No Surprises Here: Gruden Knew Raiders

Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon conceded Tampa Bay Coach Jon Gruden’s familiarity with Oakland’s personnel and schemes likely had an effect on the game. Gruden coached the Raiders four years until jumping to the Buccaneers this season.

“We ran some no-huddle, and at the line of scrimmage we were mixing in some runs, changing up some plays and it seemed as if the Bucs were relaying the information as fast as we were changing it,” Gannon said. “I think that made a difference early in the game.”

*

Raider offensive tackle Barry Sims said he was happy for Gruden, his former coach. “Not that he beat us,” Sims said, “but that he won his Super Bowl, yeah, I’m happy for him.”

But when asked if Gruden might be particularly happy to have won his first Super Bowl by beating Oakland owner Al Davis, Sims became incensed.

“Jon wouldn’t be where he is without Al Davis,” Sims said. “Al Davis gave Jon his chance to be a head coach. None of us would be where we are without Al Davis.”

*

Buccaneer safety John Lynch joined his teammates in praise of Gruden.

“For a second last summer, I thought Marvin Lewis was our coach,” Lynch said, “and then I thought Bill Parcells was our coach again, because he was supposed to be our coach once before that.

“I said, ‘It’s going to take someone dynamic to win this team over,’ and we got the guy. I’ve played for some great coaches -- Bill Walsh in college, Denny Green, Tony Dungy, and Jon is right up there at the top.”

*

Dungy, the coach who was fired by the Buccaneers a year ago, wasn’t far from the players’ minds after they won the Super Bowl.

“That’s the first person I’ll see when I get off that plane and get back to my house,” defensive end Warren Sapp said. “Thank you, thank you. That’s all I can ever say to the man who freed me up and made me the player I am today.”

*

Buccaneer safety Dexter Jackson, who intercepted two passes in the first half and was named most valuable player, said he is happiest for the city of Tampa.

“When I first came to the team, I knew they had great players like the Sapps and the Lynches and the Brookses. These guys came from nothing and came together as a championship-caliber team.”

*

Buccaneer defensive lineman Simeon Rice sounded a lot like a rhyming, taunting Muhammad Ali as he described his elation at winning the Super Bowl -- and the Raider woes.

Asked what was the turning point of the game, Rice smiled widely and said: “They were beat before the game. We have better players. They were beat when they woke up this morning.”

The Raiders, he said, “had problems and they didn’t even know it. It was like an alcoholic who doesn’t think he has a drinking problem, with cognac in his mouth.”

He praised the Buccaneer depth -- “We’ve got so many Pro Bowl players, we’ve got an illegal team” -- and scoffed at the Raider mystique.

“Mystique is like Peter Pan. If you believe in it strong enough, it becomes real,” Rice said. “The Mongols went to villages and left one. We took over the village. We came down here and took over the village.”

*

Oakland receiver Tim Brown is awaiting the birth of twins, which are due any day.

Brown’s wife, Sherice, was unable to make the trip here for her husband’s first Super Bowl game. Brown, who had only one catch for nine yards in the first quarter, said that he was able to keep his mind on the game and off the impending births.

“At least no one was waiting for me at the end of the game to tell me I’d better get on a plane now because my wife was in labor,” Brown said.

“That’s maybe the only good thing that’s happened to me today.”

*

Adam Treu, who replaced Barret Robbins at center for the Raiders after the Pro Bowl starter was sent home by Coach Bill Callahan, said he was ready for his Super Bowl moment.

“As a professional, you’re prepared for this, week in and week out,” he said. “You never know when a guy might get hurt and you’re called into a starting role. I was really excited for myself and my family. I wanted to go out and perform well and do them proud.

“There’s no better story than this. But it just didn’t work out the way I wanted.”

*

Gannon said he had one key regret: that he never got the chance to congratulate his Tampa Bay counterpart, Brad Johnson, after the game.

“I looked for him and was trying to find him, but it was a mob scene,” he said. “I said hello to a couple of players.

“I congratulated Jon Gruden and he just said to me, ‘Hang in there.’ ”

*

For Tampa Bay receiver Keyshawn Johnson, the only thing that compares to winning a championship is his college diploma.

“I’ve got a Super Bowl ring,” Johnson said. “That’s like my education from USC. Nobody can take that away. No matter what you say, nobody can take that away.”

*

Oakland offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy wasn’t happy with how the Raiders started the game.

“We didn’t come out with a lot of zest,” he said.

Kennedy seemed more distracted by the spectacle surrounding the game, which forced the team to wait 45 minutes after it finished its pregame workout.

“With all this hoopla, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ the coin toss, the fly-over and all this going it, it’s hard to get into a game tempo,” Kennedy said.

*

Hundreds of U.S. Army troops from the 3rd Infantry stationed at Camp New York, about 15 miles from the Iraq border in Northern Kuwait, gathered in a tent to watch the 2 a.m. kickoff.

To provide a touch of home, a fully armed crew made a nine-hour round trip to Dominos in Kuwait City to pick up 250 pizzas. Cooks supervised the making of the pizzas to ensure nothing harmful was added.

*

Staff writers Diane Pucin, J.A. Adande, Helene Elliott, Bill Dwyre, Ralph Frammolino and John Hendren contributed to this report