Chip Carter's Newsroom

Ok, the Bucs have been on the clock, since Miami signed Jake Long -- the Rams really have been on the clock, since they pick behind the Fins, but the move by Miami, the early move, means teams can narrow down who is going where in the first rounds of the draft -- not that it makes it any easier for the Bucs sitting way down in the 20th slot.  But here is how I see the players falling for Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen.

First round:  (20th pick overall) Mike Jenkins CB, USF    This is a solid move by the Bucs, Ronde Barber is getting older, USF plays the same version of the Bucs defense, but Jenkins is a corner who can play one one one if needed and still work in a zone.  Plus, what Monte Kiffin likes about his is his ability to hit, make plays, he loves the physical game.  Outside shot of, (get ready to take a breath) Brian Brohm from Louisville, I know the Bucs are standing hip deep in quarterbacks, but Bruce Gradkowski is done in Tampa, Chris Simms will be shipped out, leaving two aging veterans, Jeff Garcia and Brian Griese and I am not yet convinced that Luke McCown can carry the load.(

Second Round (52nd overall)  Andre Caldwell WR, UF   I would love to see Devin Thomas in his slot, but he is long gone by now, Thomas out of Michigan State is considered the best receiver in the draft.  Jon Gruden wants speed at the receiver position,  Caldwell blistered the 40 at the combine running a 4.35...which is just smoking fast......he wants size at that positon and Caldwell brings that at 6 feet.   DeSean Jackson, just as quick, but not as big....plus, what Gruden would love to get out of the position is a return man as well and Caldwell can handle that slot.  If the Bucs don't get Caldwell here, then they grab Early Douce, he is quick, runs a pro style route, and can get good yardage after the catch.....plus, I know Doucet would be a good fit in Jon Gruden's West Coast Offense

Ok, the first day only has two rounds, because the draft starts at 3pm, when you chart it out, the Bucs will make their pick at 6:15 or 6:20pm which fits us perfectly because our news on Saturday starts at 7pm, so we will bring you Gruden's reaction and all the inside information from the war room on Saturday.....

Sunday Round 3 (82nd overall pick) Ok, here is the question, if Kevin Smith from UCF is still sitting here in the 3rd round, which is a possible outside shot, then the Bucs should take him.  If not look for them to take Chris Harrington, the DE out of Texas or Mike McGlynn, the offensive tackle from Pittsburgh

Round Four (120 overall) Geno Hayes, Outside Linebacker, Florida State, Hayes has some character issues, but the Bucs will count on Derrick Brooks to straighten Hayes out and get him ready for the pro game.

Round Five (153rd over all) Bucs stay on the defensive side and take Carlton Powell, out of Virginia Tech.

  The Bucs will talk to Andre Caldwell on Thursday.  The former Gator wide receiver had one of the fastest times in the drat and the early word is that Jon Gruden wants to draft a wide receiver in the first round.   Caldwell had nearly 60 catches for 761 yards and 7 touchdowns.   Gruden has been talking to receivers with speed, he has had a conversation with Desean Jackson (the wide receiver out of California) had the fastest forty time at the combine and the Bucs have also talked to Houston's Donnie Avery.  (all of these guys can fly)   Remember the Bucs only have 5 picks in the draft and on the first day there are only 2 rounds.

  Starting next week on Monday April 21st, I will start charting my mock drafts, so make sure you check back in.  Until then, check this website daily because as we get the news on pre-draft moves,  I put them here first.

No playmakers yet for the Bucs in free agency. Don’t panic...the high dollar positions are running back and wide receiver, big names are out there that will require big paychecks The draft is deeper this year in terms of both, so there is still plenty of time. Remember the signing period for restricted free agents ends April 18th but unrestricted free agents (which is the list the players the Bucs are shopping from) ends on July 22nd, or the first scheduled day of training camp. (whichever comes first and usually it’s the training camp day). There is always a process in free agency, big dollar contracts, roll through the league the first couple of weeks, then teams start gearing up for the draft and then the shopping starts again. This is a process that will continue, (especially for the Bucs right up to training camp).

While Bruce Allen has nearly 45 million to spend, he doesn’t have to spend all of it (although he should) but (because of league rules) the Bucs have to spend nearly 29 million of it, thats how much they need to raise the team payroll.

