I think that I was the only person who spent a good 50 minutes of Sunday's Bucs/Panthers game pissed off.

Yep. You read that right.

While everyone else was cheering the woodshed beat-down the Boyz N Da Pewter laid on Carolina, I was sitting in my seat in section 303, elbows on knees, palms on chin, and pissed.

All I saw was negatives.

With 1:03 left in the first half, Jeff Garcia completes a pass to Earnest Graham who runs up the right sideline for a 24-yard gain, but tries to cut back toward the center fo the field and doesn't get out of bounds. Thirty-two seconds run off the clock because the Bucs have only one time out left. I am screaming and carrying on with a run-on sentence about how Graham is an idiot because he went to UF.

I have an entire section of rabid Buc fans braving 104 degree pizza oven heat and screaming their head off, and I'm as agitated as a bee hive in a microwave.

Why?

My wife and my friend Jon were looking at me like I just kicked a puppy. Jon asked why I cannot enjoy the game. The Bucs were WINNING. Against the PANTHERS, of all teams... and here I am pissed off.

It's 17-3 and I'm upset that it's not 24 or 27-3.

Why?

Can I not enjoy this game anymore? And if not, why? And can I make it BACK to the point where I can be a fan and watch the game for enjoyment?

I'm asking... someone help me - help the "malcontent."

Have I watched this team for too long?

I've seen this team blow too many leads, get hosed by too many calls, have one too many catastrophic injuries. In short, I've spend almost every weekend since 1980 waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Sunday... it didn't happen.

But I didn't realize it until about 5:10 on Sunday.

Am I ruined for football? 

Jon called me a "malcontent."

Wikipedia says the following about the "malcontent:"

The Malcontent is a character type often used in early modern drama. The character is discontent with the social structure and other characters in the play. He or she is often an outsider, who observes and offers commentary on the action and may even show awareness that they are in a play. Shakespeare's Richard III and Iago in Othello are typical malcontents.

The role is usually both political and dramatic; with the malcontent voicing dissatisfaction with the usually 'Machiavellian' political atmosphere and often using asides to build up a kind of self-consciousness and awareness of the text itself which other characters in the play will lack to the same extent.

 

Jeez... does that sum it up or what?

Despite the Bucs' successes on Sunday, I was upset that score was not more lopsided; so many points were left on the field. Rather than reveling in smackdown, I'm focusing on all the WRONG that was done.

What's wrong with me?

This team - these Tampa Bay Buccaneers est. 1976 - have ruined me. Spoiled worse than chunky milk in an unplugged refridgerator, I sat in the 303, I watched a 27-3 shellacking and it wasn't good enough.

Because the other shoe never dropped.

I saw Horace Copeland and Trent Dilfer develop a rapport, only to see poor Horace tear up his knee. I saw the Bucs come within five minutes of dismantling the Colts on Monday Night Football only to be done in by the lack of coverage ability of Tim Wansley. I saw Bert Emanuel make a gorgeous rolling catch that's ruled a drop. I saw it all.

Sunday it didn't happen. Because of that, I was shocked and chagrinned.

Jon's a lawyer. Can I sue?

There's no point of contention or arguement with these words, but am I alone? I've been a Buc-fan since 1980 and I know that there are people who followed this franchise since Day One. I can't imagine how THEY might feel.

If you are a Buc Fan, you've seen unspeakable horrors on the field. Is it possible that those horrors can ruin you for future events? Can you end up like the chick who got hosed by that guy in high school and makes every date since then pay for the sins of the past?

I hope Jeff Garcia doesn't hate me.

Am I alone? Is anyone else ruined by this team (I guess I should say "franchise")? I'm not stating facts. I'm asking questions.

I think that I am incapable of enjoying this franchise's success due to the franchise's history of failure. I'm a cynic.

A malcontent.