Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Super Bowl Bucs

Going into Super Bowl XXXVII the main question was, Can the Bucs score? The answer, of course, is an emphatic yes. In fact, the Bucs were not only the best team in the playoffs but also the hottest, leaving San Francisco, Philadelphia and eventually Oakland in their dust.

After a tentative first quarter, Tampa Bay made a couple of adjustments, started to gain some yardage on the ground and started to dominate the game. Michael Pittman and Mike Alstott provided a nice 1-2 punch out of the backfield, and the accuracy of Brad Johnson’s passes made the Raiders defensive backs no factor.

So what happened to Oakland?

The Bucs are what happened to Oakland.

Tampa Bay was better on paper, better prepared, executed better, brought more emotion to the game and “would not be denied” according to many players in the post-game locker room.

After trading away much of the future for John Gruden, Malcolm Glazer looks like a genius (a dweeb genius, but a genius none-the-less). This from a guy who headed an ownership group in Baltimore during the 1993 expansion and was denied because the league thought he wasn’t a “good fit.” The owners are smart, at the top of the NFL’s food chain, and weren’t about to hand over a $200 million franchise to somebody who wasn’t a “good fit.” But Once Glazer bought into the league by purchasing the Bucs (for substantially more than $200 million) they’ll all have to follow their lead in building a Super Bowl Champion.

How many owners would now trade two number one’s, two number two’s and $8 million for a Super Bowl championship? John Madden rhetorically asked during the 4th quarter Sunday night. All of them is the answer.

The Bucs built their team piece by piece, some through the draft, some through trades and some through free-agency. They used the Patriots success from a year ago as a model, snapping up mid-level free-agents like Keenan McCardell and Ken Dilger to fill some key roles. Not high-impact players, but solid role players who don’t put a big dent in the salary cap and could contribute all year long. Once again, the theory paid off with a title.

Jon Gruden is hoping he’ll be able to keep most of the team together and add to it as well. He even started recruiting right after the game. “We’ve got some money to spend and we’ll be interested in some free-agents in the off season. So if you’re a free-agent interested in Tampa, you can expect a call,” is how Gruden put it, slyly on Monday. It appears he likes the feeling of winning it all.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Super Bowl Host

Going to a Super Bowl city can be fun, frustrating, exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time. Super Bowl XXXVII is San Diego’s third time hosting the NFL’s big party, and that’s just what it is: a big party, or parties to be more correct. While 70,000 people attend the game, upwards of 300,000 arrive in the Super Bowl city to take part in the festivities. Just about every large corporate entity in the US uses the Super Bowl as some kind of client entertainment. Many of the corporations have a connection to the NFL through sponsorship, others are just there as part of the revelry.

There are official functions, sanctioned functions, and in every town, there’s a place where the assembled assemble. In New Orleans, of course, it’s Bourbon Street, in Miami, South Beach, in San Diego it’s the Gas Lamp district, and in Jacksonville it’ll be, well, where will it be? For the first time, the league allowed a city two years away from hosting the game to have a spot in the media headquarters, allowing Jacksonville’s host committee to give a long-range preview of their plans to put on the game. Set up right next to Houston, next year’s Super Bowl city, the Jacksonville host committee had about a 25X25 octagonal shaped booth, complete with a continuous running video highlighting the city, a Tiger Woods video golf game set up so you could play TPC as Tiger, pamphlets and brochures trumpeting the city’s climate and beaches, downtown and riverfront and showing off the cruise ships as the centerpiece of what they’re calling the “Super Bowl by the River.”

Yet everywhere I’d go, there’d be skeptics. “I might skip that Super Bowl,” said Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com, “it’s a terrible town.” While Pasquarelli might be a little harsh, that’s the general consensus about Jacksonville hosting the game. We can’t do it, and even if we do, it’ll be terrible and the league will come to their senses and never come back. I covered the game in 1984 in Tampa and 1988 in San Diego, those cities first foray into the Super Bowl hosting business. Both were “not ready for prime time” places to be the first time around. Tampa was pretty sleepy and spread out, San Diego was downright scary in downtown. Both, with the help of the NFL, hosted the game, had their problems and set out to fix them. In each case, the league gave them a pat on the back and said “good effort, change the stuff that needs to be changed and we’ll be back.”

Tampa’s subsequent hostings have included a new stadium and expansion of their resorts, so it’s gotten easier each time. San Diego transformed itself downtown, adding the Gas Lamp district with plenty of restaurants and drinking establishments and two big hotels attached to the new convention center. It’s an easy choice for the league to put their big game.

Jacksonville’s a whole different story.

While the host committee has used San Diego’s bid and execution as a model, they’ve got a whole different idea. “San Diego is good for use because of its similar military personnel, the water and the population but we’ve got a different idea,” said Wayne Weaver, Jaguars owner and board member of the Jacksonville Host Committee. “We’re going to have everything possible within two miles of the stadium. People won’t have to go anywhere, and for sure they won’t have to drive.”

The big picture plan has semi-permanent tenting, trams and trolleys, cruise ships for accommodations and entertainment. So to the question “Where are all those people going to eat and stay?” the answer is: right by the stadium. “Oh, we’re actually ahead of schedule,” Mike Kelly, the president of the Host Committee said on Friday. “We’ve got contracts with the cruise lines and plans from the league so we’re very busy.”

