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Fan Opinion Leaning In Favor Of Firings

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

TAMPA - The firings of Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden and General Manager Bruce Allen were the talk of The Press Box tonight.

Opinions were split at the popular restaurant and sports bar on South Dale Mabry Highway, though the anti-Gruden contingent was more prevalent in the hours after the firings were announced.

Chantelle Longval, 39, of Tampa, said she'll be happy to see anybody but Gruden in charge of the team.

"It's good that Gruden's gone," she said. "He wasn't managing the offense effectively."

Steve Johnson, 38, of Lutz, also said he's not sorry to see Gruden gone.

"He's been a pretty mediocre coach, and I'm part of the base camp that says he took [Tony] Dungy's team to the Super Bowl," he said.

Johnson thinks Mike Shanahan might come to the Buccaneers as a replacement for both men.

"I think the timing of the firing for them is very strange, very odd," Johnson said. "That's why I think it's part of a deal for someone that will be announced in the not-so-distant future."

Johnson's wife, 39-year-old Adrianne Johnson, agreed with her husband that the Buccaneers made the right choice to look for someone new.

She hopes a replacement for Gruden and Allen won't take on both jobs.

"I hope they do have a separate general manager," she said. "Organizations are so big now, I think they [coach and general manager] need to be two separate positions."

Al McRoberts, 59, of South Tampa, said Gruden's firing was "the best news I've heard all day."

He was worried the Bucs would keep Gruden on board.

Some of the success Gruden had with the Bucs was done with smoke and mirrors, McRoberts said, and he thinks Allen and Gruden go hand-in-hand.

"It's a two-headed monster right there," McRoberts said. "Hopefully they can go fly away together."

Micah Green, 29, of Tampa, hopes that there's some way the firings might lead Dungy back to the Buccaneers.

But Green didn't want to see Allen fired. And he didn't want to see Gruden leave.

"I think Gruden's done a great job," Green said. "He did the best he could."

Scott Daniels, 39, of South Tampa, said only time will tell if the firing of Gruden made sense. Whether the move is judged a success or failure, he said, all depends who replaces the coach.

"You have to consider what else is out there," he said.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

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