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Hats Off To Bucs If They Clinch

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2007

TAMPA - It's not as if it happens every day.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been playing football since 1976, or 1977 if you don't count 1976. In that time, the Bucs have won five division titles.

Today could be their sixth.

It's never a little thing.

"The hat always matters," Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said.

You often get hats these days when you win divisions.

Maybe the Bucs won't get them.

Maybe they want more.

Never mind that the NFC South has fallen before the Bucs as few divisions have.

Never mind that the last three teams the Bucs face this regular season are imploding, beginning today with the incredibly collapsing Falcons.

It still matters.

Meant To Be?

Falling Into Place

It might matter this season more than any other in recent memory, because this one came out of nowhere.

"A lot of people outside these walls didn't expect much from this football team," Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks said.

On the other hand, who knows what the 3-10 Falcons might hatch. They might play an inspired game to show that scalawag, Bobby Petrino, described as a coward by many Falcons.

Too bad none of them ever called their former quarterback a coward for killing helpless animals.

That's a column for another day.

This one is for hat day.

Maybe today was meant to be.

Everybody made a lot of the language Jon Gruden used in front of the TV cameras a couple of weeks ago in New Orleans. There are lip readers still in counseling.

But this is about another word.

The D word.

Destiny.

It's hard to see around the Packers or Cowboys, or even the first round.

They're not even there yet.

But look at everyone who wrote these Bucs off.

And look at this cast of characters.

Earnest Graham? Greg White? Donald Penn?

Who are these people?

"Maybe there's a little something going on," Graham recently said.

Destiny?

"You don't talk about destiny when you're 4-12," Gruden recently said.

Bucs center John Wade considered the D word.

"Do I believe in destiny? I believe in a group of guys putting in the time and work to get to a destination. This group of men started in March, and everything we went through, we came together for one goal."

Came together and stayed together.

A Season From Nowhere

Yes, the teams the Bucs have beaten are a combined 19 games under .500 and the teams they've lost to are a combined 17 games over .500.

The Bucs have beaten just one team with a winning record.

And if Atlanta somehow wins today, things could get crazy real fast.

Remember, the Bucs and Falcons have played some nutty games, especially since Gruden and Rich McKay parted ways the season after the Super one.

When are they going to reunite and hug like Dean and Jerry did on the Labor Day Telethon?

Stranger things have happened.

Well, not really.

But as strange things go, this season fits. The chopping block is nowhere to be seen, replaced today by what actually looks like a victory stand for a season from nowhere.

There's still a matter of winning. Today is about that.

Last season, the Bucs handed down their worst season in 15 seasons. If they turn it around today, it's just as well it comes at home, in front of believers, not to mention the converts, who expected nothing but were won over by men who came together and demanded everything.

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