The draft that righted the ship

Bucs credit pair of '95 picks for franchise makeover

SAN DIEGO -- The journey began, really, long before Jon Gruden and his scowl arrived. It pre-dates the Tampa Bay tenures of building blocks like Keyshawn Johnson and Brad Johnson and Mike Alstott and Simeon Rice and even former head coach Tony Dungy.

Sure, we've seen the last few happy steps on the Bucs' long road to the Super Bowl. But what got the ball rolling Tampa Bay's way? What event or events transpired to make this week possible, maybe even inevitable?

For Buc historians, the answer is easy. Tampa Bay took its first real stride toward San Diego and Super Bowl XXXVII in April 1995, the day the Bucs landed both Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks in the first round of the NFL draft.

"That was the catalyst," said Tim Ruskell, Tampa Bay's longtime director of player personnel. "In one afternoon, we came away with two Hall of Famers."

Even if you're not ready to enshrine either Sapp or Brooks in Canton, you have to give Tampa Bay this: Showing guts, guile and foresight, the Bucs parlayed two draft-day trades into a pair of players who would both go on to win the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year award and form the nucleus of one of the league's premier defenses.

As turnarounds go, that ain't a bad reversal of fortune for the franchise whose draft-day failures included the likes of Bo Jackson, Keith McCants, Charles McRae and Eric Curry. If you want to try to start getting your hands around the Bucs' unprecedented streak of futility as it existed in the spring of 1995 -- when they were sitting on a league-record 12 consecutive seasons of losing at least 10 games a year -- think reverse Midas Touch on draft day. Think Bengals, even before the Bengals were the Bengals.

"You might remember we hadn't had the best luck in the drafts before that," Bucs general manager Rich McKay said, dropping into his trademark deadpan. "But at no time did I ever think it was a risk to draft Warren Sapp or Derrick Brooks."

Yeah, that's the view from sunny San Diego. But back in '95, McKay and Co. were likely in the distinct minority. Sapp's draft stock was slipping due to a reputation for too much partying. He tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine, and there were unconfirmed leaks coming from the league office that he had failed other drug tests as well. As for Brooks, some scouts in the league felt he was too small and would never be an impact player.

The Bucs originally held the No. 7 pick in the first round and the 41st overall in the second. How they wound up picking Sapp at No. 12 and Brooks 28th is an interesting little tale.

• King: Bucs' defense rests its case • Banks: Bucs' Johnson validated • Banks: No. 1 D the difference • Donovan: Raiders too slow • Donovan: Controversy burns Raiders • Statitudes: Havenots can have faith • Statitudes: By The Numbers • Mandel: Broadcast took its time • George: Super Bowl ads fun again

The short version is this: After initially thinking they had no shot to get Sapp at No. 7, Sapp started slipping down the board due to the reports of drug use. Other teams in the Top 10 were all making it known that they weren't going to be in his market.

"In the last 48 hours before the draft, really the whole thing changed," McKay said.

The first thing McKay and Ruskell did was hastily schedule a lunch with Sapp at the University of Miami, from which they came away convinced he was worth investing in. Then the Bucs decided to gamble. Wanting both Sapp and Brooks, but believing that Brooks would never last until their second-round pick, Tampa Bay pursued the goal of trading down a few spots in the first round, then using the extra picks acquired to better the positioning of their second selection.

And it all worked out masterfully. The Bucs traded the No. 7 pick and a third-rounder to Philadelphia for the Eagles' No. 12 pick and two second selections. Then they swapped those second-rounders to Dallas, which held the No. 28 pick in the first round.

The only potential pitfall in the unfolding Sapp/Brooks scenario was No. 11 Minnesota, which was also known to be interested in Sapp.

"We had to wait and see if Warren would actually fall to No. 12," McKay said. "We had projected who everyone was taking through the first 10 picks, but we didn't know about the Vikings at No. 11. We were concerned they might be the one team to go after Warren."

The Bucs had reason to be concerned. But what they didn't know and couldn't know until later was that Vikings team president Roger Headrick blocked head coach Dennis Green from selecting Sapp with the team's first-round choice. And Green had no one to blame for that but himself. Headrick was sensitive to questions about Sapp's character issue, because just months earlier the organization had been embarrassed by local reports detailing Green's past sexual misconduct.

In this case, Headrick wouldn't allow the Vikings to take on another potential public relations problem in Sapp. Whomever the Vikings took, that player had to be clean as a whistle. Amid that backdrop, Minnesota at No. 11 went for Florida State defensive end Derrick Alexander, who had no character issues, but turned out to have a mediocre, injury-shortened career.

Thus, Sapp fell to the Bucs at No. 12, and Brooks at No. 28. Both have been Pro Bowl perennials in their eight years -- which is quite a distinction given that they were the first two draft picks McKay made after being elevated to the role of full-fledged general manager.

"We thought, at the time, that it was going to be that type of [impact] draft," McKay said this week. "I remember Tim Ruskell and I, after everyone had left, set up a monitor, got some cigars -- we might have had a beverage or two -- and we sat down and watched tapes of Warren playing against the University of Pittsburgh."

Sunday in Qualcomm Stadium, on the NFL's grandest stage, McKay and Ruskell will watch Sapp again. As always, Brooks will be right there behind him, and the two veterans will lead Tampa Bay's No. 1-ranked defense against Oakland's No. 1-ranked offense, in the Bucs' first ever Super Bowl.

For Tampa Bay fans, the anticipation has been building for a week. It probably seems like it has taken forever to get here.

For folks like Rich McKay and Tim Ruskell, it has been considerably longer. In some ways, some real successful ways, they started heading for this game on draft day, 1995.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

Related information

Stories

Previous Don Banks Columns

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video