FAB 4. To The Next Generation Of Bucs Reporters

The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. During this milestone season, I’ve spent the last 25 editions telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.

I’ve used the Fab 4 section of 24 previous SR’s Fab 5 columns this offseason to offer up some of my favorite behind-the-scenes stories, as well as my personal insight and anecdotes of covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the past 24 years. In some ways, my 25 years of being on the Bucs beat has flown by, and at times it feels like it was just yesterday that I began writing for Buccaneer Magazine in 1995.

I’ve spent previous columns thanking many people – employers, co-workers and colleagues – for their help along the way in my career. I’m beyond grateful.

Yet one other group of people deserve to be thanked again – you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader!

Buccaneer Magazine featuring Sam Wyche

Some of you have been with me from the beginning, going back to the Buccaneer Magazine days. Some of you have been around since Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl in 2002. Some of you have read PewterReport.com over the past playoff-less decade, and some of you just jumped aboard when Tom Brady left the Patriots to become a Buccaneer.

I thank you all for the support you’ve given to me and to PewterReport.com over the past two decades.

As I reflect on my first 24 years covering the Buccaneers, I began at the age of 23 when I was a peer of many of the players I reported on. I was the youngest reporter on the Bucs beat back when the weekly Buccaneer Magazine was considered a “fringe media” source as opposed to the daily newspapers. When I started my professional career in 1995, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Bradenton Herald and the Lakeland Ledger were known as the mainstream media.

Over the last 25 years I have seen newspaper coverage of the Buccaneers fall by the wayside. Year after year, the local papers stopped sending reporters to One Buccaneer Place as their budgets shrunk. The Tampa Tribune even went under and was acquired by the Tampa Bay Times, which is the last and lone newspaper still covering the Bucs on a daily basis.

Never in my wildest imagination back in the 1990s or even in the early 2000s did I think that PewterReport.com would outlast the Tampa Tribune as we moved into the mainstream media. Today PewterReport.com and the Times serve as the longest-running media outlets regularly covering the Buccaneers.

Now in 2020 at age 48, I am the age of some of the Buccaneers’ fathers. I am twice the age of some of the Buccaneers – and five years older than Tom Brady. The media landscape has changed quite a bit over the last quarter century.

Back when PewterReport.com was known as BucMag.com from 1998-2001, we changed the way the local media covered the Buccaneers. Back when the Times and Tribune newspapers were competing against each other daily, those papers would embargo their Bucs stories online until midnight – until the morning editions were printed so any scoop wouldn’t be revealed so the other paper could add it to their edition.

Scott Reynolds and Jon Gruden – Photo by: Trevor Sikkema/PR

But I was at those same press conferences and open locker room media sessions at One Buc Place and would immediately post those stories on BucMag.com in the afternoon, often beating the newspapers’ online coverage by hours – sometimes by half a day. That timely advantage allowed BucMag.com to grow at a rapid rate, helped our credibility in the Bucs fan base and ultimately led to our partnership with WDAE 620 AM, which aided our reach to attract tens of thousands of new readers over time.

Friend and mentor Pat Yasinskas, who used to cover the Bucs for the Tampa Tribune, said my immediate publishing of Bucs news and beating the newspapers to the punch changed the media landscape in Tampa Bay and forced the Times and Tribune to stop embargoing their stories until midnight and instead publish them in the late afternoon or early evening – to compete with us.

I may have more wrinkles at age 48, but I still have a full head of hair and I have yet to go gray.

Yet I’m one of the older reporters on the Bucs beat now. And I see a lot of new young Bucs reporters emerging, including our own Jon Ledyard, Matt Matera and Taylor Jenkins on the PewterReport.com staff, in addition to others.

I’ve met the likes of Evan Winter and David Harrison, and worked with Gil Arcia from Bucs Nation. I’ve gotten to know Brent Allen and Ren Dext from the PewterCast podcast. I’ve seen Bucs fan Samer Ali go from talented graphic artist to the host of the fun and interesting Loose Cannons podcast.

Scott Reynolds and Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Mark Cook/PR

I’ve seen Nick Sitro from Bucs Report keep us entertained over the summer with his interesting Bucs media bracket tourney – and I got my clock cleaned by good friend Steven Cheah from Barstool’s Going Deep podcast (the Cheah Hive is real!).

Those are just a few of the growing number of younger Bucs media members that I’ve kept my eye on. There are certainly more names I could mention, but I’ll refrain from doing that so I don’t forget anyone.

So I’ll end with this – and I’m speaking to the young Bucs media members and fan sites – how will you change and improve Bucs coverage? How will you innovate the local media coverage and push PewterReport.com, the Times and other Bucs websites to be better, too?

One of the ways I’ve given back to the game I love was to share the knowledge of the game of football I had acquired in my years of Bucs coverage with youth football players. I spent eight years coaching defensive line, special teams and serving as a defensive coordinator, winning two division titles on my sons’ South Pasco Predators teams just a few years ago.

News Channel 8’s Gabrielle Shirley and PewterReport.com’s Scott Reynolds – Photo by Mark Cook/PR

I’ve since retired from coaching, but I’m still looking to give back and share my knowledge – but in a different way. To those who are up-and-coming in the Bucs media, I invite you to reach out to me with your questions. Let’s connect. I’m willing to share some of my knowledge about this business – and the challenges that lie ahead in the sports media world.

My e-mail address is [email protected].

And to our loyal PewterReport.com readers I also invite you to reach out to me to let me know what you like about our Bucs coverage and how we can improve our coverage – for you.

I’d love to hear from you. Thank you.

Now on to Year 25 – followed by the next 25 years of Bucs coverage!

Thank you for reading my stories from yesteryear over the last 24 editions of SR’s Fab 5. And if you missed my previous Bucs memories from the past 24 years of covering the team, click on the links below.

SR’s Bucs memories 1-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 2-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 3-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 4-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 5-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 6-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 7-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 8-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 9-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 10-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 11-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 12-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 13-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 14-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 15-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 16-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 17-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 18-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 19-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 20-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 21-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 22-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 23-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 24-of-25