Some of the names floating through the Bucs free agent rumor mill are gone, Lance Briggs is staying with Chicago and getting a guaranteed 13 million dollar bonus...Devery Henderson will remain a Saint, Dante Stallworth is getting 10 million in guaranteed cash to move to Cleveland.

Here is the latest on the Bucs move updated Sunday at 10:14am.....Bengal Chad Johnson is still in the mix....Johnson isn’t a free agent, the Bucs would have to make a trade to get Johnson but he would be a big upgrade...and getting Johnson would give the Bucs a shot at another first round receiver in the draft (more on that below)

Another WR in the mix, is Bryant Johnson out of Arizona....he’s big, picks up good yards after the catch and has decent speed.....

At running back, Mewelde Moore is still in the mix....as well as Julius Jones...Moore would be my first choice...he can break it at any time, is a solid team player, won’t moan about playing time...so he will fit into Gruden’s platoon system at running back...and the Vikings don’t want to spend the cash to bring him back.......

So far here are the Bucs are looking at.

Unrestricted Free Agents

TE Anthony Becht (won’t be back)

DE Kevin Carter (talking with team now about renegotiating his deal)

CB Sammy Davis

WR Mark Jones

C Matt Lehr (a question mark)

DE Greg Spires (cut loose)

RB Michael Pittman (won’t be resigned)

TE Jerramy Stevens (will get a new deal)

LB Jeremiah Trotter

C John Wade (cut

Players signed:

RB Michael Bennett

WR Paris Warren

C Jeff Faine

LB Antoine Cash

DE Jimmy Wilkerson

TE John Gilmore

 In my mind, the Bucs biggest priority has to be offensive impact players. Right now, this team just doesn’t have any. Joey Galloway is coming off an injury filled season, he will be 37 years old when the schedule cranks up in September and he will pull in nearly 1.7 million (assuming the Bucs don’t extend his contract, which I think would be a mistake). Galloway makes great grabs, but does he make clutch catches. I don’t think so, simply put he is a speedster that can stretch a defense, but if this team doesn’t have a receiver he can line up with, someone to benefit from the holes Galloway creates, what the point. The Bucs have the 20th pick in the first round of the draft and right now Cal Wide Receiver DeSean Jackson is at the top of their list. He’s not big, 5'9" but he was the fastest player at the combine, running the 40 in a blistering 4.35 seconds.

As the shopping season continues, I will keep you updated on the latest, so keep checking back.

You probably didn't even notice the news today that the Indy Racing League merged with the Champ Car series.....this will help the St. Pete Grand Prix....

Its a huge move for any driver that wants to have a history in open wheel racing.....

Twelve years ago, the two sides started fighting...NASCAR then took over motorsports, now some of the top open wheel drivers from the IRL and Champ series are now racing in NASCAR.......

I think that is what finally got the merger going....they were watching more and more open wheel drivers leave Indy racing, in racing, the drivers are the pull...its not the teams, not the owners, its the driver behind the wheel...if the IRL and Champ kept losing drivers, the series would eventually just dry up and blow away...

The merger means that one of the biggest races now on the schedule is the St. Pete Grand Prix....the merger won't be done for this race, but next year...the St. Pete Grand Prix, will have more big name drivers, more teams, which means more publicity, more coverage....which will pull in more racing fans....

Simply put this was a move the IRL had to make...or risk losing more drivers, turning the IRL into a series that despite a deep history in motor racing, could have become history....

Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip sit on the front row for this Sunday's Daytona 500. For Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports it is business as usual, for Michael Waltrip, it is a stunning turn around. Remember one year ago, Waltrip was caught cheating, inspectors found a fuel additive in his engine, his crew chief and team race president were thrown out of Daytona.  It was an embarrassing start for Toyota, Waltrip's Napa sponsor and for Michael Waltrip.  Now he sits on the front row and Toyota's had four cars in the top 8 spots, including Lakeland's Joe Nemechek, who is now guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500 and Zephyrhills David Reutimann, who is also guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500.  Both of them still have to race in the Gatorade Duels to find out where they are starting, but the big bonus was just getting locked into the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.  For the first time in Reutimann's cup career he is locked into a race going into Sunday, so now all his crew has to do is work on getting his car race ready.  Joe Nemechek was driving for a new sponsor "Furniture Row" a sponsor that had never had a car make the Daytona 500 and Nemechek whose knickname is "Front Row Joe" for all the poles that he wins, almost had the pole for this race as well.

