Former Buccaneer head coach Leeman Bennett by Denis Crawford Every writer has a weakness. Some lean too heavily on clichés rather than biting the bullet and coming up with something original. Others feel compelled to show off their education by stringing together a litany of prose from a veritable cornucopia of verbiage. My weakness is that I often blur the line between making what I think is a valid humorous point and taking a cheap shot at somebody. I don’t like taking cheap shots, but I have. Usually, it is not until I have looked back weeks and months later at my column that I realize, “Hey, that wasn’t a very nice thing to write.” I especially feel guilty because I have not met or spoken with most of the people I write about. A couple of years ago while doing research on the Buccaneers of the 1980’s I was able to speak with a man that I felt I had treated quite harshly. It turned out to be one of the most pleasant interviews I have ever participated in. The man’s name is Leeman Bennett. I know that many of us were not heartbroken when Leeman Bennett’s tenure as Tampa Bay head coach ended in 1986 after a 4-28 record. However, in speaking with the former coach I realized that to confine his life to two football seasons is patently unfair. If history teaches anything it is that there are always two sides to any story. Here is Leeman Bennett’s side as told in an interview on May 20, 2006: While it is true that Leeman Bennett was out of the NFL when Hugh Culverhouse tapped him to succeed John McKay in 1985, he did not exactly just fall off of a turnip truck. Bennett brought an excellent resume and solid reputation with him. Bennett played in college for Blanton Collier at the University of Kentucky. Collier, who went on to win a NFL Championship with the Cleveland Browns in 1964, had a reputation as a mentor of coaches. In addition to Bennett, Don Shula, Bill Arnsparger and Chuck Knox assisted Collier on the Wildcat sideline. “He (Collier) recruited me to play quarterback and he was definitely my mentor,” Bennett said. “It was my graduate school. Everyone who coached me there went on to become head coaches.” After graduating from college, Bennett spent one year under Collier until the older coach moved on to Cleveland. After spending a few years at Kentucky, Bennett moved through the ranks with assistant coaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Cincinnati and the Naval Academy. Bennett joined the NFL in 1970 as a backfield coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and moved the next year to the Detroit Lions. In 1973 one of his former coaches at Kentucky, Chuck Knox, hired Bennett to coach the wide receivers with the Los Angeles Rams. Over the next five seasons the Rams had one of the more prolific offenses in the NFL and made it to several NFC Championship Games. Sadly, the Rams never got over the hump and made the Super Bowl. Despite the setbacks, Bennett built quite a reputation for himself around the NFL. After paying his dues for a decade and a half, Bennett was hired to coach the Atlanta Falcons in 1977. “At that time, I was the youngest coach in the League, and I came from the Rams where we had been very successful,” Bennett recalled in explaining his first head coaching job. “I was advised not to take the Atlanta job but I think I was very fortunate to have the opportunity. There were only 28 teams and I think you have to take the chance when it comes.” Bennett did not inherit a team with a lot of talent in Atlanta, but he sold the team on ball control and defense. That in itself was quite an accomplishment. “I guess the most difficult thing is changing the attitude,” Bennett said of his first challenge with the Falcons. “Move from a thought process of ‘We can’t win,’ to the thought process of ‘We will win.’” “To do that (get player buy-in) you need some players to make unexpected plays. Players will think, ‘Here we go again,’ so you need to win a game or two to get buy-in. When we played the Rams, they had just signed Joe Namath and there was a lot of hype surrounding them. We beat them to open the season (17-6) and that kind of got everybody to believe our philosophy was fine and we went on to have a decent year.” That’s putting in mildly. In 1977 the Falcons finished 7-7, gave up only 129 points (the all-time NFL record for a 14-game season) and Bennett walked away with the Coach of the Year award. The “Grits Blitz” as the Falcon defense became known, helped keep the Falcons competitive until Bennett got the playmakers he needed on offense. Quarterback Steve Bartkowski, running backs Williams Andrews and Lynn Cain and receiver Alfred Jenkins catapulted the Falcons to the playoffs in 1978, 1980 and 1982. Unfortunately, the Falcons never advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs and Bennett was fired following the 1982 season even though he was the only Falcon coach at the time with a winning record. For a few years Bennett worked in