Former Bucs great Warren Sapp spoke openly about the double standard that Father Dungy had with the Bucs, which Joe believes may have cost the team as many as two Super Bowl rings.

The neat thing about this weekend being the Bucs’ 2002 Super Bowl reunion is all the quality radio interviews former Bucs are conducting on local airwaves.

Yesterday, as Joe referenced before, former Bucs great Warren Sapp broke down crying while talking about how Joe Jurevicius, with his infant son dying in the hospital, arrived at the NFC championship game and helped turn the game, and the Bucs’ championship season, around.

Sapp on the “Booger and Rich Show,” co-hosted by Sapp’s former teammate Booger McFarland and Rich Herrera, heard locally on WHFS-FM 98.7, also expanded on a subject Sapp briefly touched upon in the outstanding NFL Films “America’s Game” series produced that highlighted the Bucs’ Super Bowl season.

Booger mentioned that when he first joined the Bucs in 1999, he noticed how Sapp and other leaders of the Bucs defense used to gripe about how Father Dungy seemingly didn’t care about the offense, but held the defense to lofty, exacting standards.

Sapp said that apparently, Father Dungy had one objective for the offense which seemingly didn’t include scoring. “Don’t turn the ball over,” Sapp remembered. But that changed dramatically on Day 1 of the Chucky regime.

“That was the difference between Johnny and Tony,” Sapp said of the difference between the two coaches. “It was three yards and a cloud of dust” with Father Dungy.

This is why Joe has never been on the Father Dungy bandwagon. To suggest Father Dungy was not a good coach is outrageous. But his disregard for offense with the Bucs bordered on irresponsible and his standard excuse of “This is the way Chuck Noll did it with the Steelers” was at best a weak smokescreen.

Joe firmly believes Father Dungy’s indifference to the offense likely cost the Bucs two Super Bowl titles.

Pat Kirwan, the respected former Bucs scout, Jets coach, and Jets personnel executive, now a host on NFL Radio and an analyst for CBS Sports, says the Eagles are so ugly on defense they didn’t want to tackle in their secondary against Dallas last Sunday.

Kirwan goes on in this video to share a conversation with Dan Marino, where they watched Josh Freeman and agreed Freeman needs to “change the clock in his head,” essentially acknowledging that he has a little less time to throw but still enough time. Kirwan suggested shorter passing routes to compensate for the bending of Freeman’s offensive line.

This is one of Kirwan’s best breakdowns of the season, and his game prediction is rather soothing.

The college football world was abuzz earlier this week with a Sports Illustrated report of Buccaneers covert defensive strategist/operative Butch Davis being a hot candidate for the vacant head coaching job at Florida International University.

Well, that chatter is dead. Per the Miami Herald, Davis is not interested.

It’ll be interesting to see if Davis’ big name is linked to other college openings. As Joe’s written before, Monte Kiffin is eagerly seeking a return to the NFL, and the Bucs could look to him if they sought another defensive advisor to replace Davis. Kiffin has Greg Schiano’s love and could actually work with Buccaneers hands-on, unlike Davis.

Of the seemingly endless public reminiscing and storytelling this week from the 2002 Bucs Super Bowl team, which will gather at Sunday’s Bucs-Eagles game for a 10-year reunion featuring all the big names, perhaps Joe’s favorite nuggets came from Brad Johnson.

The Bucs’ Super Bowl QB painted a different picture of the famous story of Jon Gruden simulating ex-Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon in practice and working with Tampa Bay’s scout team to get the Bucs defense used to Gannon’s tendencies and preferences.

Last night, Johnson told the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, that Gruden’s quarterback play against the vaunted Bucs defense was more about Gruden wanting to grab the spotlight and keep the team loose.

“John just wanted his moment. He wanted to take over,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Gruden kicked aside Shaun King and Rob Johnson, who were running the scout team, and wanted to call Raiders audibles, but they were unrealistic considering a real game would have had a 40-second play clock.

“It took [Gruden] about a minute and a half to call each play,” Johnson said. “He completed about five or six balls. I think the defense let him complete his balls. … He kept it light that week. He had us dialed in, because he knew all the pressure that was being built up.”

