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About the Author: Scott Reynolds
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FAB 4. Did I Cost The Bucs Garcia In 2005?
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.
Believe it or not, there is some degree of power in the local media to influence decisions made by NFL teams. Of course the amount of influence that a media outlet has depends on its level of credibility. I have worked extremely hard at building and maintaining a high level of credibility at Pewter Report.com over the last 24 years. During that time, my opinions have been respected by multiple head coaches, general managers, assistant coaches, players and even by Bucs ownership.
Former Bucs head coach Lovie Smith – Photo by: Getty Images
I can think of several instances over the past two decades where things I have written as either demands or suggestions have actually come to fruition. Coincidence perhaps, or has the team taken my advice over the years on a few matters?
It’s not just PewterReport.com that has had some very real sway. The late Steve Duemig‘s constant war drum against Trent Dilfer, who was Duemig‘s personal whipping boy for years during the afternoon drive time on 620 WDAE in the 1990s, was part of the team’s decision to draft Shaun King and move on from Dilfer. Editorials by the Tampa Bay Times and PewterReport.com and “Fire Schiano” billboards around town after a winless start in 2013 applied pressure to the organization led to the firing of Greg Schiano after just two seasons.
After just one disastrous season in 2014 I called for Lovie Smith’s firing after the 31-30 loss at Washington in October 2015 in which the team blew a 24-7 halftime lead. I was a lone wolf in the media on that particular campaign to have Smith fired, but the Glazers ultimately saw the light and did the right thing after Smith’s Bucs went 0-4 in December of 2015.
Good or bad, right or wrong, the media can have some sway over the organization and the decisions it makes. Unbeknownst to me, one of the ways that I had a direct effect on a personnel decision came in February of 2005. That was when something I wrote actually prevented the Bucs from signing a free agent.
Back then our company did not have the travel budget to send me to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. But I had the cell phone numbers for most of the Bucs’ brass at the time. While the newspapers were getting all of the quotes from head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen, plus some off-the-record info I’m sure, I was helpless back in Tampa. The only reporting I could do was to write what they wrote and attribute any type of news to either the Times or the Tampa Tribune.
Former Bucs head coach Jon Gruden – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
But that didn’t stop me from trying to gather my own news. I sent out a flurry of texts to all of the members of the Bucs’ brass that I had numbers for, pleading with them to give me some kind of scoop to report from Indy. One member replied and said that the team was re-working the contract of quarterback Brian Griese, who was signed in 2004 to be Brad Johnson‘s backup but wound up as the starter that year and winning the job for 2005 – as long as his contract could be reworked as Griese had earned a raise, and because the Bucs had some serious salary cap issues to deal with.
It was obvious that Gruden did not care for Chris Simms, as that was a Rich McKay draft pick, and not a quarterback that Gruden would’ve selected in the 2003 draft. While Gruden wanted Griese back, he also wanted to sign Jeff Garcia in free agency after he played the 2004 season with the Cleveland Browns. The Bucs were supposedly negotiating with Garcia‘s agent at the Combine and were downplaying the hopes of restructuring Griese’s contract to keep him in Tampa Bay. Gruden wanted Garcia and Griese to battle for the starting job and have Simms as the number three QB. The team was giving Garcia’s agent the impression that Griese might not return and that Garcia would come in as the starter.
I received a text message on a Sunday morning saying that Griese’s deal had been reworked and that he was going to be the team’s the starter. I went ahead and reported that and ProFootballTalk.com picked up the story and plastered it as the top headline that day. I heard that several members of the local media were ticked off that I got the story because I wasn’t even in Indy at the time.
Former Bucs head coach Jon Gruden and QB Brian Griese – Photo by: Getty Images
Unbeknownst to me, once Garcia’s agent saw that Griese had been re-signed, which is something that the Bucs were trying to keep under wraps, they pulled out of negotiations with Tampa Bay and Garcia signed a one-year deal with Detroit instead. The source that told me about the Griese contract extension admitted to me after the fact that he probably shouldn’t have given me that scoop because of how Garcia‘s camp responded. I had no idea that the Bucs were chasing Garcia at the same time, but even if I did, I don’t know that I would have held back the story unless I was told to.
I do an obligation to report the news, but I would be lying to you if I said there weren’t times where PewterReport.com and other news outlets hold off on stories or embargo them to assist the team’s plans in certain instances. This is part of the give-and-take in the information business we operate in that most fans don’t realize. Half of the information I have learned about the Bucs over the years from confidential, off-the-record conversations I simply can’t report on.
Oh, the wild stories I could tell you about some of the things that have transpired at One Buccaneer Place behind the scenes! Your jaw would drop and hit the floor over some of it. So how did it turn out for the Bucs in 2005? Griese was off to a good start to the season as Tampa Bay raced off to a 5-1 record before he tore his ACL and MCL. Instead of having Garcia to possibly turn to, the Bucs had Simms, who actually played quite well and help get the team to the playoffs and win the NFC South title that year.
Former Bucs head coach Jon Gruden and QB Jeff Garcia – Photo by: Getty Images
Would Garcia have gotten the Bucs a division championship and perhaps beaten Washington at home in the playoffs? We’ll never know.
But two things are certain. Simms certainly appreciated me reporting the Griese re-signing, as it made him the backup quarterback that year rather than the third-string QB and gave him the playing time he never would have had otherwise, and Gruden ultimately got Garcia as his quarterback in 2007, winning another NFC South division title in the process.
Stay tuned for another Bucs story from yesteryear in next week’s 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.
The Hook: The Great Bucs' Quarterback Debate Rages On
If Bucs Draft A DT At No. 14 It Should Be Kinlaw, Not Brown
