MCKAY FINDS THE WAY FOR TAMPA BAY YOUTHFUL GM MAKES HIS FAMILY, HOMETOWN PROUD.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - Rich McKay began in the Tampa Bay organization as a ball boy, getting an up-close view of the torment his father went through as coach of the worst team in the NFL.

One would think he should stay as far away from the Buccaneers as possible. He's a Princeton graduate. He has to have some smarts.

But McKays always do it their way. Rich went to work for the Bucs, made his way up the ladder, fended off whispers of nepotism, became general manager and now has Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl for the first time in its 27-year history.

``I don't think, in the history of San Diego, they have ever had any visitors happier to be here than the Tampa Bay Bucs,'' said McKay, as talkative as his father and nearly as witty this week. ``It has been a journey that was not overnight. It was a slow boat to China, and the boat had holes.''

John McKay would be proud. The elder McKay, who died in 2001, already was a coaching legend from winning four national championships at USC before taking over the expansion Buccaneers.

But expansion was different in those days. There was no free agency or expansion draft. McKay was left with a team of rejects that couldn't compete with a college team like the Trojans.

``One of the NFL's greatest failures, if there are any, was the way they treated expansion teams in those days,'' Rich McKay said. ``You can't give a new city a new franchise that they paid all this money for, invested all this emotion to get the franchise, and then nothing. It just wasn't right. ... You shouldn't be bringing teams into the league that have no chance to win a game the first two years.''

John McKay went on to lead Tampa Bay to the playoffs for three of four years beginning in his fourth season, once making the NFC championship game, before watching the key players not be re-signed by ownership.

He left in 1984, near the beginning of 14 consecutive losing seasons. Rich McKay came in 1995 and ended the streak in two years.

McKay's decision to give up a career in law to go back to the team his father was so happy to get away from originally did not sit well with the family.

``My dad was certainly not in favor of it in 1992 when I made the switch from the law practice to go to the Bucs,'' McKay said. ``His concern was it was a franchise that didn't have a chance to win.

``My position to him was, `We lived in this town, we're associated with the franchise and we're sick and tired of losing. Can't we try to contribute and try to get this turned around?' '' In typical dad fashion, he didn't necessarily agree with me, but a day later he called and said, `I'm 100 percent in favor.' ''

Rich started by assembling a defense. In his first draft as general manager, he landed defensive tackle Warren Sapp and linebacker Derrick Brooks. Both have gone on to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors.

McKay brought in Tony Dungy to coach, drafted Ronde Barber for the secondary and fullback Mike Alstott to control the clock. Suddenly, Tampa Bay was no longer a joke.

When Sapp was drafted by Tampa Bay, he was worried about his future.

``I told my brother as we walked out of Madison Square Garden (where the draft was held), `We're going to a graveyard.' Then, when I got there, I thought it was a third-world country.''

A year later, when Alstott was drafted, things already were beginning to change.

``It's been first class ever since I've been here,'' Alstott said. ``The Glazers, Tony Dungy, Rich McKay and (Jon) Gruden have been great. There has never been any doubt that I do not want to change organizations throughout my seven-year career.''

That's a far cry from the days when players demanded out of Tampa Bay. But Tampa Bay was only a good team, one that had made the playoffs four of five years.

McKay took the chances this year to make the team great. He signed NFL sack-leader Simeon Rice and brought in Jon Gruden to end a taxing coaching search that nearly saw him resign.

The chance McKay and the Glazer family that owns Tampa Bay took on Gruden paid off. He added offense to what already was the NFL's best defense, turning the team into a Super Bowl contender.

``Rich has been here a long time, and there is a legacy in his family with the great John McKay, our first head coach ever,'' Gruden said. ``Rich has bridged the gap between now and then. He has had a vital role in drafting players, managing the salary cap and improving the image of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.''

If only John McKay, who went through so much heartache trying to turn the Bucs into a respectable team, could see them now.

``I think he would be extremely proud of the franchise to be where we are,'' Rich McKay said. ``He took it personally when the franchise did not do well because he lived here. Tampa is a smaller town, and the Buccaneers are the center of that town. ... I think he took pride in his later years that the franchise had turned. People did go down the street and were proud to be Buc fans.''

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