The Tim Brown–Bill Callahan saga continues.
Brown, who made headlines Monday when he accused the former Raiders coach of sabotaging his team’s chances in Super Bowl XXXVII, is now insisting that his comments were taken the wrong way.
“I’ve never said [Callahan] sabotaged the game,” Brown told The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday. “That’s something that can never be proven. We can never go into the mind of Bill Callahan. …. I should have said we could have called it sabotage. It was a question, not a statement. You cannot prove it.”
The All-Pro wide receiver did not waver from his claim that Callahan switched Oakland’s game plan from one centered around bruising running backs Tyrone Wheatley and Zack Crockett to once that called for Rich Gannon to win the game with his arm. Gannon put on one of the worst performances ever by a quarterback in a Super Bowl (24-for-44, two touchdowns, five interceptions) and the Raiders were blown out by Tampa Bay.
Brown’s backtracking is strange because it reads basically identical to his original statements, where he said that he believed Callahan’s plan was to sabotage the Super Bowl and help his friend, Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden, although he could not prove it.
Fellow wideout Jerry Rice has publicly supported Brown’s claims, while several of their Raider teammates, including Crockett and Gannon, have disagreed.
Photo via Facebook/The Oakland Raiders