Now the question is what kind of a race will we see on Sunday?  No one really knows, the Bud Shootout, gave you a little bit of a clue...but remember there were only 23 cars running in that race....so you didn't get the complete picture of how teams and cars would handle in the draft.  There also were not any rookies running that bumpy pavement at nearly two hundred miles an hour and rookies are always a factor in Daytona.

 In Daytona, the formula for winning is handling + horsepower = a trip to victory lane, but I think you need to add one more equation to that formula this year, handling + horsepower + track position = a trip to victory lane.  That track position will depend on team work, we saw how important that was on the FOX broadcast of the Budweiser shootout....Dale Earnhardt Jr, needed and got help from his teammates, to win the Bud shootout...teams know they will need the same kind of cooperation to beat the competiton on Sunday.

I love going to this race,  you know drivers will have a little extra motivation, trying to win the 50th edition of the Daytona 500.  For all the inside information you need on this race, everything from our 50 Greatest Moments in Daytona history, to photo galleries and exclusive web coverage, you need to check out our web page www.insidedaytona.com that page is just loaded with information.

So, who wins this race?  Its still too early for me to make a prediction, that will come Thursday after the qualifying races.....but, if you think you know now, put it on the blog and I'll put the picks on the air......

   Did you see this coming?  Even if you are a Giant fan did you see this coming?  Honestly, when Tom Brady found the end zone  hitting Randy Moss with 2:42 left did you think that New York, with Eli Manning had that kind of comeback  with 2:39 left?  Did you think with the Giants facing 3rd and 11 on the New England 25 that a rookie receiver would make the key first down?  Did you think that Manning would it a wide open Plaxico Burress?  Stunned, shocked, the Patriots (most of them) weren't on the field when the NFL made the Giants snap the ball for one play witeh :01 on the clock. 

    The Giants stun the Patriots, ending New England's perfect season even writing it, its still not sinking in. Eli Manning wins a Super Bowl the year after his brother does, Eli Manning is the MVP of Super Bowl 42, Eli Manning has officially grown up as a quarterback.  Again, he gets the MVP hardware, but it was the Giants defense that really should get the award.  Brady was sacked 5 times, felt the heat at least 12 more times and the Patriot offense never could get into a flow,

  As a Buccaneer fan did you watch the Giants/Bucs game and think, New York has a chance to go all the way and win the Super Bowl?   This honestly is one of the biggest upsets in sports history, it is one of the best Super Bowls in league history.  What really has to hurt the Patriots is that New England lost the league's biggest game the same way they have won two out of their three Super Bowl titles on a last second score,, but instead of kicking a field goal, the Giants find the endzone.   So the Patriots walk off as stunned losers....not the kind of ending they were thinking about at the end of this season.

 The big question all week was not if the Giants would win, the big question all week was where the Patriots would be ranked in league history after Super Bowl 42. That question is now history....the Patriots will still be known as one of the best in the league, one of the best in the decade, but in Super Bowl 42, they were not the best team in Arizona.

  I

Those who cover the Lightning and the fans that watch games, need a reality check....if you erase expectations, the performance will pick up......

Here's the deal, When this team drops two or three in a row, the pressure starts building, fans the media start saying Hey, they've got Vinny, Marty and Brad...well SO WHAT...they can dominate a game, dominate a stretch of games, but without help they can't dominate a seson. Lecavalier and St. Louis had huge years last year and the Bolts were still the 8th seed in the playoffs....so erase expectations, diminish the pressure on the lower tier players, on a young blue line and a 21 year old goalie...if this team isn't expected to win the division, the pressure is off and they probably go out and win the division,

C'mon this is a team that finished 10 games or so over 500 the last two years, thats simply not a team that is going to dominate, but it can push for a playoff spot

In fact, I think players are pushing too hard....at times they are thinking out there, when they should be reacting.

All the talk about turning it around, stepping up, getting the right mind set, that just reinforces a negative, thats a team trying to explain what they're not doing....don't think about what the fans and the media feel they should be doing.

