The Bucs have just rolled right along this year with the usual mess of distractions to a 9-3 record. As we head into the biggest game of the year on Monday Night Football, a couple other things have popped up. First let’s get to the Monte Kiffin to Tennessee rumor. I don’t think it’s a rumor, I think it’s a done deal. I have some questions for all those reporters and fans out there that keep harping on it though. What did you expect? What response did you think you were going to get from him now? Why is this being perceived as a bad thing? These are the things that annoy me with sports. Monte Kiffin has been here as defensive coordinator since 1996. He has shown no real desire to be a head coach. He’s produced great defenses over his tenure here. He’s plugged in players and coaches to fill voids left by others and things haven’t seemed to miss a beat. He’s done all this under two different Head Coaches and General Managers with completely different philosophies on how to run their ship. He’s done it all with a smile on his face in his father figure type persona. Why do we have to question his motives, his responses and now his character (Warren Sapp!)? If Monte wants to go and coach with his son at Tennessee at the great age of 68, why shouldn’t he be able to do so? I would miss him but I would also root for him to do well in his new position. When he gets asked a question like, “are you going to coach here next year or are you going to Tennessee?”, what do you expect him to say? He’s under contract here and his team’s still playing, so let him coach. If he decided to go already, it’s up to him and not us. He doesn’t need to make a big show of this being his final year with the Bucs and he doesn’t need to interrupt the current season to worry about the next. Leave him alone, enjoy the year and move on! Now, on to Warren Sapp. I always loved Sapp and he was one of my favorite players to watch when he was here. I think he’s doing a good job on Inside the NFL and Dancing With the Stars, he can really dance by the way. This all leaves me wondering why he would make this statement about Monte Kiffin. He stated on Inside the NFL that Monte Kiffin was selfish and that things have always been about Monte. What?! Ok, let me see, a guy that has been with the same team for 12 years, never left to be a Head Coach and never has been accused of such behavior by anyone else is supposed to be this way because you say so? C’mon Warren, let it go! It really sounds like Sapp has never gotten over not being able to finish his career here. It angers me when athletes say things like this, especially one with Warren’s reputation. I have always been a defender of athletes, Warren included, in the sense that their lives should be their own. They carry no responsibility to be “role models” for anyone off the field, they are required to do a job and that’s it. It’s like any other business out there. Show up, do your job, go home. If you choose to put yourself out there and take on responsibilities like that, great, but they are not required to. Everyone knows the type of work that Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks do off the field and we all admire and respect them for it. They are going above and beyond and deserve every ounce of respect they get for it, probably more. We all can’t hold athletes to this standard though, everyone is not ready to do these things and it doesn’t make them bad. These are the same reasons I don’t report on incidents in nightclubs, bars or DUI’S or anything like that. It’s their lives and they need to live it the best way for them, not us. Children need role models that they know, not that they know of. I tell my son this about athletes all the time. You can look up to him and what he does on the field and if you want to model yourself after that, great, but don’t try to be someone off the field that you don’t know anything about. These are the things I’ve always said when defending Warren Sapp. But there’s no defense for this. This is a bitter, self obsessed man attacking someone he played for and obviously had problems with when he was here. Has anyone ever heard Kiffin say anything like this about anyone? I haven’t. It’s an attempt to get more publicity or maybe a far reach in defending Rod Marinelli, whatever it is, it’s very sad to see and Monte Kiffin deserves much more than this. Listen up Warren, your career probably wouldn’t have been as good without Monte Kiffin whereas his would’ve been just fine without you, so get over it.
Other non-related articles you might like:
