I still hate the damn Buccaneers, as should any Packer fan over the age of 25. The Buccaneers were the doormat of the NFC Central until the mid nineties, when they were bought by Malcolm Glazer in 1996. Glazer hired Tony Dungy, changed their colors, uniforms and logo, and pumped money into the team. By 1997, they had a playoff berth and established themselves as a competitive division rival for the Packers. This was a rough, bruising rivalry while the NFC Central lasted. In 2002, the NFL restructured and the NFC Central came to an end, but the rivalry was not quite over.  In November of 2002, my perspective on the Buccaneers changed from a competitive rival, to a dirty cheap team that I love to see suffer.

On November 24, 2002, the Packers and Bucs played in Tampa Bay in would become an infamous game. Favre throw an interception and during the return, Warren Sapp took a cheap shot on a defenseless Chad Clifton in the open field.

Sapp's blindside hit on clifton

Sapp leveled Clifton with a blindside block on Clifton, who was barely jogging and not paying attention because he was completely out of the play. Clifton sustained a serious hip injury, which ended his season and luckily, not his career, especially with the Packers current abysmal line.  This cheap hit instantly erupted debate in the football world.  It was perfectly legal under the current NFL rules but violated the unwritten rule of live and let live in the NFL.

After the Game, Mike Sherman sprinted over to the Tampa Bay sideline.  Once he was there he found Warren Sapp and confronted him.  Sherman yelled at Sapp, “That was a chicken shit hit and you know it!” Sapp, who was obviously upset and surprised at being called out, responded with “Fuck you!”

Mike Sherman Confronting Warren Sapp

Sherman then looked him in the eye and squared up on Sapp and said, “No, Fuck you!”  As they were getting separated, Sapp’s only response was “Put a jersey on! Put a Jersey on!”  Unfortunately, this video is not available on the internet.

In the post game interviews, Sherman said “The joviality that existed after when a guy’s laying on the ground, with numbness in his legs and fingers, I just thought that wasn’t appropriate for any NFL player.”  Warren Sapp stated in the locker room  that Sherman was “a lying, shit-eating hound.” He added that if it wasn’t for his obvious moral superiority, he “would have given him an ass-kicking right there at the 30-yard line.”

This erupted a controversy in the NFL on whether if something is legal, does that make it right to do, even at the expense of safety.  Jon Gruden, the coach of the Bucs at the time,  defended the hit and went so far as to say that Mike Sherman was the one who was unethical because he approached Sapp after the game.  Packers offensive line coach, Larry Beightol, promised to cut block Sapp and injure him at their next meeting.  The NFL intervened and promised  fines and suspensions for any retribution.  The next meeting between the the two teams was quiet and without incident.  A rule was proposed in the NFL in 2004 to make such hit illegal, the so called “Warren Sapp Rule.”  It did not pass but it was eventually passed in 2009 as the “Hines Ward Rule,” named because of Ward’s literally jaw breaking block on defenseless Bengals LB, Keith Rivers .

Regardless of what the rule was in 2002, it was, as Sherman put it, a “chicken shit hit.”  Sapp, Gruden, and the rest of the Tampa Bay’s organization provided a stout defense of that cheap blow.  This staunch defense of a cheap hit and the celebration over a injured player helped Packer fans truly despise this organization.  Currently, due in part to their losses from the Madoff ponzie scheme, the Buccaneers are downright bad this year.  They have managed to be the only currently winless team in the NFL, which is an accomplishment, considering the Lions, Rams, Titans, Raiders and Browns have all achieved a win.  I for one, look forward to watching the Packers taking out their frustrations on the hapless Bucs.  I hope to watch a complete, merciless defeat of the Buccaneers.  Go Pack Go