Erase expectations, and peformance will increase, its that simple.

  There will be some who will debate the rusty or ready question.  Did Buc starters have too much rest going in?  The answer is no, that rusty or ready question does not fit this ball game, because simply put, Jon Gruden had to medically rest starters just to have enough bodies ready to take on the Giants.   Plus, players will tell you on both the Giants and Bucs that momentum is over rated in the NFL, as Jon Gruden said, once you hear the roar of the fans coming out of the tunnel, that gives you momentum, and it also feeds the momentum for the Giants--who hit this game 7-1 on the road, they love to hear the boos, feel the animosity.

  So what happened against the Giants,?  Simply put they were outplayed and outcoached.  After a first quarter that the Bucs dominated, the Giants made adjustments and the Bucs didn't.  Again, it is that simple.   The Bucs truly are a 9-7 football team.   There were only 5 teams on the Bucs schedule that had a winning record and the Bucs lost 3 out of the 5.  C'mon thats not a team that is ready to make a push deep into the playoffs.

   Honestly,  when you look at this team, when you look at this offense (even if everyone was healthy) are there one, two, or three players that cause defensive coordinators to stay up at night, scheming ways to slow them down?  Absolutely not.  Do you think Tony Spagnola, the Giants defensive coordinator looked at the players in Jon Gruden's offense and was really, truly worried that anyone of them could dominate a ball game?  Meanwhile the Giants came in with four players that could: Jacobs, Bradshaw, Toomer and Burress, all of them have impact capability and against the Bucs it was the Eli Manning to Toomer connection that gave the Bucs problems.  So really, this team (the Bucs) overachieved just by reaching the playoffs.   Does the Giants loss mean it wasn't a succesful season? Again, absolutely not.  I strongly feel that Jon Gruden did his best coaching job this season, with 14 players on injurred reserve, with an offense that had huge holes in the skill positions.  If you measure the season with that criteria than it was a succesful year.  The Bucs were in the playoffs, they (for a moment) had the thought that anything could happen once you hit the playoffs and then reality set in. 

  So what happens next?  The Bucs have 15 million in cap room and they need to start signing impact players.  They need another running back and Cadillac Williams is not going to fit the hole.  His comeback is up in the air anyway, after surgery...so the Bucs need a speedster, someone who can hit the hole in a hurry and create some impact plays, long runs from scrimmage.  A back like that in combination with Earnest Graham is a solid combination.  The Bucs also need 2 receivers who can dominate a ball game. Joey Galloway is quick, but not dominating, he can't take over a ball game, he doesn't catch balls well across the middle, doesn't fight for balls up against defensive backs, he is what he is: a speedster who can occasionally stretch a defense.  But there is where the Bucs need some help, for all of Jon Gruden's offensive wizardry, how often do you see him really stretch a defense?  How often do you see him really take a shot?  Now, this season he didn't have the bodies or the talent level to do that, so the Bucs need to get 2 not 1 but two solid receivers who can deliver impact plays.

  On the other side of the line, another pass rusher....against the Giants, Eli Manning did not feel a lot of pressure, didn't get a lot of heat.  Greg White is a nice surprise, Gaines Adams is growing and learning, Greg Spires can deliver when healthy, but none of them can dominate the game the way Warren Sapp could, or Simeon Rice could (when he was healthy) so the Bucs need another pass rusher, someone to apply heat. 

   Because next year, the schedule gets tougher, they get a division winning schedule, not the bottom of the barrel schedule they had this year, after a 4-12 season and a dead last spot in the division.  Next year, they get a division winning schedule and it won't be as easy. 

   Rest to me is more important than momentum.  Jon Gruden feels the same way, because he rested a lot of starters: Jeff Garcia dressed but didn't play.  Joey Galloway, Earnest Graham, Barrett Ruud, Jermaine Phillips, didn't dress, didn't play and thats the way it should be.  To me, momentum is over rated, it doesn't matter what a teams record is heading into the playoffs, as long as they are in the playoffs.

