Tim Brown suggests “sabotage” by Bill Callahan in Super Bowl XXXVII

[Bucman 891]

Tim Brown suggests “sabotage” by Bill Callahan in Super Bowl XXXVII

 

Posted by Mike Florio on January 21, 2013, 9:33 PM EST

 

A decade ago, the Raiders’ fate in Super Bowl XXXVII presumably was sealed by the weekend disappearance of center Barret Robbins. Hall of Fame finalist Tim Brown believes that the blame for the 48-21 loss to the Buccaneers should go to Oakland’s head coach.

 

“We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we’re gonna run the ball,” Brown said Saturday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, which provided us with the audio. “We averaged 340 [pounds] on the offensive line, they averaged 280 [on the defensive line]. We’re all happy with that, everybody is excited. [We] tell Charlie Garner, ‘Look, you’re not gonna get too many carries, but at the end of the day we’re gonna get a victory. Tyrone Wheatley, Zack Crockett, let’s get ready to blow this thing up.’”

 

According to Brown, coach Bill Callahan then “blew this thing up” on the Friday before the Super Bowl, changing the game plan from a run-heavy attack to an intent to “throw the ball 60 times.”

 

“We all called it sabotage . . . because Callahan and [Tampa Bay coach Jon] Gruden were good friends,” Brown said. “And Callahan had a big problem with the Raiders, you know, hated the Raiders. You know, only came because Gruden made him come. Literally walked off the field on us a couple of times during the season when he first got there, the first couple years. So really he had become someone who was part of the staff but we just didn’t pay him any attention. Gruden leaves, he becomes the head coach. . . . It’s hard to say that the guy sabotaged the Super Bowl. You know, can you really say that? That can be my opinion, but I can’t say for a fact that that’s what his plan was, to sabotage the Super Bowl. He hated the Raiders so much that he would sabotage the Super Bowl so his friend can win the Super Bowl. That’s hard to say, because you can’t prove it.

 

“But the facts are what they are, that less than 36 hours before the game we changed our game plan. And we go into that game absolutely knowing that we have no shot. That the only shot we had if Tampa Bay didn’t show up.”

 

Brown explained that the change had a specific impact on Robbins. “Barret Robbins begged Coach Callahan, ‘Do not do this to me. I don’t have time to make my calls, to get my calls ready. You can’t do this to me on Friday. We haven’t practiced full speed, we can’t get this done.’”

 

Brown tiptoed around the question of whether the change caused Robbins to go off the deep end, suggesting that it had an impact and then explaining that there’s no way to know if it did. “I’m not saying one had anything to do with the other,” Brown said. “All I’m saying is those are the facts of what happened Super Bowl week. So our ire wasn’t towards Barret Robbins, it was towards Bill Callahan. Because we feel as if he wouldn’t have did what he did, then Barret wouldn’t have done what he did.

 

“Now, should Barret have manned up and tried to do it? Absolutely. But everybody knew Barret was unstable anyway. So to put him in that situation — not that he was putting him in that situation — but for that decision to be made without consulting the players the Friday before the Super Bowl? I played 27 years of football. The coaches never changed the game plan the Friday before the game. I’m not trying to point fingers at anybody here, all I’m saying is those are the facts of what happened. So people look at Barret and they say all these things, but every player in that locker room will tell you, ‘You’d better talk to Bill Callahan.’ Because if not for Coach Callahan, I don’t think we’re in that situation.”

 

Well, we now know what Tim Brown will be asked about next week in New Orleans. Continuously.

 

There’s only one potential flaw in Brown’s logic. He assumes that the new game plan came from Callahan. Who’s to say that the order to throw the ball 60 times didn’t come from the late Al Davis, who had a special affinity for throwing the football, and also for meddling directly in the coaching of the team?

 

Thus, while it’s easy to blame Callahan, Callahan may have simply been the messenger.

 

Regardless, Brown and Callahan and Gruden and quarterback Rich Gannon and anyone/everyone who was part of that team will soon be hearing from reporters and radio/TV producers, just in time for the 10th anniversary of the game.

 

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/21/tim-brown-suggests-sabotage-by-bill-callahan-in-super-bowl-xxxvi/

 

 

What a sore loser. I find it hard to believe a coach that hated a team so badly would take over as HC, lead them to a SB and make them lose on purpose. I'm sure he told Rich Gannon to throw all those INTs.

[AllYouNeedIsLovie 377]

lolTimBrown.

 

A lot of players on the Raiders team have come out and said that Brown sounds like an idiot for saying this.

[Omerta+ 1,206]

"I dont mean to point fingers" ...while he points the finger.

[RazorStar 4,025]

Well it's like saying no offense and then saying something really offensive like "Tommy is so fat he ate half of Georgia. The white half."

[UnDeadPool 2]

Brown is dumb. Why would you throw away the SB...it's not like the Raiders could have won it anyways.

Edited January 24, 2013 by UnDeadPool

[Bucman 891]

Jerry Rice agrees with him now too. I guess these guys forgot, Al Davis helped with the gameplans back then and lost this game too I guess on purpose

Enjoy another year not making the HOF Brown.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Bucman

[SteVo+ 3,702]

Bill Callahan released a formal statement that said, in more elequent terms, that this was a heap of horse shit. Granted, Callahan isn't going to just open up and admit sabotage, but there's nothing to admit. It's a bunch of crap, and interesting timing on Brown's part considering he's on the Hall of Fame ballot this year.

[Glanvilles Grits 142]

There have been a lot of players from that Raiders team on the radio and all over ESPN/NFLN the last few days talking about this. Let me just say this, you don't work toward something your entire career only to purposefully "sabotage" your chances of accomplishing it because you want your friend to win. Hell, I don't care if he absolutely hated the Raiders organization, he's not going to sabotage a career long goal.

 

What I can gather from everything that has been said by these Raiders players is that it wasn't sabotage,it was simply ignorance. They didn't change their audibles, the other team knew what they were doing every time they tried to change the play up. Defensive players were on the ball when they shouldn't have been, it was a mess. Callahan was just being lazy and ignorant by thinking he could go in there and win a game without changing anything that Gruden had already seen the year before with the team.

 

In that respect, I put the blame of what happened a lot on the players. The coaches can have all the power in the world and if the players don't like what is going on, then they can come up with changes amongst themselves and use them during the game. All they had to do was change their signals, that's it. That would have given them a much larger chance at winning the game. There was no reason for the players to just sit back and let all of this mess happen. To come forward and speak about it now though? A little late, don't you think? Tim Brown was just looking for attention here, and now he's started what is somewhat of a shit storm in my opinion.