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One of the NFL’s worst teams was looking for insurance at Quarterback. From ESPN-
The third time is charm for the Oakland Raiders and Jeff Garcia as they agreed Monday on a one-year contract, the team confirmed.
Twice before during his football career, the Raiders talked to Garcia about joining them, dating back to his days coming out of college.
Garcia grew up in Gilroy, Calif., and went to college at San Jose State. Out of college, he signed with Calgary of the CFL. The Raiders also talked to him about joining them another time before he settled into a career with the San Francisco 49ers, a career that has featured Pro Bowls and trips to the playoffs.
The 39-year-old Garcia is expected to back up JaMarcus Russell, who is solidly entrenched as the starter.
The Raiders will be Garcia’s sixth team. He has also played with the 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If not for his age, you might wager Garcia plays with a dozen or more NFL teams before his career is through.
Hayes was a 6th round pick in the 2008 NFL draft out of Florida State. From ESPN-
Authorities say the girlfriend of Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Geno Hayes stabbed him in the head and in the neck.
A Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokeswoman says Hayes was taken to a hospital by a friend Saturday. The 21-year-old former Florida State player was treated and later released.
Deputies arrested 19-year-old Shevelle Bagley on Saturday afternoon. The sheriff’s spokeswoman says Hayes and Bagley got into an argument, which led to Bagley grabbing a pair of scissors and stabbing Hayes in the head. He managed to get the scissors away from her, but authorities say she then grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the neck.
Lets pray Hayes recovers and Ms. Bagley gets the justice she deserves.
After cutting five players two days ago, the Bucs fill a roster spot. From AP-
The Cleveland Browns have traded talented and troublesome tight end Kellen Winslow to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for undisclosed draft picks.
Winslow’s five years in Cleveland were marked by injuries and controversy. He missed most of his first two seasons with injuries, but made the Pro Bowl in 2007 after making 82 catches for 1,106 yards. He demanded a new contract after the ’07 season.
Last season, he was briefly suspended by the Browns after being hospitalized with a staph infection.
Winslow was the sixth overall pick in the NFL 2004 Draft. The son of Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow Sr., he had 219 receptions for 2,459 yards and 11 touchdowns in 44 games.
When healthy Winslow has been a good player. He had a run in with management last year and the trade may have something to do with that. Note- The AP article doesn’t tell the whole story of Winslow’s 2008 suspension. He got a staph infection, was suspended after criticizing the GM because the Browns have had a recent history of these outbreaks, but the suspension was subsequently lifted by the Browns Owner.
He did his first ever press conference today-
New Bucs defensive coordinator Jim Bates plans to uphold the standard set by Monte Kiffin — if not improve upon it.
Bates, 62, held his first news conference today since being hired to replace Kiffin Jan. 22.
“I’d rather come in following Monte than come into someplace where they haven’t been passionate, they haven’t had the team feel and they haven’t played good defense,” Bates said. “I’m glad I’m coming in here. And they’re big shoes to fill. But we’ve also had some great defenses as far as over the years. We’re just looking forward to the challenge.”
Bates, who had top 10 defenses in Miami and Green Bay, outlined some of the differences and similarities to Kiffin’s Tampa Two scheme.
I remember Bates days in, but mostly for his time as head coach after Dave Wanstedt got fired. Miami began the 2004 season 1-8 before Bates was named interim coach. Miami went 3-4 the rest of the season, included in that was an upset win over New England. Bates not shy when it came to showing enthusiasm on the sideline when things went well for Miami.
Bates got some mention from the South Florida and myself before I took up blogging, when it came to the naming of the next non-interim coach of Miami. For those who have forgotten, Dolphin ownership went for Nick Saban and Bates left Miami for Green Bay. Miami’s record from 2005-07 with Saban and his successor Cam Cameron? 9-7, 6-10, 1-15. Where would Miami be now if Bates had been kept on? Would the team have missed the 2007 debacle? Anyone have an opinion?
The Bucs ended the 2008 season by losing their last four games. From AP-
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen on Friday after the team collapsed following a 9-3 start and failed to make the playoffs.
Gruden, who helped lead the Buccaneers to a victory over the Oakland Raiders in the 2003 Super Bowl, was Tampa Bay’s coach for seven years. Allen was general manager for the last five seasons.
“We will be forever grateful to Jon for bringing us the Super Bowl title, and we thank Bruce for his contributions to our franchise,” Buccaneers co-chairman Joel Glazer said in a statement. “However after careful consideration, we feel that this decision is in the best interest of our organization moving forward.”
The Buccaneers were tied for first place in the NFC South heading into December, but finished with losses to Carolina and Atlanta on the road and San Diego and Oakland at home, where they had been 6-0. One more win would have landed a NFC wild-card berth.
The 9-7 record this season left Tampa out of the playoffs for the fourth time in six years.
Last year ended in disappointment but Tampa ought to be careful. Before Tony Dungy took over the head coaching duties in 1996, The Bucs had thirteen consecutive losing seasons. No Florida fan wants to see the franchise experience wilderness years like those a second time.
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| Monday, January 12, 2009 |
 Tony Dungy is calling it quits, ESPN reports.
The Indianapolis Colts have scheduled a news conference for Monday afternoon, presumably to announce the retirement of coach Tony Dungy.Foxsports.com reported Monday that Dungy will step down after seven seasons in Indianapolis. The news conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET at the team’s practice facility, although the Colts did not given a reason early Monday for their announcement.
A source told Foxsports.com that Dungy has talked his decision over with family members and they decided it was the best time for him to step aside. Dungy, the source said, was at the team’s complex in Indianapolis on Monday morning saying goodbyes to players and team employees.