  To a man, the Bucs players I talked to in the locker room after the game:  Kevin Carter, Greg Spires, Chris Hovan, Michael Pittman all told me the same thing, the momentum kicks in, when they hear 70,000 Buccaneer fans crank up the volume next week against the Giants, that will give Jon Gruden and his team all the momentum they need.  There will be some (maybe quite a few) who will look at this Bucs team, a team that lost three out of their last 4 and talk about the loss of momentum, again, I gotta say,  momentum is over rated.  What Jon Gruden did, was get players who needed it, experience.   Wide receiver Chad Lucas looked comfortable out there, Michael Bennett got more playing time, Jeremiah Trotter, ran the defense.  All of it may or may not come into play when the playoffs crank up...but if those players are needed, if they need to step in on special teams or step in to the huddle, they now have some game experience behind them.

   So the fact that the Bucs lost 31-23 doesn't matter.  The fact that the Bucs finished the season 9-7, doesn't matter.  Jon Gruden was able to get what he wanted and that was some rest to recuperate for some of his key starters.  Did it just twist up Gruden's insides, not to be able to play everybody?  Absolutely.  Would have have wanted to finish the season 11-5 instead of  9-7, again the answer is yes.  But thats not how the end of this season played out, Gruden had to pull back the reins against San Francisco and he had to do it again against Carolina-- now we will see how much it pays off when they take on the Giants in the first round of the playoffs.

A sloppy game in San Francisco,  tipped balls, interceptions, fumbles, the Bucs just looked out of sync, players jumped offsides repeatedly...and really it...just...doesn't matter.....performance didn't matter in this game, winning didn't matter in this game.  There was only one thought that kept spinning through the head of Jon Gruden.   Don't get hurt, thats all Jon Gruden was thinking about in San Francisco, but he watched Maurice Stovall get carted off the field his arm in a temporary cast.  (the early word is that he is out with a broken arm).  Gruden  watched Greg White drop to the turf (he was able to walk off the field on his own) but thats all Gruden needed to see.  He pulled Jeff Garcia in the 2nd quarter, he pulled Joey Galloway, Earnest Graham.  By the end of the third quarter back ups were in at nearly every postion....and  really this is the move that he needed to make. Simply put, its a luxury to make the playoffs and still have two week left in the season and really, other than ego, what difference does it make if you go into the playoffs at 10-6 or 11-5, it doesn't make a difference, it shouldn't to Buc fans and it definitely should not matter to Gruden  Even if the Bucs could catch up and pass Seattle for that third seed  who cares???  So that changes a possible first round game, but really who cares....let the Super Bowl Tournament (as Derrick Brooks calls it) start and then start thinking about matchups and teams.  Besides, everything is going to have to go through Dallas eventually, (unless the Cowboys somehow stumble) but don't count on them stumbling.

  I know some of you may be pointing out that momentum is a bonus in the playoffs, that the Bucs don't want to hit the playoffs after one or two flat performances....I'm going to tell you that that doesn't matter.  Players will tell you that that doesn't matter.  We talked about that this morning with Brad Culpepper and Ricky Reynolds on our Tailgate Sunday program.....their take is this:  It's the NFL, not college, while teams would like to hit the playoffs on a two game winning streak, its not necessary.  Especially if its a two week stretch where the Bucs can rest some starters....thats what gives players in this league a little juice at the end of the season, its time off...thats what Gruden is going to be able give his team going into the playoffs...that time off should pay off in round one.

The Bucs have a ticket to the playoffs, but not one of them has a ticket to Hawaii, for the first time in 12 seasons, not one Buccaneer is going to the Pro Bowl.

Do they have players who should be going. Absolutely, the two that come to mind quickly are Jermaine Phillips and Ronde Barber.......

Earnest Graham is piling up the numbers, he didn't start early enough in the season, but he is having a Pro Bowl year.

But Here's the Deal, the way this team is put together, the way players have stepped up, when 12 players have been put on injured reserve, there really shouldn't be a pro bowl player, because this team is doing it every week with different players in key roles.

Their best defensive lineman was playing arena football...they're best running back has been invisible on special teams for four seasons, they're quarterback is closing is 37 years old. So is the absence of Pro Bowl players a snub?? Absolutely, but it also shows you how this team has come together on the field and in the locker room. It shows you the coaching job that Jon Gruden has done this season and it shows you the job that Bruce Allen has done to put this team together......

