Super Bowl Pits Young Coach Vs. Former Assistant

Broadcast: Jan 25, 2003

 

The Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are making final preparations for Sunday's National Football League ¹⁾Championship game Super Bowl XXXVII. The game features a young coach going against his former assistant and friend for the biggest prize in the NFL.

Tampa coach John Gruden first met Oakland's Bill Callahan when Gruden was an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers and Callahan was an assistant at the University of Wisconsin.

When Gruden went to the Philadelphia Eagles, he called Callahan to come to the professional ranks. Callahan was also Gruden's assistant last year at the Oakland Raiders.

But after a heartbreaking loss in the AFC Championship game to eventual¹ Super Bowl champion New England, the Raiders and Gruden parted ways. Tampa Bay offered Raiders' owner Al Davis several draft picks and $8 million and offered Gruden a $17 million contract. Both accepted.

Now Gruden will face Callahan on opposite sides of the Super Bowl. The Tampa Bay Coach says he has a lot of respect for Callahan.

"Bill and I have worked together a lot of hours: personal hours, professional hours, and I have learned a great deal from him in terms of technique and fundamentals," Gruden said. " The visions that he has ²⁾offensively. We have in turn worked together to try to put the best offenses³ together we could. But this is a great football coach and a great guy."

Callahan says that he two has a great deal of respect for Gruden, who has taken Tampa Bay to its first Super Bowl ever. The Oakland coach says that Gruden has been his ³⁾mentor⁴ and his friend and now the two men face one another in the biggest game of their lives.

"We were fortunate enough to go in a different direction and learn from some of the things that obviously I wanted to do from a coach's aspect," Callahan said. "But to John's credit he was instrumental in my growth and my development as a coach in this league."

Callahan and his Raiders are favored to win Sunday's game. Many fans are looking forward to the top rated offense² in the NFL the Raiders taking on the number one defense⁵ in the league Tampa Bay. Oakland has not been to the Super Bowl in 19 years. Tampa Bay has never played in the championship game.

In San Diego, California, I'm David Byrd, VOA sports.

1)    Championship[5tFAmpjEnFip]n.锦标赛

2)    offensively  adv. 不愉快地, 讨厌地

3)    mentor [5mentC:]n. 贤明的顾问, 导师, 指导者, [希神]门特(良师益友)

 

 

1 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

2 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

3 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

4 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。