Finding Out Who the True Fans Are I’ve just finished reading the article on the Bucs greatest ever teams and our President makes an excellent point on the influence of the band-wagon jumper Bucs fan on the overall vote. As The Bucs slip back into the sludge of the NFL for the next couple of years, hopefully no more than that, it will be interesting to see if the attendance holds at RJS, or the famed 100,000 people on the Season Ticket Waiting list remains at such a preposterous figure. Lest we forget as recently as 1996, you could pretty much turn up at the old Sombrero on the Sunday of the game, buy a ticket and sit wherever you wished and the gates topped out at around 45,000, unless the Packers or Bears and all their fans were in town to fill out the stadium. Five things I think 1. Michael Clayton – keep it going. You are showing signs of promise which is a major blessing in what is an otherwise train-wreck of a season. 2, I think I’m proud of the reception John Lynch received on Sunday. We’ll never forget the man who will always be our number 47 Red, or Orange for those Buc fans from pre-1997. 3. I think I’m glad that at least the Panthers appear to be struggling as well. Still hate em. 4. I think the thought of the Glazers taking control of Media Utd really appalls me. I only hope they appoint Bruce Allen as chairman and he proceeds to take Utd downwards like he’s done with the Bucs. 5. Top Draft Pick Watch – we are locked in a straight battle with the Faulty Whiners and the Fish at the moment as I see it. Our moving to an inexperienced back-up QB certainly helps our chances of a 3 win season, but temper this with the Dolphins trying to out do our ineptitude on offense, and the Niners complete Italian Infantry style surrender once they face a defecit, and this could be a battle that goes down to the wire. Them were the glory days when you save $5 by parking for free at K-Mart, and there was so much room they actually used to hold tag football games in the empty parking lot - cue Hovis ad music in the background (any American readers who have strayed onto this drivel will not have the faintest clue what I’m on about here). Then along comes Tony Dungy, some new uniforms and a winning team and hey presto 65,000 turn up every week and all claim to have been with the Bucs for life. Well sorry guys but as much as I love America and the friends I have there, nowhere in the world are the fans so fickle in times of adversity. It comes to such a point in American professional sports that when the team doesn’t win, the fans just don’t turn up at all (see any Arizona Cards game) and in the worst cases the team then simply packs up and moves across America to a new home and a new start. Loyalty is a one-way street across the pond and we’ll find out in the coming weeks just how many are off our band-wagon and onto someone else’s. All the “new” Buc fans we garnered from 1997 might just move over now to follow the Jags, Falcons or whoever else is the current NFL darling. As for the Bucs UK, the moniker of “We were there when we were s**t certainly applies and no doubt the majority of us will still be with the team in the event of a couple of throwback 2-14 seasons. Anyone notice how few Chucky dolls you see at RJS these days? On the state of the current team the move to install Chris Simms comes at the right time, if for nothing better than to at least inspire a bit of rejuvenated interest in a season that is dead in the water to all intents and purposes. Simms will now have a solid 12 games in which to learn his trade on the job so that come the 2005 season he will hopefully be in a position to make a more meaningful contribution. His link-up with Michael Clayton promises much and could be a major building block for us, but the lack of any potent running game or pass protection will mean he will spend the months of October to December running for his life – lets hope he survives to baptism of fire. It will at least provide us with something to follow as the season fizzles out around us.