Johnson went on to say Gruden was obsessed with his own game film from that practice as it related to his QB performance.

Johnson also told a personal story of how he and Gruden and Keyshawn Johnson were on the Super Bowl sidelines during the game crafting a play. Johnson said Gruden was barking and he was agonizing trying to memorize it while Keyshawn’s mind was on other things, “Man, doesn’t that popcorn smell good?” Keyshawn said.

Also intriguing, was Johnson talking about hiding injuries from the Buccaneers, saying he would pay his own doctors for medical testing and would demand the Bucs head trainer’s silence on those issues.

Great stuff also came from the Booger and Rich show on 98.7 FM. Here’s a link to a Warren Sapp interview in which Sapp opens up and cries while talking about Joe Jurevicius.

And this was a fun one, Monte Kiffin sat down with Booger and Rich. Kiffin rarely does interviews and it’s always fun to hear his unique voice and energy. Kiffin was very clear that he wants to return to the NFL next season, and he also shared plenty of 2002 memories. Interestingly, Kiffin laughed and explained how he broke various NCAA college coaching rules shortly after he left the Bucs for the University of Tennessee.

Recently, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik appeared on a podcast with NFL.com’s in-house college football scout Bucky Brooks.

During the podcast, Brooks asked Dominik about how he built the Bucs and what went through his decisions to draft certain players and to sign certain free agents. Here are some highlights:

On drafting Josh Freeman:

If you don’t have a franchise quarterback in this league, you will be looking for one every year. We wanted to give Josh the best chance to succeed. He is in the fourth year of his five year contract. We try to surround him with talent because we believe he can throw the ball around to get it to [weapons].

The thought-process on when to draft Doug Martin:

Running back is devalued a little bit; that’s why we stayed back [until late in the first round]. He’s just scratching the surface.

On why he drafted a safety (Mark Barron) so early in the first round:

It helped a little bit with Eric Berry [being drafted high by the Chiefs] playing well. Mark Barron, watching him on tape and seeing how physical he is and how he splashes, the game is such a vertical game and Mark has the physical attributes to do both. Played consistent for all season long for a rookie.

On how Lavonte David caught his eye:

When we watched the tape of Nebraska, we loved how he was able to cover [the whole field] and his instincts, but it was his ability to be an every down backer is what [stuck out], where you can put him in the slot or put him on tight ends on third down.

On hiring Greg Schiano:

With Greg, he had the leadership everyone knew about and what he did at Rutgers looked pretty impressive. We wanted him to change one side of the ball [defense] but also make sure he changed [the culture], and the more and more we interviewed Greg we knew he was the right choice.

Here is the link to the full podcast. Dominik appears at roughly the 32:00 mark.

The wacky new NFL labor agreement allows teams, at their discretion, to have one practice in pads (aka full contact work) per week in only three of the final six weeks of the season. In the remaining three weeks, there are no padded practices allowed, which means players can only run around in underwear and helmets during a drive to the playoffs.

The Bucs have one practice in pads remaining.

Greg Schiano confirmed today that he worked the Bucs a little harder in pads yesterday, in part because the team is healthier than it’s been in previous weeks and it’s part of his strategy to maximize the remaining full-contact practices.

For Joe, this is something to watch for the young Bucs. Schiano already proved he can get a team ready without a padded practice, as evidenced by the Bucs pounding of Minnesota on a short week for a Thursday night road game.

But Joe has talked to numerous players about this, and they all have said how much those fast-paced, game-speed physical practices reinforce the tenets of the New Schiano Order. Even Raheem Morris lamented the lack of permitted physical practices as his team was in free-fall last season but played solid ball in Green Bay after a hard week of practice.

This is just something to watch for going forward. Joe suspects Schiano will burn his final padded practice next week and find a new way to drive his players on Wednesdays in the final two weeks. Perhaps an obstacle course is planned.

The leader of the New Schiano Order cracked the fundamentals whip in practice yesterday, and it apparently it had a noticeable impact.

Today, Greg Schiano said his team will not be caught taking the lost-eight-in-a-row Eagles lightly. In fact, Schiano said the opposite is true.

“There’s been a spike in intensity,” Schiano said of the Bucs’ work this week. “We know where we are and what’s happened the last two weeks.”

This is music to Joe’s ears. Great pro organizations rise up and play their best ball in December. These next four games are a big test for the New Schiano Order. It sounds like they’ll be as ready as ever.

Joe suspects Team Glazer is taking note of the marketing power of the 2002 Super Bowl team

As Joe wrote days ago, the Bucs-Eagles game will be shown on local TV. The Bucs made that official this afternoon. But what Joe didn’t count on is what appears to be huge demand for Bucs tickets, so much so that tickets in the secondary market are moving for more than face value.

Joe can’t remember the last time someone actually could “scalp” a Bucs ticket. Even the 2008 “Mike Alstott Night” wasn’t a hot ticket like Sunday’s Bucs-Eagles game, the 10-year Super Bowl anniversary celebration.

TicketMaster.com only has single game tickets available. So resellers like StubHub.com are the place to go if you’re looking to buy two seats together. Joe’s been monitoring the StubHub action today, and $30 and $45 tickets (upper deck on the East Side) are moving for $70 and up.

This is great for the community, and Joe suspects Team Glazer is taking note of the wild demand driven by an event related to the 2002 Super Bowl. While to date Team Glazer seemingly has held firm to keeping Buccaneers Ring of Honor inductees in apparent chronological order, it might be wise to make the 2013 inductee from the glory years. A full house is a great thing on a lot of levels.

First, let Joe go on the record to say that the following idea of a massive change to eliminate the NFL kickoff is ridiculous.

That written, it’s interesting that NFL lockout general/commissioner Roger Goodell is publicly floating this possibility, which, per TIME magazine (does anyone under the age of 68 read that anymore?), comes from Greg Schiano.

 ProFootballTalk.com laid out the premise from a recent TIME cover feature on Goodell.

Sean Gregory of TIME writes that one of the options being considered for replacing kickoffs entails giving the ball to the team that would have been kicking off at its own 30, automatically facing a fourth down and 15 yards to go.  The team can then choose to punt or go for it, via fake punt or otherwise.

In other words, the kickoff would be replaced with the punt, and the onside kick would be replaced with a fourth-down conversion roughly half the distance of Ray Rice’s recent catch-and-run.

Joe hates this idea because it gives the ball back to the offense after a score, which is complete garbage on so many levels. Goodell needs to stop messing with football. It’s always going to be a violent game, otherwise it would be a different sport.

Now Joe knows why Schiano is of this mindset. Eric LeGrand was paralyzed on a kickoff when Schiano coached him at Rutgers.

With apologies upfront — Joe is not trying to be insensitive whatsoever — this is like suggesting decapitations to eliminate head colds. Eliminating kickoffs from the game will dramatically, drastically alter the game of football and may just help push more people away from the game.

Without kickoffs, if a team is down two scores late, they are pretty much screwed.

Kickoffs can easily be tinkered with in order to keep injuries down. How about altering the current rule where kickoff return men cannot move forwards at the moment of the kick?

Instead of having everyone backpedal to try to set up a wedge, allow kickoff return men to attack the kickoff team so that these guys don’t all have 40-yard sprints in order to launch themselves into the return team?

Or how about having a normal line of scrimmage on a kickoff, like a punt? There could still be onside kicks in this format, and how crazy would it be to be able to block a kickoff?

Joe understands totally where Schiano is coming from and there is a sense of nobility in his efforts. But football is a physical game. Always has been. The game has been watering down to the point of being unrecognizable. Currently, when Joe sees a big hit, he starts looking for a yellow warning sign on his TV indicating there is a flag for this nonsense “defenseless player” BS.

Hey man, if you are on the field and you have your chin strap buckled, you are not defenseless. That’s BS peewee/seven-on-seven caca; not football!

