Chucky's revenge

We know it's been a while since he was pacing the Eagles' sidelines, but Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden spouted off some talk yesterday that struck a nerve if you're a Philly fan.

According to the Tampa Tribune, Gruden said he was happy for the Tampa Bay Rays and that he hopes they beat up on the Phillies in the World Series.

Gruden: "Congratulations to the Devil Rays. We are really excited for them. Awesome job. Just hope we can beat Philadelphia. That'll be great."

Chucky, baby. Come on, remember the times. Yes, it was tough being Marty Mornhinweg during the Ray Rhodes era, but Philly was good to you, right?

Gruden: "It's [Philly] a unique sports town. I had a great experience there. Learned a lot of adjectives there, I'll say that. But boy, we [as in the city of Tampa, one can only assume] want this series, bad. We want it bad."

I'll admit Tampa fans are probably pretty excited, but saying they "want this series" more than Philly fans is just ludicrous.

First of all, the Phillies' absence from the World Series (15 years) is longer than the Rays have been in existence. Secondly, look at the pandemonium that hit at Frankford and Cottman after Carlos Ruiz caught that towering foul ball to beat the Dodgers. Check the police reports of both towns, but we're positive Philly had more knuckleheads sitting in holding cells due to excessive celebrating.

Thirdly, Chucky, you referred to the Rays as the "Devil Rays," so technically you owe that organization a dollar. Bet you didn't know that.

One has to wonder, if Gruden was still wearing Midnight Green, would he have inserted the Phillies into yesterday's statements, or is Gruden truly overjoyed that the Rays have a chance to end Tampa's 5-year drought from a world championship? (Chucky's Bucs won the Super Bowl in the 2002-03 season against Oakland - another one of his former teams.)

Chucky, if you ever get tired of football, consider a career in politics. *

- Kerith Gabriel

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