While none of that seems to be tangible yet (the cruise ships won’t arrive until the week of the game) nobody’s panicking, especially not the NFL. Tim Murphy, the VP of sponsorship of the league and one of the key figures in executing the Super Bowl for the NFL is excited. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s going to be great. People won’t even recognize the downtown when the game is there.” And that’s part of the whole plan.

Jacksonville’s transformation for the game should give people a glimpse of what the city can be in the future. I went to a party in downtown San Diego on Friday night, very exclusive (invited by my brother), where the guests had no idea they were in an abandoned warehouse, painted, scrubbed and fixed up for the Super Bowl. Same thing with many of the bars and eating establishments downtown. Unoccupied storefronts are spruced up, food service and liquor licenses granted and voila, a place to eat, drink and meet is created. The NFL has plenty of experience at changing planning and changing things. They’ve accepted Jacksonville’s application and they’ll make it work. What we do with it while it’s here and after it leaves is up to us.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Raiders Bucs Super Bowl XXXVII Preview

A bunch of people asked me on Saturday, “Hey, who won that game last night?” Some of them just had a passing interest in what was going on (since neither Florida nor Florida State were playing) and others just went to bed before the game went into overtime. Either way, as sports fans, they missed a riveting, if not a well-played game. This game to determine a national champion had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for both teams, collectively and individually. As a team, Miami felt the ecstasy of winning and the despair of losing within ten minutes of each other. Their kicker did what all kickers hope to do: kick the game winning/tying field goal on the last play of the game. Their star running back was beginning to dominate the game when in the flash of an eye; his season was over, his career in jeopardy. Ohio State had the same emotions as a team; going from thinking they had lost to knowing they had won, one right after the other. Their quarterback couldn’t do much in regulation, yet completed a 4th-and-14 pass to keep his team’s hope alive.

With the flurry of action at the end of regulation and in overtime, the focus on the interference call in the end zone and Willis McGahee’s injury, one play might get lost in the memory of this game, but it’s the play this game will be remembered for years from now. The Buckeyes were about to score a touchdown to go up 21-7 when Miami’s Sean Taylor intercepted the ball in the end zone and headed the other way. Instead of a two-touchdown lead, the game was about to be tied and thrown into a frenzy. As Taylor was headed down the sideline, Ohio State’s freshman running back Maurice Clarett caught him from behind, made the tackle and stole the ball all at the same time! The physical ability to make the play and the mental presence to execute it and change the outcome right on the spot is a rare combination for any athlete, let alone a true freshman playing in the national championship game. Clarett spent the week bashing the athletic department in Columbus for their lack of understanding, so his motivation was in question as the game approached. Even though Miami did a good job keeping him in check, that one play, and his subsequent touchdown run in overtime raised his profile equal to his hype.

It wasn’t a clean, well-played game, but rather the kind of game Ohio State hopes to be in every week. It was tough, it went down to the wire, it had all kinds of strategy and turnovers and it turned into a test of wills.

“They couldn’t match our talent,” Hurricane tight end Kellen Winslow said after the game, “But sometimes it takes more than that. I guess we learned that tonight.”

Many sports fans also learned a lesson: don’t go to bed too early.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Ohio State Wins Title

A bunch of people asked me on Saturday, “Hey, who won that game last night?” Some of them just had a passing interest in what was going on (since neither Florida nor Florida State were playing) and others just went to bed before the game went into overtime. Either way, as sports fans, they missed a riveting, if not a well-played game. This game to determine a national champion had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for both teams, collectively and individually. As a team, Miami felt the ecstasy of winning and the despair of losing within ten minutes of each other. Their kicker did what all kickers hope to do: kick the game winning/tying field goal on the last play of the game. Their star running back was beginning to dominate the game when in the flash of an eye; his season was over, his career in jeopardy. Ohio State had the same emotions as a team; going from thinking they had lost to knowing they had won, one right after the other. Their quarterback couldn’t do much in regulation, yet completed a 4th-and-14 pass to keep his team’s hope alive.

With the flurry of action at the end of regulation and in overtime, the focus on the interference call in the end zone and Willis McGahee’s injury, one play might get lost in the memory of this game, but it’s the play this game will be remembered for years from now. The Buckeyes were about to score a touchdown to go up 21-7 when Miami’s Sean Taylor intercepted the ball in the end zone and headed the other way. Instead of a two-touchdown lead, the game was about to be tied and thrown into a frenzy. As Taylor was headed down the sideline, Ohio State’s freshman running back Maurice Clarett caught him from behind, made the tackle and stole the ball all at the same time! The physical ability to make the play and the mental presence to execute it and change the outcome right on the spot is a rare combination for any athlete, let alone a true freshman playing in the national championship game. Clarett spent the week bashing the athletic department in Columbus for their lack of understanding, so his motivation was in question as the game approached. Even though Miami did a good job keeping him in check, that one play, and his subsequent touchdown run in overtime raised his profile equal to his hype.

It wasn’t a clean, well-played game, but rather the kind of game Ohio State hopes to be in every week. It was tough, it went down to the wire, it had all kinds of strategy and turnovers and it turned into a test of wills.

“They couldn’t match our talent,” Hurricane tight end Kellen Winslow said after the game, “But sometimes it takes more than that. I guess we learned that tonight.”

Many sports fans also learned a lesson: don’t go to bed too early.