All of this BS about making the game safer is nothing more than Goodell trying to lessen the chances of the NFL getting sued and keeping insurance premiums down, not unlike years ago when states were strong-armed by the feds to require mandatory seat belts laws or have their federal funds earmarked for transportation costs withheld.

These laws, smart that they are, were passed by the U.S. Congress not so much driven by common sense but as the result of successful lobbying efforts by insurance agencies.

Football is football and the last time Joe remembered someone dying on an NFL field was Chuck Hughes of the Lions some 51 years ago — and that was from a heart attack as he ran to the sidelines after an incomplete pass, NOT from contact.

Should safety be a concern in the NFL? Absolutely. But this can be accomplished without destroying the game Americans crave, and turning it into flag football.

There is a reason why soccer is popular in the third world. The status of America as a great nation has eroded somewhat in recent years. Let’s not plunge ourselves to these depths just to save a few dollars in insurance costs.

King says a Bucs victory should be assured Sunday but the Bucs don’t have what it takes to win out

Yes, the Bucs should pound the Eagles on Sunday. If the Bucs can’t beat a team on an eight-game losing streak with a rookie third-round-pick quarterback, well, then the New Schiano Order isn’t where we think it is.

Former Bucs quarterback Shaun King, a member of the 2002 Super Bowl team to be honored Sunday, really drove home the point during an interview on WDAE-AM 620 this morning. King likened to the Eagles last year’s NFL train wreck.

“The Eagles are the 2011 Bucs,” King said. “They know they’re playing for a lame duck coach. … If we’ve really made the next step, this is a game we should dominate from start to finish.”

(Even in national interviews with his employer, NBC Sports Network, King refers to his beloved Bucs as “we.”)

While King says count on a win Sunday, he’s not on board with the Bucs running the table en route to the playoffs.

“I don’t think we can go 4-0 through this stretch,” said King, who went on to say the Bucs aren’t a “complete enough” team.

Joe disagrees. Obviously, the odds are against the Bucs running table. But they have enough talent in place to beat the Eagles, Saints, Rams and a Falcons team that likely will be resting starts in the season finale.

Let’s face it, the Bucs have three losing teams remaining on their schedule, plus an unmotivated Falcons team. That’s as good as it gets when you need to step up and prove you’re a playoff team.

As Joe pointed out yesterday, how ironic the Bucs chose the Eagles game to honor the 2002 Super Bowl champions, because the Bucs got to their lone Super Bowl by upsetting the Eagles in the final game held at Veterans Stadium.

For former Bucs reciever Joe Jurevicius, that game marked the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In a powerful, emotional interview Jurevicius gave Booger McFarland and Rich Herrera yesterday, co-hosts of the “Booger and Rich Show,” heard on WHFS-FM 98.7, Jurevicius gave eye-opening details about how he was torn with no easy answer.

Jurevicius’ infant son lay dying in a hospital yet his teammates also needed his services badly in the NFC Championship.

Missing virtually all practices leading up to the game to be with his son and having scant information on the gameplan, Jurevicius came off the bench and made a play that not only turned around the game, but may have launched the Bucs into the Super Bowl (Ronde Barber’s pick-six late in the game nailed the Eagles’ coffin shut).

Jurevicius spoke openly about how that week, his Bucs teammates became his family and Jurevicius notes how if it was not for the help of a specific Bucs teammate (that may shock some Bucs fans), Jurevicius, looking back, isn’t sure if he could have suited up that day.

Fresh from Arizona in the Pac-12 last season, rookie quarterback Nick Foles will start for the Eagles against the Bucs on Sunday. Mike Vick is out.

The Super Bowl Buccaneers, who will be honored during the game, used to eat young quarterbacks for lunch and leave them bruised and humiliated and dying to get out of town. Hopefully, the New Schiano Order will have similar success.

Foles was the losing quarterback in Dallas on Sunday night, but he didn’t play like a loser, going 22-for-34 for 251 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions. If you watch this video from the Eagles website, you’ll see — and hear — a big (6-6), poised quarterback who can make all the throws. But accuracy has been an issue with Foles during his time this season, despite the strong outing in Dallas.