vehicle sales and then late in 1984 he received a phone call from Hugh Culverhouse gauging his interest in a return to coaching. “He called me out of the clear blue,” Bennett said. Before agreeing to return to football, Bennett did a lot of thinking. “I had heard good things from John McKay about Hugh Culverhouse. I also felt that Hugh Culverhouse had stayed with John for a long time, perhaps longer than most owners would have. The job was in the South and in the NFL. I was missing the NFL and decided if the opportunity came, I would get back in.” For the second time in his career, Bennett took over a team with little talent and a defeatist mentality. From the beginning however, things did not work as well for him as they did in Atlanta. “First I needed to sell the players on the idea that we could win,” Bennett said as he recounted his “To-Do” list on arriving in Tampa. “They had to have an understanding that we could win.” “Secondly, we had to upgrade the personnel because the personnel had gotten to a point where there just wasn’t any. We had two or three good players. One was Lee Roy Selmon but he ended up having to retire (due to a back injury), and the other was James Wilder but he had been used so often he was on the edge of being overcome.” In his first season, the Buccaneers played competitively for the most part but lost 14 of 16 contests. The first game was a microcosm of the season as the Bucs raced ahead of the eventual World Champion Chicago Bears before losing 38-28. The Bucs would play the Bears tough a second time before losing 27-19. Close losses to the Rams, Giants, and Dolphins, all playoff teams, were frustrating. “Players go out and give effort and play as hard as they can for thirty minutes, but then by the time the game is over there are enough weaknesses that the other team can come back,” is how Bennett viewed those games. In 1985 the Buccaneers also lost in some monumental blowouts with odd circumstances beyond Bennett’s control. The first was a 62-28 loss to the New York Jets in payback for the “Buccaneer Flop” in 1984. In the Flop game, John McKay had ordered his defense to intentionally let the Jets score so Tampa Bay could give James Wilder a chance to set an NFL record. The Jets vowed revenge and even though McKay was safely in retirement, they had their vengeance against Bennett. “Anytime you allow that many points it upsets you,” is all Bennett really wanted to say about that game. “Anytime you get beat like that it upsets you. In fact, I put that game so far out of my mind I don’t really remember it. But anytime you get embarrassed like that it is upsetting.” Later that season the Bucs lost to the Packers 21-0 in the infamous Snow Bowl game. Bennett had a better view than the fans in the stand but not by much. “I remember the Snow Game. It was snowing so hard you had trouble seeing anybody on the other side of the field. I can remember at one time I only thought we had ten men on the field because we had on white uniforms and it was snowing so hard. That was a miserable game. There is no question about it” “In a lot of those northern cities, it is kind of interesting when they give you a wake-up call. The gal on the phone said, ‘Good morning Coach Bennett. It is two degrees above zero and we expect four inches of snow on the ground at game time. The wind chill factor will be minus fourteen, have an enjoyable day. When you are a warm weather franchise (playing in snow) that plays with your mindset.” After the conclusion of the 1985 season the Buccaneers were granted the number one draft choice due to possessing the worst record in the NFL. Most people assumed the Buccaneers would draft Bo Jackson, the Heisman Trophy winning running back from Auburn. Jackson had other ideas. After warning the Bucs not to draft him, Jackson bolted to the Kansas City Royals to play baseball. Jackson’s decision to spurn the Bucs and football to take up Major League Baseball has become legendary and at the time shocked the sporting public. But Coach Bennett knew it was coming, but his advice to management went unheeded. “Hugh Culverhouse and I flew to Auburn to speak with Bo,” Bennett said. “Hugh talked a lot about his ties with the University of Alabama and I don’t think Bo really liked that conversation. You have to understand the rivalry between Auburn and Alabama.” Upon arriving back in Tampa, Bennett told Culverhouse that he didn’t think the Bucs should spend the number one draft choice on a player that obviously did not want to play for them, but his opinion was ignored. “Mr. Culverhouse told me that if we drafted him (Jackson), we would sign him. He told me, ‘Don’t worry about it, I will sign him.’ Of course when the time came that didn’t happen. Bo was clearly the best in the draft, there is no question about that. But by the same token, if you’re not going to be able so sign him there is no sense in drafting him.” By not signing Bo or trading the number one pick for a bevy of other selections the Buccaneer franchise was set further back and Leeman Bennett was left holding the bag. Another personnel decision in 1986 would also prove unpopular, but this decision was one that Bennett felt needed to be made for the good of the team. During the 1986 season Bennett released tight end Jimmie Giles, wide receiver Kevin House and running back Ron Springs, all popular players. “They had been there for a long time and had been productive in the eyes of the fans,” Bennett said in recalling the decision. “My thinking was they were not as productive as they needed to be. I felt they were on the end of their careers and not performing as they needed to be.” Bennett also intimated that the veterans were not providing the leadership he felt the younger players needed. While Bennett felt he had valid reasons to exercise his right as coach, he still had to withstand a barrage of negative reaction from the fans and local media. “I couldn’t worry about what the media said. You have to do what you think is in the best interest of your team. I couldn’t look back on ‘Well, I could have done this or I could have done that,” it’s done” Bennett also had to preside over a quarterback controversy involving a future Hall of Famer and a popular journeyman. Leading the way for the Buccaneers during Bennett’s two seasons was quarterback Steve DeBerg, a man that had been beaten out in San Francisco by Joe Montana and Denver by John Elway. A solid passer, DeBerg was chosen by Bennett over future Hall of Famer Steve Young. According to Bennett, that is because Young just wasn’t ready. While it has become popular to criticize Bennett in hindsight for failing to capitalize on having a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback on his roster, history has proven the wisdom of his decision. In 1987 the Bucs would trade Young to the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco head coach Bill Walsh would also sit Young down for a while to try and tame his passion for running first, passing second. “Steve Young was not ready to play at that time. He sat on the bench in San Francisco a few years and learned that way. When he was in Tampa he wasn’t ready to play. He would much rather run than throw because the athletes were so much faster and he thought his legs could carry him. That’s not going to work for a long period of time in the NFL. So, for the most part Steve DeBerg was our quarterback. Steve DeBerg was a tough competitor who tried to do what you wanted him to do. Not a great quarterback in all honesty, but a guy who would fight you.” As the 1986 season wound to a close, rumors started to circulate that Bennett was going to be let go. Bennett didn’t believe the rumors because of all the hard work he had put into getting the franchise back in shape. ”I thought we had a foundation started, but we had a long way to go. We had to live with Young for three or four years and add some personnel around him.” “I didn’t really think he (Culverhouse) would let me go at that time because I thought we were at least headed in the right direction even though our record hadn’t gotten any better. I thought we had a better football team, but I knew it was going to take time and we had been set back by not signing Bo Jackson. We needed some personnel, and I thought it would take another year or two.” When the call came, Bennett was disappointed. Legend has it that Bennett didn’t know he was being fired until Culverhouse announced it at a press conference. According to Bennett, that viewpoint is inaccurate. Hugh Culverhouse did not embarrass Bennett in that way and the former coach is unsure why people believe otherwise. “He did not fire me during the press conference. I knew before the press conference and I asked to attend. He was more than fair with me, he honored the contract totally.” The only thing that bothered Bennett about the termination was his feeling that Culverhouse had not supported the team financially and the speculation the owner had picked a successor before he even informed the coach of his termination. “When the termination came, I didn’t have a problem. It (the Buccaneers) was considered a cheap organization and that was not good but that is the way it was. If Culverhouse spoke to Ray Perkins prior to letting me go, I don’t know anything about that.” Long removed from the Tampa Stadium sideline Bennett spends his days in Georgia as an executive with the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and on the board of Atlanta Business Bank. More importantly he dotes on his grandchildren. “I have grandchildren in Jacksonville and in Atlanta so I keep the road hot between the two.” Asked if he has any regrets about his time in Tampa Bay, Bennett chuckled and with a very sincere Southern drawl said, “I’m going to surprise you. My younger son found his wife in Tampa and they are doing great, and I have two great grandkids so that part was really good.”