If this were baseball a general manager would say you never have enough pitching. In hockey, same goes for goalies. In basketball it is simply good players.

 

But this is football and we are talking about the Buccaneers and what happened Saturday defies belief.

 

As of January 1, 2007 the roster showed that Bruce Gradkowski, Luke McCown, Tim Rattay were the QB's. Not shown was Chris Simms, the perennial heir apparent at that position, who chose to re-up with the team rather than test the free agent waters after his spleen extraction.

 

Simms is reported to make $5 million in '07 with an additional $1.5 mil in incentives and with Gruden's love affair with Gradkowski you knew he would be back with McCown or Rattay as #3.

 

If there was the Achilles' Heel for Tampa Bay last year it was the absence of a veteran backup, not only to step in at a moment's notice but to mentor what some have called a star in the making in Simms. They didn't have one, a sixth round rookie got the nod and the Pewter Pirates ship sunk for the third time in the last four years.

 

The Buccaneers had oodles of money to spend on improving their team, most notably a porous offensive line that could protect Simms from harm only in one day they ate up roughly 11-million of it for two - count 'em two veterans somehow making Simms irrelevant - again.

 

I don't have anything against Jeff Garcia. In fact his addition could be viewed as the anti-Chucky. All he has to do is show up for camp wearing a tee with five different colored bears across the front, a guitar strung over his shoulder and a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in his hand.

 

It would have been good fodder for the media and even the fans considering what has happened around these parts the four years since the NFL hardware with Vince Lombardi's name on it found its way to Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

 

Even before the Eagles chose to let the man who saved their season go, the rumors started that Garcia was bound for Tampa Bay. I am not a big believer in rumors because more often than not it come from the fertile imagination of a couple of sports writers after a few too many brews. You know, keep throwing stuff against the wall and something will eventually stick and when it does, it becomes the scoop of the century.

 

Not exactly Pulitzer Prize stuff mind you.

 

However, in this case it actually happened. Scratch six-mil off the available cash on hand and for better or worse Bruce Allen got his veteran.

 

Give or take a few hundred-thou, that is $12 million toward the central position on the team and when camp opens in July, let the competition begin. A bit much some would say but you can't have enough protection at the position, right?

 

Besides, Gruden still has Gradkowski. The head coach did so much gushing over him during the season those who lived in low lying counties had high water warnings issued on game days.

 

So you have the veteran, the heir apparent and the man with the flood boat in the trunk of his car swallowing up a sizable chunk of those precious cap dollars.

 

Happy?

 

Obviously Bruce Allen wasn't.

 

Using all the salary cap savvy he possesses, the general manager phoned in another trade, a draft pick, probably a 63rd rounder in 2056, for another quarterback.

 

It made no difference that Jake Plummer said he would rather retire than play here, Allen went ahead and still pulled the trigger tacking on yet another $5 million.

 

While Garcia could make you think of a music legend, the former Bronco's signal caller has all the appeal of the guy under the sink with the butt crack.

 

And at times played like one too.

 

To steal a line from a famous movie: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

 

Undeterred, Allen stood in front of the mike and said the following:

 

".....We own the rights to Jake Plummer," he said. "I talked to Jake yesterday and he feels that at this time he’s contemplating retirement. We understand that, but he’s a member of the Buccaneers right now. It was a good day....."

 

What?

 

That wasn't all.

 

“I think Jake Plummer will play again, and I think he’s a good player. His record over the last four years, he’s with the best quarterbacks in our league. I think he has the fourth-highest winning percentage, and he’s the only one who hasn’t won a Super Bowl trophy, of those four. I think right now he’s just taking time to think about it, which is fine.”

 

Play for whom? And if he does, don't hold your breath waiting for him to hoist that Lombardi Trophy wearing pewter and red.

 

Maybe this will turn out where we can get some warm body for the man known as Jake the Snake from Houston but with the free agent market in full swing, the Bucs are a day late and $5 million short.

 

Somehow a Joe Horn would look good swooping under a Garcia or Simms pass but until Plummer makes up his mind about retirement or, God forbid, playing, adding to the offensive line or someone to throw to will just have to wait.

 

After this $11 million quarterback Saturday, fans may also have to wait for another winning season.