Joe has to imagine the Bucs will blitz at least as often as they have all season, and likely much more. In Dallas, Foles had the luxury of flashy rookie Bryce Brown rushing for 169 yards and two touchdowns to help keep him comfortable in the pocket. The Bucs’ diet of blitzes and No. 1 ranked run defense should be enough to force Foles into a rookie-like performance, which hopefully translates into interceptions.

Ira Kaufman

Now Joe reported earlier this week to expect the Eagles-Bucs game Sunday to be televised locally.

Of course, we won’t know for sure until 1 p.m. today, the NFL-imposed deadline to sell 85 percent of non-premium seats at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

But plugged-in Bucs beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman had no hesitation that the game will be televised locally when he boldly stated as such while making his weekly appearance on “Mad Dog Radio,” hosted by the one and only Chris “Mad Dog’ Russo, heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.

On a segment called “Kaufman’s Korner,” Russo and Kaufman were discussing how many swaths of empty seats can be found at many NFL stadia each week, not just in Tampa Bay. Russo was adamant that more and more football fans prefer the at-home experience of the NFL as opposed to the all-day hassle of the in-stadium experience. Kaufman concurred.

(Joe has written this very premise countless times over the past few months and is happy that prominent sports voices like Kaufman and Russo are now seeing the light.)

Then, Kaufman went a step further. Boasting that he was calling from the “Blackout Capital of the NFL,” Kaufman shouted that the Eagles-Bucs game “will NOT be blacked out” Sunday.

We will find out in just a few hours.

Gerald McCoy says today’s practice at One Buc Palace went in a different yet familiar direction

The leader of the New Schiano Order must be trying to freshen his team’s mentality and refocus them on their core duties on the field — sort of a new start for the stretch run to a potential playoff berth.

Per Gerald McCoy, speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network tonight, Greg Schiano spent much of today’s practice engaged in his favorite pastime, fundamentals and details.

“Things went well. We got back to the basics. I think we slipped a little bit, got away from the basics and our training. So Coach took us back old school; we got after it. But it was good. It felt good,” McCoy said.

“In your individual [training] periods, you know, later in the season things start to change. You start to, not go through the motions, but you don’t pound away at the fundamentals like you do at training camp and in the spring and early on in the season. Well, today, everybody’s individual drills were just like the basics, fundamentals. You know, foot placement, hand placement, bending your knees, ankles, football fundamentals.”

Joe’s loving hearing about Schiano taking the team back to Pop Warner roots. Joe thoroughly enjoyed watching the Bucs go through all the ball security and tackling circuits — remember, Schiano taught McCoy how to tackle — and the most basic of fundamentals at all positions this spring.

And, frankly, the Bucs’ tackling was a bit sloppy the past two weeks, so this surely can’t hurt.

This also feels like a great psychological tactic by Schiano. The Bucs should beat the Eagles Sunday, fundamental drills or not. So why not take the opportunity to drill the basics and let your team believe that focus returned them to victory.

Joe’s always game for writing about Geno Hayes, especially when it’s so close to the two-year anniversary of what arguably was the most memorable moment of the Raheem Morris era — when Hayes played nightclub tough guy and got tased by Tampa cops but the volts didn’t take him down.

Word out of Chicago today has Hayes now stepping in to replace injured Brian Urlacher in the Bears lineup, so reports Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.

“This is not my first time around, this is not my first rodeo,” Hayes said Wednesday before practice at Halas Hall. “It was great getting the good experience in preseason and get accustomed to the defense and accustomed to the guys I was out there playing ball with day in and day out. It’s a great opportunity. Any time you get the opportunity to step on the field and make plays, it’s big.”

Amazingly, Hayes, one of Bruce Almighty’s last draft picks in 2008, is still just 25 years old.

Joe wishes Hayes well.

Doug Martin lit up the NFL recently when he went all Gale Sayers on the Minnesota Vikings and the Oakland Raiders.

Since, specifically in games against Atlanta and Denver, two of the best teams in the NFL, Martin wasn’t much of a factor, certainly not to the extent as a one-man gang against Minnesota and Oakland.

