The League

Morris savors first win

After losing his first seven games as an NFL head coach, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Raheem Morris finally had a victory to savor after his club beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

His celebration was reserved, Morris said Monday.

"It just wasn't a knot in my stomach," Morris said at a news conference. "I do the same thing. I go home to see the family and I chill out and watch other people be miserable. So for me, it's the same thing. It's nothing new. I mean, I didn't go out and throw a party and tear up Tampa or anything like that."

But the congratulatory calls did pour in, Morris said.

"Yes, you get that stuff," he said, according to a transcript provided by the Buccaneers. "Everybody gives that to you. You don't respond right away because you are having a conversation with everybody. You just text them in the middle of the night when you wake up. Derrick Brooks, some of the guys--you know, Warren Sapp. Now, I took Sapp's phone call because if I don't take his phone call, he'll yell at me.

"Mike Tomlin told me that he was a young coach and he remembers when he was a young coach and he first cut his teeth into this business, getting his first win. Everybody called. It was special getting the first win. It was good to get the first win. A bunch of really congratulatory texts because everybody knows I don't answer the phone. Got all the texts, responded to them all this morning about 4 in the morning because I actually went to sleep a little early yesterday, so I guess that would be different."

Morris said he doesn't think it will be particularly difficult keeping his players from getting carried away with the win.

"We are 1-7," Morris said. "We're not competing for the NFC championship game yet. Maybe these guys, they have to come in this week and they have to grow like they did the week before. Hard work paid off. How hard they practiced last week in the pads paid off.

"We talked about that last week a little bit on having a sharp practice, two sharp practices on Thursday and Friday last week paid off. The bye week practices paid off. We went out there and that was good on good competitive work and those guys going out there for the short amount of time they went out there. It was competitive work. That's what you want."

By Mark Maske  |  November 9, 2009; 7:14 PM ET  | Category:  Buccaneers Save & Share:                 
Previous: Clark officially out Monday night | Next: Report: NFL evaluating Cable

Posted by: vmrg1974 | November 10, 2009 9:55 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.