Bucs defense puts Chandler into the game Bruce Lowitt, The St.Petersburg Times, published 7 September 1992 Even before the stretcher got to Timm Rosenbach, lying in pain on the Tampa Stadium turf, Chris Chandler heard the boos, the derisive chant of "Chand-ler! Chand-ler!" The Buc-turned-Cardinal backup quarterback grabbed a ball and began warming up behind the Phoenix bench, and when his picture flashed on the Jumbotron screen at the south end of the stadium, the fans pumped up the volume. Chandler just smiled to himself. "Hey," he said later in the losers' locker room, "they love me. I'd have been disappointed if they hadn't booed me. I expected it. I mean, I'm the guy that took the No. 1 draft pick away from them, right? There's lots of reasons for them not to like me." Such as his 0-6 record as the Bucs' starting quarterback before they cut him loose last year. Such as the fact former coach Ray Perkins spent a first-round pick to get him. Such as the fact that pick wound up in Indianapolis' pocket (linebacker Quentin Coryatt, second overall in the '92 draft). A year ago, Bucs fans cheered Chandler - well, sometimes - chanting his name, demanding he take over when Vinny Testaverde was having one of those days. "Last year's a world away," Chandler said. "Oh, I dreamed of coming back here, coming in and playing and doing well. You always prepare for the situation where you're going to have to take over. 'Course, I sort of figured there'd be a different ending." Like maybe Chandler being carried victoriously off the field. He wasn't even on the field when the game ended. Not that he'd gone from being "not good enough to start" to "not good enough to finish." In the 16 plays he called during the final two minutes of the third quarter and the first 10 of the fourth (with the Cardinals trailing 20-7), Chandler completed six of nine passes for 31 yards and never got Phoenix closer than the Tampa Bay 31-yard line. "He went into a tough situation, a very hostile environment," coach Joe Bugel said. "I don't think it was Chandler's fault we didn't do anything with him in there." Bugel removed him for Phoenix's final two possessions and went with third-stringer Tony Sacca, the rookie from Penn State. "I'd have liked to play more," Chandler said. "I was arguing to stay in. We were still in it. I don't know, maybe he was afraid of me getting hurt, too." Actually, Bugel said, he wanted to make sure that if he's down to two quarterbacks next week, "I'm going to get Tony in the game in a dire situation just to see how he could do. I want to give that kid a chance to get his pants dirty again. I wasn't trying to dishonor Chandler." Bugel could see 1991 all over again when Rosenbach was flattened by Santana Dotson and then nailed by Broderick Thomas as the Bucs' linebacker dived for the ball, which had escaped Rosenbach's grasp. Rosenbach missed all of last season after he tore up his right knee during preseason practice. "Seeing Rosie on a stretcher again, that is not a good sign right there," Bugel said without a trace of sarcasm. "But that's the breaks of the game. Everybody goes through it." When Dr. Wayne Kuhl, an internist on Phoenix's medical staff, got to Rosenbach, the Cardinals' quarterback was unconscious. Kuhl administered some smelling salts, and when Rosenbach came around, he was disoriented and complaining of back pains and a severe headache. As they tended to him, Bucs coach Sam Wyche watched from the sideline. "From a human standpoint, you worry," Wyche said. "This is a gladiator sport. You don't know when you walk out there if you're going to walk back. I always feel for another player when he's hurt." Rosenbach was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital. Neck X-rays and a brain CAT scan were normal, and Rosenbach was to be released today, a hospital spokesman said.