Joe has touched upon this before and so too has Bucs coach Greg Schiano. The notorious rookie wall may be dragging down Martin. But don’t tell that to the adorable Muscle Hamster, who mentioned to Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune he’s good to go Sunday and beyond, so Cummings Twittered.

@RCummingsTBO: Bucs RB Doug Martin: “It’s been a rough couple of weeks but I don’t feel that (rookie wall) at all. My body feels good; my mind is clear.”

This is good to read. Joe believes Martin didn’t have huge games against the Dixie Chicks and the Broncos because the Bucs believed the only way to beat those teams was with an air race, and Martin, unless the Bucs had the lead late, would not be used that much.

Hopefully, Martin will be able to get back on his wheel Sunday.

First, Joe has good news for Bucs fans as this seemed to be a popular question this week:

Joining the 2002 Super Bowl champs reunion this weekend — with the team to be honored Sunday before and during the Bucs game with the Eagles — is former Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

Kiffin joins Keyshawn Johnson, Chucky and a veritable Who’s Who of former Bucs from that glorious season.

Schiano didn’t try to hide his enthusiasm for having a chance to see — and perhaps chat with — that 2002 squad. Perhaps the biggest reason Schiano worshipped that team was Kiffin.

Schiano didn’t try to hide his enthusiasm for having a chance to see — and perhaps chat with — that 2002 squad. Perhaps the biggest reason Schiano worshipped that team was Kiffin.

“I am excited. These are guys for me, as a younger coach — I told your guys many times — we studied the Tampa defense wherever I have been whether it was Miami or at Rutgers. And I mean obsessed with the Tampa defense. Studied every tape they had and put on our system. Things like that. To see those players — I see one every day, Ronde — but to see those players and the rest of them and the coaches that will be around, that will be good.

“We have a job to do. The worst thing we could do on the commemorative weekend for those guys is for us to go out and not do our job. We want to make our alumni proud of how we coach and how we play. That is just another piece of the goal this weekend to go out there and get our win.”

Now there are rumors that Schiano consiliere Butch Davis is in the running to fill the head coach opening at Florida International University. Schiano wouldn’t confirm or deny this report from SI.com on Davis and FIU. But given how much Schiano respects and admires Kiffin, and given how Kiffin, since resigning as defensive coordinator at USC, wants to return to the NFL likely in a consultant capacity, would the Pinellas County resident be interested in working with Schiano in the same manner as Davis does?

Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan reacts to a report he pursued the Boston College head coaching gig

Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan quashed the notion that he reached out to throw his name in the ring for the now filled Boston College head coaching job. Today at One Buc Palace, it was Sullivan’s first time before local media to comment on Sunday’s report from ESPN.

Sullivan explained that all his attention and energy “has been and will continue to be on the Buccaneers offense.” He said before he would pursue another job would be to talk to Greg Schiano, then Mark Dominik, and then Team Glazer. “None of those conversations occurred.”

Now Joe’s a cynical guy. Joe’s not questioning the Sullivan’s integrity, but surely Sullivan’s agent could have tossed his client’s name in the mix at Boston College. It’s a common tactic this time of year to guage interest in the marketplace, college and professional.

All kinds of Rays roster moves are popping as baseball’s winter meetings are in full swing. And Joe is on top of all things Rays on JoeRaysFan.com, aka RaysIndex.com. Call it what you want, but you should be there daily.

The Bucs’ No. 1 kick returner, LeQuan Lewis, a member of the famous Fearsome Foursome, “E.J., Leonard, Danny and LeQuan,” went down on the field against Denver with a knee injury. But his prognosis is better than expected, so Greg Schiano said today.

Schiano said Lewis may not be ready for Sunday against Philadelphia, but he should be back soon after that.

The Lewis injury likely means another Lewis might sniff the field in key third-down situations. That would be Myron Lewis.

It’s unclear whether Michael Smith will finally come off the inactive list, aka the Michael Smith list. The Bucs might opt for Roscoe Parris to return kicks or wide receiver Chris Owusu, even though Smith is listed on the depth chart as the backup return man.