Buccaneer Monday (special Friday edition)

My absence of the last 24 hours can be explained in one word: football.

Thanks to the screwy schedule of preseason NFL football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played their last preseason game on a Thursday night, which for me meant a 7-hour round-trip drive sandwiched around a game ... and I started home from the stadium at about midnight. I'm getting too old for this ...

But the game itself was entertaining, even if it was meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The Bucs' scrubs spotted the Houston Texans' scrubs 14 points, but the Bucs roared back to win, 31-24, behind two big touchdown catches by WR Paris Warren, who finished off a tremendous preseason for Tampa Bay.

Sadly, though, Warren's last TD catch also likely is his last catch of 2007, as his leg rolled up beneath him on the tackle and he suffered a compound fracture of his ankle. This happened almost literally right in front of me, as I sit in the south end zone, and I saw something I've never seen in over ten years of attending games in Tampa (and a lifetime of watching football): the entire team came out to support Warren as he was treated, loaded onto the stretcher, and carted off. Honestly, the only word I can think of to describe the scene (shown here, in a picture I took from my seat) is touching.

The real thing for the Bucs starts September 9, with a challenging road trip to Seattle to face the Seahawks. After a preseason record of 3-1, there is optimism in Tampa Bay, but it's tempered by the reality of a schedule that begins with Seattle and (at home) New Orleans, with trips to Indianapolis, New Orleans, and San Francisco (where they've traditionally played poorly) looming later in the year.

I'll be happy with an 8-8 year ... the playoffs are not out of the question but, coming off of a 4-12 season in 2006, reality is a bitch. Five years ago, this team won a Super Bowl. It seems more like fifty years ago ...