The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are moving forward with a new coach in Greg Schiano, but the internal processing of the Raheem Morris era continues.
A year ago, Morris was hailed as one of the bright young minds, having led the Bucs to a 10-win season in 2010. How quickly things change. Last season, Morris met with a nasty 10-game losing streak that cost him his job.
Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer met with reporters Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting and talked about restoring pride to the franchise. The team recently huddled with fan-based focus groups, and the buzzword emerging from those sessions was "integrity," which Glazer called the "No. 1 item in the National Football League."
He hinted that Morris had trouble delivering on this front.
"Sometimes, after a bad season, you have to take a step back," Glazer told the Tampa Bay Times. "We take a step back and look at where we're at, where we've been and what we've got to do to get back to what we really believe in and what we stand for and what we want to stand for and what the community wants us to be, and I think you're going to start to see all those things calibrate back to what the Buccaneers are all about.
"I have great respect for Coach Morris. I always have. But I'm excited for what Coach Schiano is bringing to our team and what he'll bring to our community and what he will bring to the players in the locker room."
Glazer admits mistakes were made during Morris' tenure. Tampa Bay acted as the pace car for lockout arrests, with a slew of players and team personnel making work for local police. Cornerback Aqib Talib has been a one-man soap opera.
The upshot: Glazer's patience for off-the-field antics have hit a wall. Calling out Morris goes a bit far, but when you run the show, it's your kingdom.
