Tim Brown: Bill Callahan sabotaged Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII
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| Tim Brown made strong accusatons against former Raiders coach Bill Callahan. (Getty Images) |
Conspiracy theorists have a new friend in Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist Tim Brown.
The former Raiders wideout said in a radio interview that then-coach Bill Callahan sabotaged Oakland's chances in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003, a 48-21 loss to Jon Gruden's Buccaneers. Then Brown sort of backed off. Then he sort of didn't. You decide what he meant.
"We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we're gonna run the ball," Brown told Sirius XM NFL Radio. "We averaged 340 (pounds) on the offensive line, they averaged 280 (on the defensive line). We're all happy with that, everybody is excited."
Brown claimed Callahan, now the Cowboys' offensive coordinator, switched to a pass-heavy game plan the Friday before the game.
"We all called it sabotage ... because Callahan and Gruden were good friends," Brown said. "And Callahan had a big problem with the Raiders, you know, hated the Raiders. You know, only came because Gruden made him come. Literally walked off the field on us a couple of times during the season when he first got there, the first couple years.
"So really he had become someone who was part of the staff, but we just didn't pay him any attention. Gruden leaves, he becomes the head coach. ... It's hard to say that the guy sabotaged the Super Bowl. You know, can you really say that? That can be my opinion, but I can't say for a fact that that's what his plan was, to sabotage the Super Bowl. ... That's hard to say because you can't prove it."
Callahan, in Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl, has unequivocally denied the accusations.
Brown said the last-minute change affected center Barret Robbins, who disappeared two days before the game in San Diego and was left off the game-day roster.
"Barret Robbins begged Coach Callahan, 'Do not do this to me. I don't have time to make my calls, to get my calls ready. You can't do this to me on a Friday,' " Brown said.
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Robbins, who had bipolar disorder, resurfaced on Saturday night and admitted he had been wandering around Tijuana.
"All I'm saying is those are the facts of what happened Super Bowl week. So our ire wasn't towards Barret Robbins, it was towards Bill Callahan. Because we feel as if he wouldn't have did what he did, then Barret wouldn't have done what he did," Brown said.
In his 17-year career, Brown caught 1,094 passes for 14,934 yards and 100 touchdowns. He was among 10 Hall of Fame finalists who missed the cut last year, and is one of 17 finalists for this year's class.
The group will be reduced to no more than five the day before Super Bowl XLVII.
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