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Sporting News, The, Jan 27, 2003 by Paul Attner

You know what Americans want. They want a Buccaneers victory in Super Bowl 37. They want the choirboy with a thousand looks to slay the dragon. They want a feel-good story, light to prevail over darkness, the villain to be vanquished by the All-American hero.

So I am now Scrooge and Darth Vader and the Grinch, the guy who spoils the punch line. No life of the party am I, not with this bit of bad news I am about to deliver.

It is so tempting to project the demise of the Raiders, this brooding franchise with its paranoid owner and obsession with greatness and slights, real and imagined. You can hear it now, the way they will proclaim ad nauseam their virtues and achievements, ignoring how they haven't been to a Super Bowl since the 1983 season--a lapse that threatens their self-labeled "team of the decades" boast.

They will drag with them the worst fans in football, weirdos who buy tickets for the right to act as if they come from some faraway planet covered in silver and black. These strange folks are reason enough to wonder about a Raiders win.

Yet win they will. There is something to how planets align at times, falling nearly into place even in the NFL universe. This is the Raiders' time, the next step in their progression. Beaten by the Ravens in the AFC title game after the 2000 season, by the infamous tuck rule in last season's playoffs, they have cleared away all but one obstacle this season. And it just happens to be, of all folks, Jon Gruden, the admired Chucky whose national persona, of course, was molded as the coach of these very same Raiders.

Chucky comes armed with weapons, big and powerful ones, mostly on defense, which just happens to be the best around. And his beloved offense actually is showing signs of strength, now that it had its way last Sunday against the Eagles, the NFL's only other bona fide defensive outfit.

Such story lines in this game: Gruden vs. Al Davis; Gruden vs. Rich Gannon; Gruden vs. the Raider Nation; Warren Sapp vs. everyone; Keyshawn Johnson whining about everything; the ancient Raiders warriors trying to win a Super Bowl before entering a retirement home; the NFL clapping with zeal at the intense interest all this will create to finish off what already has been one fascinating season.

It will be the Raiders not because Davis says it will be, but because they have the offense that, of any in the league, can best joust with the Bucs' defense. Gannon wiLl not become Donovan McNabb and deteriorate in the face of the Tampa Bay schemes. He will be consistent and accurate and patient, and that will be enough.

And the victory will elevate the Raiders' owner to the top of the league once again, where be can sneer at the commissioner's office and snicker at those who thought he had lost his fastball years ago. It was Davis, and no one else, who put together this unusual roster of youngsters and plus-30 stars. And it is he, and no one else, who saw in Gruden's replacement, Bill Callahan, the mettle of a championship coach.

"You look at how Al fixed up his roster with these older guys and you think, `This guy has gone off the deep end,'" says Bills general manager Tom Donahoe. "But when you study these guys, they still could play. And to me, this is their last shot. They are supposed to be way over the salary cap next year. And he even changes coaches and they still make it this far. Amazing."

But of course, Davis never has had much use for coaches. "He has always thought players win championships," says Ron Wolf, the former Packers general manager who started his NFL career under Davis in Oakland. "That is what he will think about all this." And that is why he let Gruden bolt to the Bucs last offseason, but only after extracting a king's ransom: four draft choices and $8 million.

Don't you know the Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers, thinks Gruden is worth every penny and pick of that deal. The Bucs had never been in the Super Bowl despite 26 years of determined, sometimes laughable effort. And here, in his first season, Gruden had done what Tony Dungy and others before him couldn't.

"It'll be exciting," says Gruden about this Super Bowl. "I respect where I came from. But I know there is some sensitivity there (on the Raiders about him) and some emotions, playing the Raiders in this game."

Chucky and Al, 10 paces at midfield. What would you pay to see that?

"You couldn't ask for a better matchup if you sat down and wrote out a scenario," says ESPN analyst Joe Theismann. "Isn't this just the way everyone would want this season to end?"

So let's talk football, Part One

Monte Kiffin looks like a sidekick to an old-time western movie star. His face is thin, lined and Florida tanned, and he sort of crackles when he talks. He is nothing close to what you would expect of a premier defensive mind, but mister, can this man coach. He's been at it 20 years in the NFL, seven with the Bucs, a career assistant with gifts matched by very few of his peers.

In a Super Bowl full of these dark and shining story lines, Kiffin's aw-shucks demeanor isn't going to command the room. But his schemes will envelop the Raiders' offensive coaching staff, for sure, in the days and hours before this championship game.