THE STREAK IS OVER!!!  Micheal Spurlock, an undrafted free agent, a player who didn't even get on the field until 9 games into the season, has run back the first kick off return for a touchdown in Buccaneer history.  Spurlock goes 90 yards up the right side and puts his name in the record books.

This streak started in 1976, and today was the Bucs 510th regular season game, 525th total game (counting playoffs) without a kickoff return for a touchdown.   In fact, the Bucs were the only team in the league never to have returned a kick off for a touchdown until today--when Micheal Spurlock (whose shoes have to be heading into Pro Football's Hall of Fame) takes the kick and runs into Buccaneer history.

When you look at the numbers, 141 different players have returned kicks in Buccaneer history and Spurlock is the first,  a player whose name will always be remembered as the one who broke a streak that started when the Bucs played their first game back in 1976. 

In 1976, Jimmy Carter was the country's President,  one of of 6 different Presidents to take office before Spurlock reached the endzone today.  The movie of the year in 1976 was "One flew over the cuckoos nest", the number one song of the year "Love will Keep us together" by the Captain and  Tennille,  This streak started when the first Rocky movie came out,  there were 5 Rocky sequels before Spurlock reached the endzone today.

So, let me know what you think, send me your comments and we'll put some of them on the air, let me hear from the Buccaneer fans who have waited a long, long time for this day.

The Mitchell report is out. Basically the bottom line is it reinforces what most of us have known. That wide spread steroid use was rampant in baseball and that everyone in the game is to blame.

The Former Senator said this afternoon, "Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players -- shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era,"

Mitchell said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the

problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."

Mitchell also said the biggest problem in baseball is no longer steroid abuse. The big problem now is HGH, (human growth hormone) right now players can use that and not worry about being detected, because HGH can not be detected in a urine test.

Some of the biggest names in the game are mentioned in the report, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield. Clemens is second only to Barry Bonds in the number of times his name is mentioned. Brian McNamee (a former Yankee personal trainer) implicated Clemens in his testimony to George Mitchell.

But here's the deal..first, this report, the names involved, all of it helps the case of Barry Bonds. (if he admits taking illegal substances) his arguement will be that he needed to cheat just to keep up with others. In fact, George Mitchell backs up that line of thinking when he said that "some players felt compelled to start using steroids and HGH after seeing others do it and they didn't want to lose their job"

Honestly though, there is nothing, absolutely nothing in this report that is surprising. Major League Baseball is trying to wrap up the "Steroid Era" and move on. In fact, George Mitchell strongly feels and told the Commissioner that he didn't want to see any of the players punished for illegal substance abuse and there were over eighty players named including: Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for steroids, was among the former players named. So were Kevin Brown, Benito Santiago, Lenny Dykstra, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Mo Vaughn and Todd Hundley. Mike Stanton, Scott Schoeneweis, Ron Villone and Jerry Hairston

Jr. were among the other current players identified.

Does any of this surprise you?? It shouldn't. When you see a pitcher like Clemens in his early forties still throwing 90 miles an hour, do you think that was just solid conditioning?? When you watched Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa go home run for home run, in a race that gripped the country? Did you think both players were clean?

Really Major League Baseball is to blame, the fans, the media, all share part of the blame. Records were being ripped up on a yearly basis, home runs were getting blasted all over the park, the high octane offenses were brining in fans, boosting attendance, driving merchandise sales, ticket sales. Do you not think that those who worked in the game didn't have a clue? In my opinion they did, they had to, there was no way not to know. Thats what George Mitchell means when he said: "Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades --

commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players

-- shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era," Mitchell said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."

The problem wasn't identified early, because Major League Baseball didn't see it as a problem. What they saw was extensive media coverage, what they saw was fan attendance at an all time high, what they saw was baseball still grabbing headlines, positive headlines even as the NFL season kicked off. For the first time in a long time, baseball was getting higher play than the NFL as the home run chase cranked up....as Roger Clemens kept mowing down batters, as the Yankees chased World Series.

Then it all came crashing down, even though the reaction to Barry Bonds was a sold out stadium near the end of his home run stretch, collectively across the country, there was a who cares attitude? Fans aren't stupid, fans can clearly see when records are being decimated by players who look like a version of the Hulk hunched up over home plate.

