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Tim Brown had an impressive career as the main offensive weapon for some very bad Oakland Raiders teams. He was considered a local legend, respected among his NFL peers, and he retired with numbers to his credit that now have him on the doorstep of the Hall of Fame for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, it is not Brown’s accomplishments that are being focused on as we approach the final selection of 2013 inductees.
Instead, it is Brown’s accusations of former Raiders’ coach Bill Callahan intentionally sabotaging the team as they prepared to compete in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Brown went into detail on SiriusXM NFL Radio, telling the world how Callahan hated the Raiders, and that he changed the entire game plan just 36 hours before the team was to take the field against their former coach John Gruden, and the number one defense of his Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This is not the first time Brown has tried to tell this tale, but it seems as though the accusations have finally taken hold, and people are paying attention. The problem for Brown is, there seems to be more people paying attention to the fact he is making such accusations than to the possibility that Callahan is actually guilty of throwing the Super Bowl.
It seems crazy to think that anyone would turn their back on a Super Bowl win and the golden ticket to any coaching job in the world that such a win would garner. There were so many things that went into that game, first and foremost being the intimate knowledge that Gruden had of the Raiders offense. It looked as though the Tampa Bay defense was running the routes for the Raiders receivers, intercepting the league MVP Rich Gannon a record five times and scoring 27 defensive points.
The merits of Tim Brown’s accusations really do not make much of a difference as we look back on a Super Bowl that took place a full decade ago. Maybe his story warrants an investigation of some sort, but Brown hurts his image by continuing to bitterly reiterate a wild claim that his head coach threw the game because of his hate for the organization, and his love of the opposing coach.
Getting into the Hall of Fame is never a guaranteed thing, and while Brown’s numbers are nice, he is far from a sure thing. The competition for enshrinement is always fierce, and the last thing Brown needs now is the sort of attention this story is sure to get him. He is being called every name you can thing of from the NFL fan base, and the timing forces his motives to be called into question.
As we enter the media frenzy that carries us up to this season’s final game, you can be sure that Brown, and every other player involved in that Super Bowl, is going to get grilled with endless questions about these allegations. When the Hall of Fame voters cast their final ballots, it is a sure bet that this incident will come into play, and for Tim Brown, it may become just one more self induced, missed opportunity, one that keeps him on the outside looking in.
Jeff Everette is a Featured Columnist for www.RantSports.com, covering the NFL and NBA. Follow Jeff on twitter @jeverettesports, like his page on FaceBook, or add his Google + to your circles for all of his latest articles, thoughts, and rants.
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