In Tampa Bay, patience has replaced panic of the past

Sporting News, The, August 23, 1999 by Dan Pompei

To understand where the Bucs are going, you have to realize where they have been. This organization has made every poor decision you could imagine, and a few you couldn't: from drafting Bo Jackson, to giving up on Steve Young, to giving Ray Perkins total control. Panic was the force behind many moves, such as giving away the second overall pick in the 1992 draft for Chris Chandler, and allegedly selecting Sean Farrell in the first round of the '82 draft when the team intended to take Booker Reese.

"Five years ago, we looked at ourselves to see how the franchise got where it was," G.M. Rich McKay says. "We thought decision-making in a crisis was very poor. There was no organizational philosophy, so every time there was a crisis it was handled differently. We need to approach every situation the same."

So the Buts committed themselves to avoiding making mistakes under pressure. Members of their front office say 50 percent of their football conversation revolves around it. The result is a management team that has operated with the patience, calm and calculation of a garden spider that spins its web and waits for its prey.

In a lot of ways, the Bucs have become a model franchise. That should become evident in the next season or two with the culmination of a five-year building effort. This organization is doing too many things the right way not to produce some premium fruit in the very near future. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Bucs contending for the Super Bowl this season.

The Bucs have gotten to this point by avoiding the ever-popular "win now" philosophy.

"Obviously, you want to win and win right away," coach Tony Dungy says. "You want to make decisions that are going to help you win. But since I've been here, there's never been a focus on, `Well, we've got to win this next game,' other than when you're in the playoffs. The atmosphere has been good."

While the Bucs have been fortunate to play in a town with low expectations, a lot of the credit for the atmosphere goes to the Glazer family. Owner Malcolm couldn't stay out of the way any more if he lived under the sea. Sons Bryan, Joel and Edward are involved in the administration of the team, but not in an obtrusive way. McKay values the way the Glazers give he and Dungy the support they need without unwanted intervention.

McKay is the right general manager to oversee the plan because he sees the big picture so well you'd think his glasses had wide-angle lenses. Dungy, he of the serene, deliberate nature, implements the plan to perfection. If you had to be stuck in a burning building with someone, Dungy would be the guy. The Bucs couldn't have a better personnel director than Jerry Angelo, who understands the ebb and flow of the league as well as anyone. The coaching staff is full of proven teachers, just what a young team needs. No one in the Buts management team appears insecure about his job, so there aren't any problems with hidden agendas.

It would have been a lot different had the Buts hired Jimmy Johnson instead of Dungy four years ago, as they tried to do. As great a coach as Johnson is, he wouldn't have meshed with this philosophy. Johnson's idea of patience is expecting a player to develop now instead of yesterday.

Sometimes, the Bucs have been patient to a fault, but most of the time they have been rewarded for it. Buts coaches wanted to cut tight end Harold Bishop in his rookie season (1994), but McKay talked them into keeping him around another year. The patience paid off when the Browns gave the Buts a second-round pick for Bishop, and the Bucs used the pick to take fullback Mike Alstott.

Player development is critical to the Buts' philosophy. You don't see the Buts signing the Sean Gilberts or trading for the Marshall Faulks. Instead, they endure the ups and downs with home-grown players such as wide receiver Karl Williams and then reap the rewards.

Dungy and McKay have confidence in Angelo, college scouting director Tim Ruskell and their staff to provide them with quality lumber. And they rarely have disappointed. That trust has prompted the Buts to stockpile draft picks, even at the expense of Wading down or out of the first round. By "taking advantage of the desperation of other teams," as Angelo calls it, the Buts have poured their foundation. Among the players the Buts have drafted with other teams' picks are Alstott, Warren Sapp, Reidel Anthony, John Lynch, Derrick Brooks, Jason Odom, Ronde Barber, Jacquez Green and Brian Kelly.

Still, the temptation to panic is always there. In the 1998 draft, the Bucs wanted linebacker Jamie Duncan and assigned a third-round grade to him. But in the days before the draft, they started to talk themselves into thinking they would have to Wade up into the high second round to get him. After calming down and deliberating over it for a couple of days, they decided the stay put. The result was Duncan fell to the Bucs' pick in Round 3, where they chose him.

"The best way to cure the possibility of panicking is to go over every scenario that can take place," Angelo says. "It may be exhausting, but it enables you to act, not react. If you are reacting in a small window of 10 or 15 minutes, you could blow it."