Even as the Bucs raised a championship flag, original sin remained.

Consider it absolved.

Doug Williams is a Buc again, 21 years after leaving Tampa. There is no wiping the smiles off people's faces. If this can happen, can world peace be far behind?

It was the Bucs' best day since the night they won it all. This organization just put a feel-good spin on 13 months of feel bad. Williams joins the front office as a personnel executive. He'll assist in player evaluations and recruiting free agents. Doug Williams could be vice president in charge of Doug Williams for all we care. Whatever his title, he'll add teeth to it. And the truth. It's enough to know he's back.

``Time takes care of a whole lot of things,'' Williams said.

It's a great day for anyone stung by Hugh Culverhouse low-balling Williams out the door, ushering in unimaginable losing. Jimmie Giles, Richard ``Batman'' Wood and Parnell Dickinson, Williams' Bucs teammates, were at Thursday's announcement.

``This means a lot to all of us,'' Giles said.

Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who as a 19-year-old played catch with his hero quarterback, grinned like an 8-year-old who'd just gotten his favorite football card. Outside were two Bucs fans. One held a homemade sign.

Welcome home, Doug.

Go ahead and smile.

`A Beacon To Follow'
For those too young to remember, Doug Williams did this area proud, even after he left. It goes beyond him being Bucs quarterback for the only success this team knew before Tony Dungy and Gruden. Beyond that night in San Diego 16 years ago, when Williams was named the Super Bowl MVP, a dagger to the heart of brainless fools who said black quarterbacks couldn't cut it.

Doug Williams showed pride, heart, honesty and humor everywhere he went, and he went and won most everywhere, lastly at Grambling, his alma mater. But Tampa is where he started in the NFL. He never forgot that. The Bucs have finally remembered.

``I'm a firm believer that if you don't know your history, there ain't no future,'' he said.

You have to understand what Thursday means to old Bucs like Giles and Wood. They played for the NFC title in 1979. You have to go back to that locker room, with Batman's tape player blasting the disco beat of ``Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now'' each and every day. You have to go back to their leader each and every day. To Doug.

The day he left in 1983, Hugh Green turned over a table in the Bucs' locker room. Disgusted Bucs punched walls. ``Once Doug was gone, all hope was lost,'' Giles said.

Batman cried like a baby for Doug when he was Super Bowl MVP for the Redskins. Some old Bucs dreamed that it could have been them with Doug. Others remembered, too.

Hugh Culverhouse died 10 years ago. Later, Williams was coaching at Morehouse College in Atlanta when he received a $5,000 check for the program. It was from Hugh Culverhouse's widow. Two years ago, Hugh Culverhouse Jr. began donating $1 million to Grambling athletics. ``Doug is a beacon to follow,'' Hugh Jr. said.

The beacon says bitterness has fled. Williams softened when the Glazers bought the Bucs. Then came Dungy. Then Gruden, who invited Williams and other former Bucs to meet his team before the Super season. It was Williams' first trip to One Buc Place in 19 years.

Mind you, he still bristles. That's just Doug. Thursday, he was reminded of Phil Krueger, Hugh Culverhouse's contract guy. ``You all know where he lives?'' Williams asked. ``I just want to run a bulldozer through his house.''

Go ahead and smile.

Telling It Like It Is
Doug Williams worked hard to get to Thursday. He paid his dues. Heck, he paid enough dues for a hundred men. This isn't Dan Marino popping in and out of the Miami front office. How many Super Bowl MVPs coach high school football?

While playing in Tampa, Williams' eyes would wander during the national anthem. He'd scan the other sideline and count the black men coaching. He never counted long.

``I don't think I've been fortunate enough to get anything that somebody just gave me,'' Williams said. ``I've earned every opportunity I've had.''

An assistant's job at Navy. In his hometown of Zachary, La., coaching Northeast High, crying after his kids reached the state semis. A two-year stint as a Jacksonville Jaguars scout. A job in Scotland. Scotland. The Morehouse job. The Grambling job.

Doors stayed closed in Division I-A. Two years ago, Williams interviewed to be the head coach at Kentucky but didn't get the job. Thursday, he laughed about it.

``The good thing about that is I think Kentucky misses me more than I miss Kentucky.''

Everyone laughed. Doug Williams is back. He'll sit with Bucs General Manager Bruce Allen during games. He'll work and learn. ``You never know what avenues could open up,'' Williams said. The Bucs are better for hiring him.

``Let me tell you something,'' Giles said. ``Ain't no fake in Doug Williams. He's going to tell you the truth every time he opens his mouth.''

Doug Williams' mouth opened.

``It feels good to say I still have a home in Tampa.''

Go ahead. Smile.