Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden and former Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp haven't always seen eye to eye. Sapp has said that he thinks Tony Dungy deserves more credit than Gruden for the Bucs' Super Bowl title, and Gruden didn't shed any tears when Sapp left Tampa Bay for Oakland.
But if there was any bad blood between them, it's gone now. At a retirement party for Sapp over the weekend, Gruden had this to say:
"If Warren Sapp doesn't go into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, you'd better check the IQ of the voters. No disrespect to anyone, but he's the favorite guy I've ever coached."I would be fine with Sapp getting into the Hall of Fame, but I don't think he's a sure thing, and I'll be quite surprised if he gets in on the first ballot, considering that he's coming up at the same time as several players who I think were better, including Brett Favre, Michael Strahan and Jonathan Ogden.
It might be a good idea to check the IQ of the Hall of Fame voters, but Sapp not getting in wouldn't be the reason.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-30-2008 @ 2:11PM
claytor said...
im sure people will hate me for saying this, but...
if Sapp isnt ranked as the third most eligible player behind favre and ogden? voters are idiots.
and no, not even strahan and his one uber awesome favre helped me get the sack record season qualifies higher.
this is the arguement: the cover 2 defense.
this defense, which is as popular throughout the league as the west coast offense is, was designed by dungy and kiffin. the foundation (important word here) of this defense is built on defensive line penetration, enabling the secondary to float to assigned spots, much like the west coast offense where receivers run timing based routes, in hopes of generating turnovers caused by said initial defensive line pressure.
uh...guess who the main cog in that scheme was on the defensive line?
warren sapp.
the other players mentioned on that ballot are favre, ogden, strahan, mcnair, b young, and seau, correct?
seau is a forever and a day suspected roid abuser.
mcnair is a joke. the guy got called a warrior, and couldnt finish a season without missing half of it.
bryant young was a gamer, but no sapp.
strahan had two brilliant seasons. he had to rely on having five guys who were just as talented or better than he is on the d line last year to win a title.
favre is a lock.
ogden was the best left tackle of his generation.
so there you have it, the most popular defense in the nfl was built on your abilities, the fact that you had about 100 sacks, and 4 ints while being an INTERIOR defensive lineman, oh, and being double and triple teamed at times(at times for sapp = almost constantly), with no advantage of coming off the end, yeah....sapps first ballot all the way.
oh, id like it to be known i for the most part hated tampa, lol. i just appreciate football enough to understand who has talent.
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