You won’t ever catch Joe telling a Bucs fan how to be a fan.
If your goal is Tampa Bay winning a Super Bowl, then Joe is not here to judge how you think it’s best to get there.
There are so many different opinions and approaches. It’s a trait of fandom for every professional team. And clashing fan opinions should be celebrated.
In a quest for a Super Bowl ring, the Buccaneers fired a respected head coach, a future Hall of Fame coach, in his prime. The Bucs also fired a Super Bowl-winning head coach after he went 9-7 in back-to-back seasons, the latter of which featured his legendary defensive coordinator announcing he was bolting the team.
Given that history, it’s absolutely logical that some Bucs fans think firing Todd Bowles would be a positive step toward winning a championship.
Joe’s not agreeing with that minority faction of fans today. But essentially, those fans have been conditioned to think that way after Team Glazer fired Tony Dungy (2002) and Jon Gruden (2009).
The Bucs won a Super Bowl immediately after firing Dungy and the Bucs were a 10-win team with a completely overhauled young roster two seasons after firing Gruden.
As Bucs fans who listen to sports radio or dive into the cesspool that is social media know, Bowles isn’t very popular among fans, despite his winning record with Tampa Bay. Those who read fan comments here or follow Joe’s weekly Todd Bowles confidence poll know that as well.
Joe believes the common core among these fans is a belief that Bowles doesn’t have the chops to lead a team to a championship. So that leads some to froth and demand the Bucs move on ASAP so they can try to find a Super Bowl-caliber coach.
Agree or disagree, these passionate fans’ opinions come with the territory and they’re hardly on the level of Sasquatch sightings.
However, longtime Buccaneers employee TJ Rives has a different take.
For decades, Rives has been part of the Buccaneers Radio Network broadcasts as a sideline guy and a host. He’s also hosts an in-season podcast on the team website.
On Sunday, Rives joined Peter Blake of The Sports Web on the field of The Licht House for a postgame chat after the Bucs beat the Cardinals.
It was there that Rives told the Bowles haters to get out of town.
“If you are a Bucs fan and you are rooting for your team to lose, if you are rooting to get the coach fired while you’re 7-5 with everything in front of you with all of these home games, go away. Go away!” Rives urged. “I will hold the door. Leave. The rest of us want to enjoy meaningful football in December and the chance to be in the playoffs. If you want to talk about next year now, go away. There’s opportunity here to be in the playoffs and do damage.”
Joe wonders what would have happened if Rives had barked this from the patio or the bar one mile north of the stadium at Hooters on Hillsborough Avenue. Joe suspects Rives would have gotten some loud blowback and perhaps a few delicious Buffalo shrimp tossed at his head.
Fans are fans. It’s ok to love the coach. It’s ok like him. It’s ok to hate the coach and want him run out of town, or to be lukewarm on the guy.
Nobody needs to “go away.”