The Tampa Bay Buccaneers make their home in Tampa, Florida. Often referred to as
the Bucs, the Buccaneers are Tampa's professional football team. The Bucs currently
belong to the Southern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the
National Football League (NFL). The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion
team. The club is currently owned by Malcolm Glazer and coached by head coach Jon
Gruden.
The Tampa Bay Bucs carried around a "losing team" stigma for a long time. In fact,
the Buccaneers lost their first 26 games in franchise history, an NFL record which
still stands to this day! After a brief winning era in the late 1970's and early
1980's, the team then suffered through fourteen consecutive losing seasons. For
the past decade, however, they have been a consistent contender, and won Super Bowl
XXXVII at the end of the 2002 season. The Super Bowl win showed the NFL and its
fans that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be a winning team.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got their name for a local name-the-team contest. The contest
resulted in the nickname "Buccaneers," in honor of the yearly Gasparilla Pirate
Festival in Tampa. The team's first home was Tampa Stadium; however they now play
in Raymond James Stadium.
The Tampa Bay franchise, like many NFL teams, has switched hands frequently. The
franchise was originally awarded to Ted McCloskey, a construction company owner
from Philadelphia. It soon became clear that McCloskey had financial problems, so
the NFL gave the franchise to Hugh Culverhouse, a wealthy tax attorney from Jacksonville.
Culverhouse is well-known in NFL circles for brokering an unprecedented franchise
swap between the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams.
Longtime USC coach John McKay was recruited as the team's first head coach. Despite
McKay's coaching, the Bucs often appeared incompetent, with missed tackles, fumbled
snaps, and a frustrating inability to score. Fans and local media grew irritated
with McKay and targeted him publicly with a "Throw McKay in the Bay" bumper sticker.
The losing Tampa Bay Buccaneer team became the butt of many jokes, especially from
Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, but also from the fans themselves, who late into
the 1977 season, wore bags on their heads and encouraged the team to "go for 0,"
as in zero wins.
Change came rapidly to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1979. With the maturation of
quarterback Doug Williams, the first 1,000-yard rushing season from running back
Ricky Bell, and a smothering, league-leading defense, the Bucs kicked off the season
with five consecutive victories, a stunning performance which landed them on the
cover of Sports Illustrated. The Bucs made the playoffs that year and made them
again in the 1981 season and in the strike-shortened 1982 season. After this, the
Bucs would never again have another winning season, let alone make the playoffs,
under Culverhouse's ownership.
It can be argued that the team's lengthy woes were primarily due to how Culverhouse
ran the organization. Culverhouse kept the team's payroll among the lowest in the
league, which prompted few quality players to sign with the team. The ones who did
rarely stayed long. The Bucs also made several missteps in the NFL Draft, the most
notorious of which was the team's selection of Bo Jackson as the #1 overall pick
when he openly stated he would never play for them. The Bucs also frequently traded
or gave up on quality players who went on to greater success on other teams. The
most notable examples are all quarterbacks: Doug Williams; Steve Young, and Vinny
Testaverde. Things only really began to change, however, after Culverhouse died
of lung cancer in 1994.
After Culverhouse's death, the team was sold to Malcolm Glazer for $192 million,
the highest sale price for a professional sports franchise up to that point. Glazer
immediately placed his sons Bryan, Edward, and Joel in charge of the team's financial
affairs, and the family's deep pockets and serious commitment to fielding a winning
team in Tampa allowed the Bucs to finally become competitive. The team's performance
dramatically improved when the Glazers hired Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator
Tony Dungy as head coach, jettisoned the old uniform designs, and convinced Hillsborough
County voters to raise sales taxes to partially fund the construction of Raymond
James Stadium.
The Bucs continued up and down success throughout the 90's under Dungy's leadership,
but his inability to win a Super Bowl prompted Glazer to fire Dungy. Dungy was soon
hired as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, while the Bucs mounted a prolonged
and much-maligned search for his replacement. After finally scoring Raiders coach
Jon Gruden, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were sure they had paved the way to a Super
Bowl victory.
Upon his arrival in Tampa, Gruden immediately went to work retooling the Tampa Bay
offense. All of Grudens offense work paid off and combined with the league's top
defense, the 2002 campaign was the Buccaneers' most successful season to date. The
Tampa Bay Buccaneers went on to win their first ever Super Bowl defeating the Oakland
Raiders, by a score of 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.
In 1975, the Buccaneers built a small practice complex with offices near Tampa International
Airport called One Buccaneer Place. As other NFL teams upgraded their facilities,
Bucs players and coaches stepped up their complaints about the aircraft noise, cramped
offices, small locker rooms and run-down condition of One Buc Place. In August 2006,
the Bucs unveiled their new, and long-awaited, training facility. Conveniently located
across the street from Raymond James Stadium the state-of-the-art complex is now
the largest for any team in the NFL. Featuring expansive new offices and meeting
rooms, two natural grass practice fields, a theatre designed for both team meetings
and press conferences, an expanded weight training room, a giant kitchen, a rehabilitation
center with three separate pools and a locker room twice the size of the existing
one. The building is capped off with a giant five-story glass and steel football
as a key design element.
The last few seasons, the Tampa Bay Bucs have returned to their winning ways. The
Buccaneers selected Carnell "Cadillac" Williams in the first round of the 2005 draft,
and the rookie would provide a running game the Buccaneers hadn't possessed since
the days of James Wilder in the 1980s. The Bucs sent three veteran players to the
2006 Pro Bowl, including cornerback Ronde Barber and punter Josh Bidwell. Outside
linebacker Derrick Brooks was named the Pro Bowl MVP, with a 59-yard interception
return for a touchdown.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will continue to play hard on the field beating up opponents
with its quick offense and holding off quarterbacks and running backs with its steel
trap defense. The Bucs are a fun team to watch and sitting in the warm Tampa sun
watching an NFL game is an experience to remember. Good tickets to see the Bucs
often go fast, so if you are from the area or just planning to visit, be sure to
reserve your seats early!
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