Family matters

Mariucci to Bucs never as close as it seemed

There's one part of the Tampa Bay coaching story that doesn't smell right. It's the part about Steve Mariucci going to bed with a $42 million offer from the Bucs, sleeping on it, then begging off at 7 a.m. the next day because he didn't want to move his family from California to Florida.

I don't buy it. Not for a second. And Mariucci told me Wednesday I shouldn't buy it because despite rampant media reports to the contrary, the Mooch scenario isn't true.

Here's what is true: Mariucci is now back with the 49ers. He was in his office Wednesday studying game tape from the 2001 season, trying to figure out how to make the San Francisco offense even more unstoppable than it was this past fall when the team stunned the league with a 12-win season.

But last Sunday, he flew to Los Angeles to meet with the sons of Tampa Bay owner Malcolm Glazer. Over the course of six hours of conversation, they talked about the parameters of a five-year contract for a combination coach-general manager job. Mariucci says at one point he asked the Glazers, "Does this mean you're offering me the job?" And they said yes, they were offering him the job. According to Mariucci, he was told he would be paid "among the top coaches in the league."

The top three highest-paid coaches in the league are Steve Spurrier, at $5 million per, and Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan, at just over $4 million a year. Let's assume the contract was going to be something like five years for $23 million.

After the meeting, the Glazers and Mariucci drove to a McDonald's, where they shared burgers. Then they drove Mariucci to the airport for his flight home. Looking back, Mariucci thinks the Glazers were put off by the fact that he said several times he'd have to go home and talk to his wife and children.

In phone conversations with his family from the airport, Mariucci pretty much knew it was over. He knew if he took the Bucs job, the family decision would be that he would go to Tampa and be an absentee father for 17 months, while his son Tyler completed his junior and senior years in high school. Mariucci's agent, Don Yee, had several conversations with the Glazers Sunday evening, as well as three with Mariucci. The teams had set a 1 p.m. deadline Monday for making the deal. At one point, Mariucci said his wife would have to see Tampa and their prospective new neighborhood. The two sides moved the deadline back to 6 p.m. Monday. That's as far as they would go. And there was no way they'd be able to get the deal done, and Tampa seen, in that time.

When he went to bed Sunday night, Mariucci knew he wasn't going to Tampa. The Bucs knew, too. The Glazers then did the smart thing: They got Raiders boss Al Davis on the phone, before he knew the Mariucci deal collapsed, and they made the deal for Jon Gruden to go to Tampa.

So the truth is there never was $6-million-a-year offer. And though the Bucs and Mariucci spoke Monday, it was not for Tampa to hear the news that Mariucci was turning them down; it was the Bucs telling him, We knew you were staying, so we went out and bagged Gruden.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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