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Tim Brown suggests head coach Bill Callahan ‘sabotaged’ Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII

Discussion in 'Football: NFL, College, High School' started by GRENDEL, Jan 22, 2013.

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  1. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

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    Former Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders (and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) wide receiver/return specialist Tim Brown is among the 15 modern-era finalists in 2013 for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The sixth overall pick of the 1988 NFL draft has an impressive résumé, too.

    Over 17 seasons, Brown caught 1,094 passes for 14,934 yards and 100 touchdowns, ranking in the top three in all three statistical categories at the time of his retirement. Brown was a dangerous return specialist, leading the NFL in return yards as a rookie and scoring four touchdowns on returns during his 17-year career. Nearly 10 seasons after leaving the organization, and despite the rules allowing for greater success in the passing game, Brown remains the Raiders' all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and total touchdowns (104).

    Brown is a nine-time Pro Bowler, including seven as a receiver and two as a kick returner, and was an All-Pro kick returner as a rookie and an All-Pro receiver after leading the NFL in reception in 1997.

    If there's one thing that Brown's Hall of Fame résumé lacks, it's a Super Bowl ring. The Raiders reached the Super Bowl once during Brown's 16 seasons with the franchise, advancing to Super Bowl XXXVII following the 2002 season. The Raiders lost 48-21 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were coached by Jon Gruden, Oakland's head coach from 1998-2001.

    Brown pins that loss on Gruden's replacement, Bill Callahan, who allegedly changed the game plan less than 48 hours before the Super Bowl.


    "We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we’re gonna run the ball,” Brown said last Saturday on SiriusXM NFL Radio (via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). “We averaged 340 (pounds) on the offensive line, they averaged 280 (on the defensive line). We’re all happy with that, everybody is excited. (We) tell Charlie Garner, ‘Look, you’re not gonna get too many carries, but at the end of the day we’re gonna get a victory. Tyrone Wheatley, Zack Crockett, let’s get ready to blow this thing up'."

    At this point, we should mention that the Buccaneers led the NFL in total defense and scoring defense in 2002, allowing just 252.8 yards of total offense and 12.3 points per game. That undersized defensive front yielded 97.1 rushing yards per game, which ranked fifth in the NFL that regular season, and the team was first in passing yards allowed per game and per play. In the postseason, the Buccaneers held the San Francisco 49ers to 228 yards of offense (58 on the ground) and the Philadelphia Eagles to 312 yards of offense, including 72 rushing yards. Oakland gained just 269 yards in Super Bowl XXXVII and only had 19 yards on 11 rushing attempts.

    According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, fellow ESPN analyst Jon Ritchie, a fullback on the 2002 Raiders, confirms Brown's statements that what they practiced during the week was not what was called during the game, a point he has made on television in his years as an analyst. The decision to not run the ball may have also been affected by the late-week disappearance of center Barrett Robbins, a Pro Bowl and All-Pro selection that season who stopped taking medication for his depression. Robbins returned to the team before the game, but was inactive and replaced by Adam Treu, who had played just two snaps on offense during the 2002 season, according to official playing-time documents.

    Brown, however, suggests that Callahan may have thrown the game out of loyalty to Gruden and a dislike of the Raiders, who would fire him following a 4-12 season in 2003.

    "We all called it sabotage...because Callahan and Gruden were good friends," Brown said. "And Callahan had a big problem with the Raiders, you know, hated the Raiders. You know, only came because Gruden made him come. Literally walked off the field on us a couple of times during the season when he first got there, the first couple years. So really he had become someone who was part of the staff but we just didn’t pay him any attention. Gruden leaves, he becomes the head coach....It’s hard to say that the guy sabotaged the Super Bowl. You know, can you really say that? That can be my opinion, but I can’t say for a fact that that’s what his plan was, to sabotage the Super Bowl. He hated the Raiders so much that he would sabotage the Super Bowl so his friend can win the Super Bowl. That’s hard to say, because you can’t prove it.

    "But the facts are what they are, that less than 36 hours before the game we changed our game plan. And we go into that game absolutely knowing that we have no shot. That the only shot we had if Tampa Bay didn’t show up."

    Callahan would spend four seasons at the University of Nebraska before returning to the NFL in 2008 as the assistant head coach/offensive line coach with the New York Jets. Callahan is currently the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach with the Dallas Cowboys.

    http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...h-bill-callahan-sabotaged-142043376--nfl.html
     
    #1 GRENDEL, Jan 22, 2013
  2. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    the guy who sabotaged them was that center (from houston) who went awol drinking south of the border
     
    #2 pgabriel, Jan 22, 2013
  3. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    ..if true, 30 hours prior to kickoff is almost exactly when Robbins went missing/turned up incoherent....
     
    #3 SamFisher, Jan 22, 2013
  4. So Good

    So Good Member

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    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aPdGlF76Jg8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
    #4 So Good, Jan 22, 2013
  5. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    Apparently they just asked Jerry Rice about this on some radio show and he backed up Brown's claims. Said it was suspicious as well that the game plan shifted.

