Glazers out! Unhappy Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans have had enough too

Manchester United and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have got a lot in common. Both clubs are owned by the Glazer family. Neither club is performing well. And it seems that fans of both clubs have had enough of the Glazers.

One Buccaneers fan is so fed up with them that he’s put a petition online calling for change.

Here are some extracts from Andrew Kimpland’s petition which might sound familiar to United fans. Just substitute Manchester United for Tampa Bay Buccaneers and it still makes perfect sense.

“change is needed in Tampa Bay! The Buccaneers are becoming the laughing stock of the NFL”

“fans would rather see players that want to play and are committed to the team. Games like Chicago where players/coaches just don’t care and don’t show up aren’t acceptable! If they don’t want to play or don’t have the heart get them off the field…we don’t care how talented you are. We want heart and desire and passion!”

“The culture within the Bucs organization is not acceptable. Its bad when the players in your organization seem to care less win or lose, and this has become the norm”.

“We need a serious culture change! Losing should infuriate these players and drive them to work that much harder. With the talent level they have they should never embarrassed by other NFL teams the way they are on a weekly basis”.

“We want change. This organization needs big changes, top to bottom! Fans if you agree that change is needed within the Buccaneers please let your voice be heard…the hope is to garner enough support that our voices will be heard by management directly”.

Sound familiar?

The similarities between the two clubs don’t end there.

In December, Tampa Bay fired coach Dirk Koetter after the Bucs failed to make the play-offs for the 11th straight season. Koetter was dismissed less than two weeks after United dismissed Jose Mourinho.

Koetter was their third coach in the last six years. His dismissal prompted the Tampa Bay Times to ask Why is Jason Licht still the Bucs GM? Jason Licht is Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager – United chief executive Ed Woodward’s counterpart.

“Five awful, dysfunctional seasons and Licht not only keeps his job, but he’s in charge.
That’s appalling”.

“But why does Licht get to stay? Why should he get to pull one out of the fire when he should be in the fire himself? Why him? Keeping him is far too high a price to pay for the Glazers not knowing their right foot from their left during coach searches”.

“I think Licht is as responsible as Koetter for this disaster. Poor personnel decisions have set back this franchise”. 

“This franchise needed a fresh start, a reset. This isn’t that. The Glazers needed someone who wasn’t afraid to speak to power. They needed someone to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Licht isn’t that”.

“That is how, as awful as he has been at his job, he saved it while Koetter lost his. Licht’s career-preservation light is always blinking. That’s no way to run a football team, except for a bad one”.

Sound familiar? For Jason Licht substitute Ed Woodward and again it makes perfect sense.

So there you have it. Two clubs owned by the Glazers underperforming on the field of play and spiralling into mediocrity.

Just a coincidence or is there a pattern emerging here?

Sadly, although Andrew Kimpland can’t be the only Bucs fan who’s had enough of the Glazers, his petition has only got 9 signatories, a month after launching.

Would a petition by United fans do any better? It’s hard to say.

Some United fans are active on social media, urging others not to buy club merchandise and boycott the club’s sponsors and commercial partners. They want to hit the Glazers where it hurts – in their pockets.

But maybe things need to get much worse at Old Trafford before the apathetic majority decide to make their voices heard too.

Read the petition here.

#GlazersWoodwardOut