The Colts have designated associate coach Jim Caldwell as Dungy’s eventual replacement.
Since winning the Super Bowl after the 2006 season, Dungy has thought long and hard each offseason about how much longer he really wants to work in the NFL. He said after the Colts’ overtime playoff loss to the San Diego Chargers in the AFC wild-card game nine days ago that he would spend about a week deciding whether to return for an eighth season as coach.
He spent much of that time in Tampa, Fla., where his wife Lauren and children moved full-time about a year ago. The Dungys had the week to contemplate his future with the Colts, but a trip to New York for son Jordan’s surgery on a broken leg occupied their time. Jordan Dungy is back home in Florida and doing well after surgery.
In Dungy’s 13 seasons as a head coach, including six with Tampa Bay, he’s put together a sparkling resume. He has 148 career wins, including playoffs, and ranks 19th all-time in victories. He’s the only black coach to win a Super Bowl, the first coach in league history to reach the postseason in 10 consecutive seasons and the only coach to preside over six straight seasons of 12 wins or more.
This isn’t shocking. Dungy’s been hinting at retirement for the last couple of years and, certainly, being an NFL head coach is a grueling job.  My guess is that work with prison ministry and so forth won’t provide the same level of challenge and satisfaction that he gets from coaching and that he’ll be back in two or three years.
This will be the third consecutive year a regular season NFL game is to be played in the United Kingdom. From AP-
The New England Patriots will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next season at Wembley Stadium, the third straight year the NFL will stage a regular-season game in the British capital.
The game will be played Oct. 25. The Bucs will be listed as the home team, giving up a game in Tampa.
“Over the past two years, we have seen first-hand the excitement that exists for our sport in the UK,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday in a statement. “The games have helped us to deepen our connection with our UK fans as well as create new ones. We are looking forward to another outstanding game in 2009.”
Five weeks ago, the New Orleans Saints beat the San Diego Chargers 37-32 before 83,000 fans at Wembley. Last season, the New York Giants defeated the Miami Dolphins 13-10. Both games were sold out.
The NFL is also expected to play a regular-season game in London in 2010.
Honestly, why does the NFL feel the need to play an overseas game? There once was a NFL Europa, and knowledgeable pro football fans know what happened to that.
He had started all ten games this year and had 563 yards rushing for the season. From the Tampa Tribune-
It’s official. Earnest Graham’s season is over. The Bucs placed their top running back on the injured reserve list on Wednesday, along with linebacker and special teams player Geno Hayes.
The Bucs signed RB Noah Herron and LB Matt McCoy to fill the roster spots vacated by Graham and Hayes.
Graham started all 10 games this season and leads the Bucs with 563 yards rushing on 132 attempts (4.3 avg.) and four touchdowns. He also had 23 receptions for 174 yards. He left Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings after the second play with an ankle injury.
Warrick Dunn will replace Graham on the depth chart. How serious is this injury for Tampa? They will beat Detroit this weekend to go 8-3, but it will be trickier after that.
It is for a helmet to helmet hit in last Sunday’s game against Atlanta. From AP-
Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie cornerback Elbert Mack was suspended one game without pay by the NFL on Tuesday for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.
The league said the flagrant violation of player safety rules was the second in three games for the undrafted free agent, who was fined $5,000 for an unnecessary roughness foul against Houston Texans quarterback Alex Brink during the Bucs’ preseason finale Aug. 28.
The hit against Ryan occurred Sunday when the NFL said Mack unnecessarily launched himself into the rookie quarterback and made helmet-to-helmet contact during an interception return play.
I haven’t seen a video of the play in question, but I’m hazarding a guess that the hit was pretty flagrant. Accidnetal contact shouldn’t lead to suspensions, but the NFL fines or penalizes players for end zone celebrations. What ever happened to the days of Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson?
Coming off a 1-15 season riddled with injuries, my favorite Florida team can’t wait until training camp before one of its players gets hurt.
Dolphins quarterback Josh McCown cut the index finger on his throwing hand during an accident involving a chainsaw on July 3, but said that it wasn’t serious and he will be ready to compete for the starting job when training camp opens next week.
McCown said he needed six stitches to close the wound on his right index finger after his brother, Luke, a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he “miscommunicated,” while shaving down a tree stump at his lakefront home in Jacksonville, Texas.
“We were clearing some brush and wanted to cut up some stumps and stack them,” said Josh McCown, whose family owns a sawmill business in East Texas. “I was holding down a little piece of a tree trunk and my little brother, Luke, had the chainsaw. He hit a knob and the chainsaw jumped.”
McCown was initially alarmed by the amount of blood, but was relieved when the finger was intact and the emergency room doctor told him there was no damage to the tendon.
If what Josh says is true, that’s good news for him. To be honest, a person who makes their living with their hand(s) should stay away from dangerous machinery. MLB pitcher Bobby Ojeda’s career may have been adversely affected after he lost a fingertip on his throwing hand as a result of his trimming some hedges. Ojeda only having one decent year after the injury.
McCown said he realized that he was fortunate and would refrain from operating chainsaws until after his playing days are over.
Add McCown to the long list of people who only learn through trial and ERROR there are just some things we shouldn’t be doing. Ojeda didn’t wise up after his accident. Five years later, he went boating with at least one drunken teammate. Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed when the boat they were riding in along with Ojeda collided with a pier.
The Dolphins were investigating the matter
If I was feeling real snarky, I’d say someone should investigate why a football franchise coming off its worst season felt the need to sign a Quarterback who has thrown more INTs than TDs lifetime. Oops looks like I just was a little snarky.
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