The Tony Dungy Curse

Once again, Buc fans are off to another year of lousy offense. After the first quarter, I was thinking maybe the fabulous Chucky and Jeff Garcia was going to deliver us to the promise land. Then I remembered, “oh yeah, it’s just the first quarter of the first game of the season.” Alas, the Dungy curse is alive and well in Tampa.

I know some of you are going to say it can’t be a curse since the Bucs won a superbowl after Coach Dungy left, but that is the beauty of the curse. It is an evil, sick, twisted curse that lulled us fans into a false sense of security. On October 6, 2003 the curse reared it’s ugly head and has never looked back. That was the day Dungy and the Colts came into town and mounted one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history. They scored 28 second half points against the vaunted Bucs defense and things at One Bucs Place have never been the same.

Okay, so I know Coach Gruden brought us a Super Bowl and that is certainly an accomplishment, but it was with a team Dungy built. I still don’t know Dungy got fired. What was ownership thinking when we dumped Tony? He only turned a losing franchise into a consistent winner. It’s just as dumb as firing Marty Schottenheimer after a 13 win season. I mean come on, it is only this year that Gruden has started using the shotgun. This year! That’s crazy talk. Here is what’s crazy, Tony Dungy had a 56% win percentage and Gruden only has 49%. 4 out of 6 of Dungy’s seasons were winning seasons, while Gruden has only had 2 out of 5.

I will grant you that the Bucs had to give up a lot to get Gruden and it is possible that those losses have lead to the problems the Bucs have had. I also know there have been salary cap issues that have only recently been resolved, but come on. There should be signs of life but once again, the Bucs lost 20 to 6. Surprise! The defense held a high powered offence to just 20 points and the offense did nothing. Unfortunately, this sounds way too familiar; and while I may be jumping the gun (it is the first game after all) it looks like nothing has changed. To add to our misery, look at the upcoming schedule: New Orleans, St Louis, North Carolina, and Indianapolis. The Bucs could be 0 and 5 before you know it.