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Throwdown: Bucs Vs. Titans

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

Each week during the season, The Tampa Tribune will challenge a columnist from the Bucs' opposing city to a Throwdown, to determine the superior city - and which team will come out ahead. This week's Throwdown features the Tribune's Martin Fennelly against David Climer of The Tennesseean. (Who's the winner? Be sure to vote, and to comment below).

Bucs: A Grand Ole Beating

Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune

Remember the Titan.

Pacman, we hardly knew ye.

We salute the Tennessee Titans for their solidarity toward suspended mate and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling tag team champion Pacman Jones (teammate: Ron ''The Truth'' Killings).

Hurry back, Pac, the game needs you.

Meanwhile, there's football today.

Bucs 20, Titans 10.

It's nothing personal. Nashville is a wonderful city and Tennessee is a great state.

You've got Davey Crockett.

Tampa has Zack Crockett.

Edge: Tennessee.

Legend has it Davey Crockett killed a bear at the age of 3, and it wasn't outside a nightclub. We have no evidence to suggest Zach Crockett was at the Alamo, though the Bucs running game feels a little like it.

Nashville? Any place where Johnny Cash and Bill Monroe laid down serious tracks is swell in our book. The Ryman Auditorium, home of the original Grand Ole Opry, is America's best music hall.

The new Opry, lost outside town in a mega-mall, makes us sad. Whatever happened to real country? One minute we're listening to Conway Twitty - well, not really - and the next minute it's Faith Hill in vinyl pants.

We still like Nashville, the final resting place for kick-butt American Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, right behind John Quincy Adams at No. 6 and South Florida at No. 5. Oops, sorry, we were looking at the college football rankings.

Old Hickory was a real soldier back when presidents actually fought in wars themselves. He once threatened to hang his former vice president, John C. Calhoun. Just when did the tradition of hanging former vice presidents go out of style, anyway?

Where were we? Ah, yes, the game. You've got the next big thing, Vince Young, the Bucs have the Grand Ole Quarterback, Jeff Garcia, who will hand off to, to ... don't tell us, the names are on the tips of our tongues.

The Titans defense appears real, but the Bucs defense had a knack of ganging up on Michael Vick like a pack of wild, well, you know.

Young is an equally amazing double threat, but Tampa Bay knows this is the kind of game it will have to win to keep Bucs coach Jon Gruden gainfully employed. Yeah, this one's for Jon.

Did you know Andrew Jackson asked to be buried in vinyl pants?

We have no idea what that means.

We only know the Bucs will win, that good will prevail. We know that's a little strong, but it wouldn't be if the Titans had kept Travis Henry. Move over, Ron ''The Truth'' Killings, there'd a new tag team partner.

Godspeed, Pacman.

Titans: One Lump, Or Two?

DAVID CLIMER, The Tennesseean

When I saw Tennessee at Tampa Bay on the schedule, I smiled. What a great trip.

It'll be nice to feel young for a change. A visit to the Greater Tampa/St. Pete Geriatric Ward is like a dip in the fountain of youth. I'm 53 and I'll get carded at a bar. Wonder if my hotel room comes equipped with the Clapper?

Maybe this is why Jeff Garcia feels at home.

I spent a month in Tampa one week for bowl game. In particular, I remember paying a visit to the Salvador Dali Museum. Somehow, all those melting clocks in Dali's paintings seemed a perfect fit for the area. Maybe it should be your city's symbol: ''Come to Tampa and watch your life melt away.''

Before you get upset, I know things can turn pretty darn lively after the early-bird special at your finest restaurants. I'm sure it is a great source of civic pride to be known internationally as the Strip Club Capital of the U.S.

It's a shame prodigal Titan Pacman Jones is suspended. He probably had this trip circled on his calendar. Anybody who will visit a strip club the night before he meets with the NFL commissioner about his suspension could certainly work in a side trip to a gentleman's club the night before a game.

Speaking of which, I was covering the University of Tennessee on the bowl trip in question when they sent a linebacker home because things got a little out of hand. It seems that the player had brought Tiffany or Veronica or somebody back to the hotel from a strip club where I assume the Vols were holding a team meeting.

At some point, the stripper – I'm sorry, the erotic dancer – allegedly tried to make off with the guy's wallet and he reached under a nearby Bible, where a pistol just happened to be hidden.

Gee, I wonder how that got there.

Anyway, Miss Private Dancer threw a penalty flag. The player claimed entrapment, but they sent him home on a bus the next morning. And the guy was a starter, which tells you this was a little – shall we say – serious.

Speaking of the University of Tennessee, that's where I first bumped into your beloved Coach Chucky. Jon Gruden was a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986 and '87 when I was covering the Vols.

Given what happened later in his coaching career, I assumed Gruden had been something of a wunderkind as a G.A., impressing members of the staff with his football acumen and providing glimpses into what was yet to come.

Nah. When Gruden hit the NFL, I asked a couple of members of that coaching staff what kind of impression he had left from his days in Knoxville. One of them told me: ''He did what all the graduate assistants do – he went for coffee. But at least Gruden always remembered who got cream and sugar.''

Clearly, the guy just oozed coaching greatness.

And, yeah, he had greatness thrust upon him. The best thing Gruden has done is prove he could win a Super Bowl with Tony Dungy's players. Since then, well, there's a reason he's in the final year of his contract.

All of which brings us back around to the Titans and Bucs. My sportswriting buddy Martin Fennelly will tell you why he thinks the Bucs will win. He believes Gruden is such a genius he can structure an effective offense without either of his top two backs.

Sorry, but it won't happen. The Titans beat Atlanta last weekend even after one of Michael Vick's dogs ate their offensive playbook. Tennessee committed five turnovers, including three Vince Young interceptions.

This just in: Young plays his best games after his worst games. Three times as a rookie last season, Young rebounded from poor performances to play splendidly.

You might want to warn Coach Chucky about that.

Titans 24, Bucs 20.

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