So what was the bottom line to all of this? Simple, today was baseball's way of saying, there was a problem, we investigated the problem and we have the pieces in place, now have the pieces in place to keep the problem from growing. Remember HGH wasn't a banned substance until 2005. Remember that mandatory steroid testing on all players didn't start until 2003. So today was just a version of show and tell, throw in a few big names, let those names take some of the heat for baseball's slow awareness of the problem and then move on.

The records the players have set will stay, there will be no asterisk. But what I think can and will happen is that some of those players that were heading to the hall of fame, (Clemens, Bonds) may now be shutout like Mark McGwire was in his first year of voting.

To me, the best part of Mitchell's investigation was his carefully constructed recommendations for what baseball needs to do now. Mitchell wants that the drug-testing program be done by an independent group, that a list of the substances players test positive for be listed periodically by the testing organization and that the timing of testing be more unpredictable. Mitchell said at times, players knew in advance when they were going to be "randomly" tested.

   The Bucs get Jeff Garcia back and Jon Gruden may get hit with a fine from the league.  Gruden says team trainers told him Garcia was going to be out two weeks, it was a two week injury.  Gruden kept that a secret, its a violation of the NFL injury rules and he may get fined for it.  There was one positive out of it, Gruden has found a back up quarterback, Luke McCown sealed up the job and hopefully its the last time we ever see Bruce Gradkowski on the field in a Buccaneer uniform. 

      Gruden told us today, "  I’m really pleased at what he  (Luke) has done. He’s handled a lot of football, some tough situations, and he’s moved our football team. We’ve made a lot of first downs and I still think there is plenty of room to grow but I think what we all see is a big, athletic guy that has promise and has potential to be outstanding. I think that has been obvious in the last two football games. There is clearly work to be done, but we are pleased with a lot of things that he did do in the last two games, ” Gruden said.

   I think the team lost part of their focus, when Garcia didn't get the start, that essentially told the players, the game in Houston was a throw away game and really it was.  It doesn't change the division standings, it doesn't change home field advantage, it doesn't change where the Bucs will go if they win their first round playoff game.  So, when Garcia (who Gruden says, could have played) was inactive as the 3rd QB, I think the team reacted to that.

   But now Garcia is back...and really, he's been gone for 3 games, when you remember he got hurt early in the Washington game.  Gruden told us exactly what Garcia brings to the team when he is in the huddle. ", “He brings a lot of lift. We really missed him for three games. He came out the first play or second play of the game against Washington, so we have really played three full football games without him, and that is a tough strain on anybody. We are eager to get him back and have him healthy, and ready to go play the way he has proven he likes to play; aggressive, creative, and competitively.”

  So, this is the game the Bucs need to gear up for, a win over Atlanta puts them into the playoffs, seals up the division and puts the Bucs one game closer to wrappijng up the year with an undefeated record in the division.  A win over Atlanta would put them 5-0 with only Carolina left on the schedule.

John Tortorella had the famous phrase shut your yap, thats what he and the entire organization needs to do about the officiating.

Here's the deal, my Dad was a college hockey coach, never complained publicly about the officials. He always said, when you complain about officiating, that line of thinking starts seeping through the team, it gives players a built in excuse......they get a woe is me complex.....

The Bolts are on a four game losing streak Brad Richards, Chris Gratton, Shane O'Brien all have made comments....were they right,? yes...were they necessary? .no...

Even in the broadcast booth Lightning analyst Bobby Taylor jumps on every missed or bad call....I know  part of that is his job, but really, its an over reaction to the call, not an analysis......the first comment you hear is "Are you kidding me?"

Torts needs to put a stop to it, stop the constant talk from the booth to the front office, especially on the ice and in the locker room......

Yes this losing streak  started with a bad call by the refs giving Atlanta a power play in overtime, but the Bolts gave up a three one lead, with defensive breakdowns like filip kuba and Paul Ranger, both on their bellies sliding like penguins across the ice......

The Bolts are now in a four game losing skid, are they getting bad calls, absolutley, but they've also given up 11 goals in four games....and here is the problem, 7 of those 11 goals were in the third period or overtime...thats not bad calls, thats bad defense...So Torts needs his team to shut their yap and play....