Raider Great Tim Brown Accuses Former Coach of ‘Sabotaging’ Super Bowl Loss

Former Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders great Tim Brown has a staggeringly impressive resume.

He played for 17 years in the NFL after a career at Notre Dame in which he earned the 1987 Heisman Trophy, and secured his place as one of the all-time great Raiders while playing the game in an explosive, consistent and classy fashion for his entire storied career.

Brown spent 16 of those years wearing the silver and black, making the Pro Bowl nine times, and was named to the NFL 1990's All-Decade team. He is a finalist for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, and one would have to search far and wide to find a more suitable candidate for a bust in Canton than "Touchdown Timmy."

All of these things make what he recently told SiriusXM NFL radio all the more stunning, as he reflected on the Raiders' 48-21 Super Bowl XXXVII thrashing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the interview, which aired Saturday, Brown called out his former coach.

“We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we’re gonna run the ball,” Brown said. “We averaged 340 [pounds] on the offensive line, they averaged 280 [on the defensive line].  We’re all happy with that, everybody is excited.  [We] tell Charlie Garner, ‘Look, you’re not gonna get too many carries, but at the end of the day we’re gonna get a victory. Tyrone Wheatley, Zack Crockett, let’s get ready to blow this thing up.'"

Everything was looking good when, according to Brown, head coach Bill Callahan “blew this thing up” less than 48 hours before kickoff, completely scrapping the run-first attack, adopting a plan that required the Raiders to “throw the ball 60 times.”

At that point, according to Brown, it all appeared to make sense to him.

"We all called it sabotage...because Callahan and Gruden were good friends," the form...

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