantly needing the spotlight crap to guys like TO, Chad Johnson, etc.”
What a creative way to bring Madonna into the discussion.
But actually, the postmadonna period has had *at least* as many narcissists as the premadonna - oh, wait - nevermind. I now realize that you cannot spell.
On another note - it’s ironic how quickly the oft-maligned “race card” was pulled in this situation. How many of you who were so quick to reach for it in this case are full of contempt whenever you perceive black people doing this?
I suppose it was racial, then - when Sapp was critical of coach Dungy during his appearance in the 2002 Buccaneers episode of “America’s Game”. In that documentary, Sapp accused Dungy of neglecting the offense, and for being too subdued to inspire his players during “crunch time”. He also praised Gruden for raising the standard of the offense and for having the right leadership style to get the team over the hump. I guess Sapp said this during a period in his life when he hated black people, and was in love with white people (maybe he even had a fetish for strawberry-blonde hair and freckles).
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June 27th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Warren Sapp is quite possibly the most overrated player in NFL history.
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June 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
My Gosh! You guys are really QUICK to pull the RACE CARD on any issue aren’t you? Hahaha. I didn’t hear him say anything about black or white. Just about football.
There is such a double standard on this board. When a great player comes out and makes a statement like this why not just take it for what it is and stop trying to dissect it and make it something that it’s not.
If/when John Lynch comes out and says the same thing it’s going to tear this board up!
But you will believe it….GO FIGURE!
A.F.
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June 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am
In the series “America’s Game”, which they had on NFL network, both Sapp and John Lynch basically said: hey, I love Tony Dungy, but we’d never have won that Superbowl without Gruden. He bought a change in attitude to the team that we needed at that point.
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June 27th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
JagRoar says:
GeauxSaints12:
Sapp likes Dungy but doesn’t like Chucky and Kiffin. He gives credit for the Bucs SB victory to Dungy and whines about Chucky and says he left TB because of Kiffin. Sapp clearly doesn’t like whites and he’s a big mouth racist and you give him a free pass because he’s black.
If Sapp was white and said those things about two black coaches, you’d be having PC hissy fits. It’s a true example of your delusional PC double-standard hypocrisy.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Quite possibly the most twisted post in internet history! It’s so twisted, I don’t get the point. Nor do I want to.
ugh. @sic
adieu
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June 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
If you ever heard many of the defensive players talk about the superbowl,they said that the Raiders never changed any of their formations, signals (thanks patties) or plays and Tampa knew what was coming from the get go. How soon Tampa fans forget that they sucked for years until Dungy came. Now they act as though they were always good and just needed a new head coach. Dungy a defensive coach? Do you know his background? Did you watch him play in the big ten? He just happen to have some great players that played his system. I’m surprised Florio even printed this. He has such hatred for Dungy, the colts and anyone that believes in God.
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June 27th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
JagRoar, please dont talk to me about PC double-standard hypocrisy. Your an idiot and I don’t have the time or patience to talk to one minded, dumbass, cousin f@#$king rednecks like you. We live with sterotypes everyday, and you dont. Its amazing how white people today are trying to use the race card. The Don Imus issue is over people, get over it.
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June 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Shout out to irishpat! (Stole my thunder)
I’m a HUGE Buc FAN, but…..
What if Gruden never leaves Oakland? We can safely assume that the Radiers would have still been in Superbowl XXXVII (Since “His” team and “His Offense” made it there without him). But we can’t honestly make that same assumption about the Bucs. Chances are we would have gotten thumped in Philly (YET AGAIN!).
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June 28th, 2008 at 10:24 am
No one respected the bucs the way teams do now until Gruden took over.
No disrespect to dungy and his coaching staff at that time but Gruden won the big game.
He chose the roster to enter the 02 season He chose the offensive plays at the critical time in the playoff NOT dungy.
Both coaches are great but my bucs coach is Gruden NOW and enough talking about history.
What would you all say about gruden if he wins the NFC or the SB this year?
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June 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
i rember what jon gruden did to dungys and sapps bucs out in oakland in oakland,grudens raiders won that game 45-0 i believe that was 2years before the gruden bucs won the super bowl
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July 17th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Gruden and Dungy would both be coordinators but neither is a great head coach. Dungy could never get over the hump because he was to Defense oriented. Gruden took Dungys defense and tweaked the offense just enough to put them over the top. Dungy would never have one the SB without Tom Moore. He took the Colts defense and tweaked it just enough to put them over the top.
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