FAB 4. How I Got My Start With Pewter Report

The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. As I begin this milestone season, I’m going to spend the next 25 weeks telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.

Let’s go back to where it all started.

I arrived in Tampa on May 19, 1995, just six days after graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in public relations – or P.R. as they call it. Little did I know that the name of my business would eventually be called PR – as in Pewter Report – just a few years later.

Pewter Report featuring Lee Roy Selmon and Derrick Brooks

In 1994 I had done a summer internship with Buccaneer Magazine, an independent weekly newspaper similar to the old Pro Football Weekly, but just for Tampa Bay fans. I loved the city of Tampa and wanted a change of scenery after I graduated from K-State.

Growing up in the Kansas City area, I wanted to be a little different from all of the Chiefs fans. I was a Chiefs fan myself, but after vacationing in St. Petersburg to visit my grandfather every August, I grew intrigued by the lovable losers in orange and white with the winking pirate on the helmet.

In 1992, the Bucs had drafted two K-State players that I saw play in college – cornerback Rogerick Green and linebacker Elijah Alexander. I also followed the Miami football program back in the ‘90s and Tampa Bay had drafted quarterback Craig Erickson in 1992 and wide receivers Lamar Thomas and Horace Copeland in 1993. To keep up with this team that intrigued me when I was in town for a week every August, I subscribed to Buccaneer Magazine.

Who would have thought that the decision to subscribe to Buccaneer Magazine would eventually lead to my first full-time job out of college in 1995 after I proved myself as an intern during the summer of ’94?

And little did I know that I would start covering the team the year two future Hall of Famers in Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks walked in the doors of One Buccaneer Place with me that year.

Buccaneer Magazine didn’t have a great reputation when I started. It was kind of known as a “fan rag” or “cheerleader publication” back in the day because it published 24 issues (four issues in the offseason and 20 weekly issues during the season, including the preseason) and Tampa Bay would win five or six games per year. Most of the issues would be discussing losses, so there had to be a rosy, apologist style when it came to the coverage.

But coming from K-State and covering Bill Snyder’s Wildcat teams, which won more games than they lost, the losing was foreign to me. With my journalism background I wanted to take a more fair and objective approach and be critical of the team when necessary.

I wanted to make Buccaneer Magazine more credible and interesting to read. I wanted to really break down why the team lost and analyze what was needed to fix it – rather than just telling readers, “Well, the Bucs will get ‘em next week!” like previous editors had done.

Buccaneer Magazine featuring Sam Wyche

The late Sam Wyche was the first Bucs coach I covered. Of course the 1995 season was his last in Tampa Bay. But you wouldn’t have known that from the team’s hot start. I was at the post-game press conference after the Bucs beat the Vikings, 20-17 in overtime, and I’ll never forget Wyche telling the local media, “Now when you write our record in your papers, that’s 5-dash-2.”

Of course 5-dash-2 turned into 5-dash-5 with three straight losses that followed. And then the season ended up 7-dash-9 following a 37-10 loss at home to the Detroit Lions.

Wyche was a trailblazer in the NFL, as he wanted the Bucs to wear Color Rush uniforms for that game before the league even knew what Color Rush was. He told equipment manager Frankie Pupello to have the Bucs wear orange jerseys and orange pants for the 1995 season finale against the Lions. The orange pants arrived on the scene during Wyche’s tenure in Tampa Bay.

But team leaders Hardy Nickerson and Paul Gruber scoffed at the idea of looking like actual oranges – or tangerines – on the field, so they nixed the idea before kickoff and told the team that they were going to wear only the orange jerseys, but with white pants. It had become clear that Wyche had lost control of the team – and the trust of the players – well before that day.

Following the game, Wyche had one of the most epic meltdowns I have ever witnessed in any press conference. Had social media been around that day, Wyche would have been the number one trend on Twitter. His press conference would have been the lead on ESPN SportsCenter had ESPN been as sensational back then as it is now.

Wyche had a love-hate relationship with Trent Dilfer and pulled him from the game in favor of Casey Weldon, the former Florida State star, who had started a few games earlier that season when Dilfer struggled. When asked after the game why Dilfer was pulled after the first quarter, Wyche said that Dilfer was exhausted.

Exhausted? Dilfer was a professional athlete.

Former Bucs QB Trent Dilfer – Photo by: Getty Images

While Dilfer had been sacked three times in the first quarter, and lost a fumble that was recovered and returned for a touchdown, in addition to throwing an interception, he had also completed 8-of-11 passes for 100 yards. While he might have thrown another interception or two, Dilfer could have been on his way to a 400-yard passing day had Wyche stuck with him.

Weldon played the rest of the game and completed just 11-of-28 passes for 106 yards with one interception.

Wyche’s post-game meltdown continued. He knew he was a dead man walking and would be fired the next day. The usually smooth-talking Wyche started rambling, and at one point, like a substitute teacher, he turned yelled out to St. Petersburg Times beat writers Don Banks and Rick Stroud after he spotted them whispering to each other and snickering in the back of the media scrum.

“Hey, what’s so funny back there?” Wyche scolded. “Care to share with the rest of us?’

After Banks and Stroud declined, Wyche’s post-game rant continued – there were very few questions as it was mostly just the head coach rambling on – and then he abruptly stopped talking about football and proceeded to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, as the game was on Saturday, December 23. Then he quickly realized the Bucs’ new owners, the Glazers, were Jewish, and blurted out – “And to our Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah!”

My first season as a Bucs beat writer was wild. I’ve come to admire Wyche and what he was trying to do in Tampa Bay as the years have passed. He doesn’t get the credit that he deserves for drafting John Lynch in 1993, nor does he get enough credit for drafting Sapp or Brooks.

Ex-Bucs head coach Sam Wyche – Photo by: Getty Images

The reason is because general manager Rich McKay, director of player personnel Jerry Angelo and director of college scouting Tim Ruskell spoon-fed the newspapers a lot of news and scoop. Because of their favored status among the beat writers, McKay, Angelo and Ruskell typically got more credit for Sapp and Brooks in the media than Wyche did, which was a shame.

May Sam Wyche rest in peace.

I learned a lot from seeing how the media operates behind the scenes, and I’ll have more to share in future SR’s Fab 5 columns as I stroll down memory lane.

Here is one last note about my first year covering the Bucs. The first NFL player I interviewed was former Tampa Bay running back Errict Rhett. It was during training camp and I had just gotten the new copies of Athlon’s and Lindy’s football annuals and brought them into the interview with me.

I had just met Rhett for the first time and he saw those magazines and before the interview even started he said, “Oooh! Look I’m on the cover of these magazines! Hey, would you mind if I have these?”

Former Bucs RB Errict Rhett – Photo by: Getty Images

Rhett wasn’t trying to steal them from me. He was just like a kid in a candy store and wanted them. After all, he was a young NFL player about two or three years older than me and he was on the cover of two national magazines. I was dumbfounded and really didn’t know what to do. There was no Bucs media relations person in the room with me to tell Rhett no, so I said, “Umm, sure.”

That wasn’t my only interesting brush with a player. In next week’s SR’s Fab 5, I’ll tell you about the time Weldon cussed me out in the Bucs locker room in front of everyone and I was afraid he was going to punch me – and other interesting encounters from the 1996 season, which was Tony Dungy’s first in Tampa Bay.