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Hubert Mizell, The St.Petersburg Times, published 2 December 1991
Among travel companies, even ill-fated Midway Airlines had better second-quarter earnings than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After a 0-33 second-quarter shortfall in Atlanta, the NFL laughingstock took its sad show on the road again Sunday and took a similar 15-minute dive, making an 0-24 mess in Miami.
Now, the rest of the story Tampa Bay's portfolio is loaded with two-bit quarters. It doesn't stop with bad seconds. In away games, the Bucs have had 13 consecutive "Black Sundays." They also have a lot of negative firsts, thirds and fourths. Bottom line: a 2-11 record.
This time, a squirt of a Miami Dolphins runner, Mark Higgs, blew through Tampa Bay defenses for 131 yards. Dan Marino, for once, didn't need to kill from the air. Not with Higgs butchering the Bucs on the ground. But, just for fun, Miami's magnificent arm would lollygag for 307 yards and two touchdown passes in the 33-14 knockout.
Miami was enjoying its first "laugher" in 20 games, since a 23-3 smackover of the Phoenix Cardinals almost 13 months ago. When NFL teams really hurt, they invite the Bucs to town.
The road toads. Still, even in a victorious Miami locker room, every face wouldn't be beaming. Don Shula grimaced as only he can. Oh, sure, during his mass news conference, the Dolphins' coach mildly gushed over the 33-14. But, later, as we talked one-on-one in Shula's private quarters, he got into his 1991 as a whole, and the pain showed.
Shula's wife, Dorothy, died from breast cancer in February. Son Mike, a former University of Alabama quarterback, was fired from his first coaching job in January along with the rest of the 1990 Tampa Bay/Ray Perkins staff. "So many things have happened to us this year," said papa Don, a 305-game NFL coaching winner who turns 62 in January. "Personal things and also football stuff, with so many holdouts during summer camp, and then loads of injuries."
But, late Sunday, it was public and media criticism that had Shula boiling. "Things have changed terribly," he said, rubbing a gray beard. "It's difficult to believe the attitude has become so predominantly negative. If a team goes 3-1, people can't cease picking at the `1' while seemingly taking the `3' for granted. "Maybe it's just the time we now live in. All the talk shows. Such a demand to be controversial. All the cable TV channels, plus the magazines and newspapers. You know me. I have always had my occasional differences with commentators from the media. But not many years ago, almost everybody involved was a professional at his job and prone to have something to back his critical statements. I still might not have agreed, but I understood. I knew I was dealing with good, solid media people. That's not always true these days."
Shula no longer understands. Miami talk shows sizzle with second-guessing. Shula has felt the sting of ink darts from more than one newspaper analyst. He sees criticism as more widespread and "less backed up" than, say, in the 1970s when his Dolphins would temporarily struggle. Shula's 1991 team has an undazzling record of 7-6, but his Miami fishes nonetheless remain in the playoff swim. People from around here should be made to spend a few seasons living with the Tampa Bay Bucs, who are deep into a 16th year of setting new substandards.
For 22 years, Shula has been delivering winners to Miami. No NFL franchise has reaped sweeter numbers than Shula's 232-117-2 since 1970. His Dolphins have been to five Super Bowls, winning two. I expect him back. "You can't believe the opinions I keep hearing," Shula said, "and some of the questions I'm asked. It can really be tough to stomach."
Shula should expect no sudden turnaround, back to media/public ways and means of the 1970s. We're in the talk-show-mentality 1990s, when sex and violence and football legends are all fair (and sometimes unfair) game. If papa Don really gets fed up and wants to kiss Miami goodbye, we from Tampa Bay will happily take him for the next 22 seasons or so.
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