    I often wondered what the hell happened in that game. Barrett Robbins was a crazy dude, he was bipolar, went drinking in Tijuana or something. But how much does losing your center really effect the run game? Adam Treu was inexperienced as a starter but he wasn't a complete rube who couldn't play the position.

    But Callahan's gameplan was absolutely idiotic in that Super Bowl.

    Gruden built Rich Gannon into a west coast offense stud, remember he was MVP of the league that year. He was one of the most efficient QBs in the league and he rarely threw interceptions.

    The Tampa Bay game was just a joke. Gannon was throwing timing routes and the Bucs secondary was in place to pick them off before the receivers even made the breaks. I was amazed that a QB as meticulous and careful with the ball as Gannon could choke so bad in the Super Bowl. Gruden seemed to know the plays before they happened.

    The Raiders had a stout run game with Garner, Wheatley and Crockett. Tampa Bay was impossible to throw on with their cover 2 scheme. They had to run the ball to win and Callahan for whatever reason played right into Gruden's hands.

    Tough to say he sabotaged the game, but the guy was clearly an idiot.
     
    #5 moestavern19, Jan 22, 2013
  6. JeffB

    JeffB Contributing Member
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    Those are some powerful words right there.

    The coach lets the offense run itself all season. Then just before the Superbowl the coach changes game plan at last minute. The offense protests and wants to know what's going on. The bipolar center who is also distraught over the change goes off on a drinking binge in anger.
     
    #6 JeffB, Jan 22, 2013
  7. DieHard Rocket

    DieHard Rocket Contributing Member

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    I always wondered what the hell happened in that game. Should have known that it wasn't just that Gruden "knew what was coming". The Raiders were probably the most balanced, complete team in the NFL that season. I lost $50 in a bet on that Super Bowl, and I rarely, rarely bet more than a friendly $10 or $20 wager on a game... that's how confident I was in the Raiders.
     
    #7 DieHard Rocket, Jan 22, 2013
  8. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    would beau bridges really try sabotage jeff's career? No way
     
    #8 pgabriel, Jan 22, 2013
  9. kaleidosky

    kaleidosky Your Tweety Bird dance just cost us a run

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    interesting story, and this isn't some dude who has made up a ton of crap in the past (i.e. he hasn't destroyed his credibility, so I have to pay attention). Things line up, and this fits in with the Raiders stupidity..
     
    #9 kaleidosky, Jan 22, 2013
  10. JeffB

    JeffB Contributing Member
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    It sure does. It doesn't have to be sabotage. Incompetence, a Raider administrative specialty, explains it well enough.
     
    #10 JeffB, Jan 22, 2013
  11. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    #11 SamFisher, Jan 22, 2013
  12. PhiSlammaJamma

    PhiSlammaJamma Member

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    When you lose, everyone tears you apart piece by piece. You need to hear both parts of the story. Employees like Rice and Brown may want to know why, but reality is, they have job to do, and knowing why is not given. Callahan is the only one making the decisions, and it's his job to see the big picture, right or wrong. In the case wrong. So getting criticized now. Part of the job. Fair game. But Rice and Tim Brown may not understand the rationale, nor do they neccessarily have a right to know the rationale. They just need to execute. For example, with guys like Belichek videotaping your plays maybe you need to make an ajustment at the last minute. Who knows. Callahan knows.
     
    #12 PhiSlammaJamma, Jan 23, 2013
  13. vinsensual

    vinsensual Member

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    It could have been Al Davis.
     
    #13 vinsensual, Jan 23, 2013
  14. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    I grew up watching Tim and Jerry and I love them both to death, but it really doesn't seem plausible that Callahan would have thrown the game.

    I know that the players hated him, and he has failed as a head coach on both the pro and collegiate levels, but I find it hard to believe they could have detected a motive of sabotage.
     
    #14 moestavern19, Jan 23, 2013
  15. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

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    Bill Romanowski was just on ESPN Chicago and he called it all a crock from both Brown and Rice.
     
    #15 GRENDEL, Jan 23, 2013
  16. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Romanowski . . . the poster child for steriods and dirty play

    Rocket River
     
    #16 Rocket River, Jan 23, 2013
  17. Fyreball

    Fyreball Contributing Member

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    Doesn't sabotage make you feel just a little bit better as a fan than incompetence?
     
    #17 Fyreball, Jan 23, 2013
  18. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Sometimes. . . . people are really just that stupid
    Callahan-job probably did not throw the game. . . he was just legitimately that ****ty a coach on that day . . .

    Rocket River
     
    #18 Rocket River, Jan 23, 2013
  19. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

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    Don't disagree but he's always been pretty straightfoward when discussing his past.
     
    #19 GRENDEL, Jan 23, 2013
  20. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    Brown backed off on the comments today. Said "You could have called it a sabotage, but I never claimed it to be one because you can't prove that."
     
    #20 moestavern19, Jan 23, 2013
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