Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Inaugural season: 1976

Home field: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

Owners: Bryan Glazer, Joel Glazer, Ed Glazer

Team colors: Buccaneer red, pewter, black, Bay orange

Overview

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an American football team that plays in the South division of the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). First established in 1974 as part of an NFL expansion, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold the NFL’s worst win-loss percentage, despite Super Bowl wins in the 2002 and 2020 seasons. The team’s on-the-field struggles have led to a series of less-than-flattering nicknames over the course of the franchise’s history, including the “Tampa Bay Yucks” and “the Creamsicles,” a nickname that referenced the team’s former bright orange home uniforms and perceived soft play.

Despite its occasional reputation for futility, the franchise has also seen great heights; the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII for the 2002 season, Super Bowl LV for the 2020 season, and eight division championships. The Tampa Bay area is typically described as a smaller NFL city and has consistently ranked among the smallest television markets across the thirty-two NFL teams. The team’s struggles and small market visibility have sometimes meant reduced attendance for home games, and for the 2018 season, they finished third from last in attendance with an average of 54,356 fans per home game—a figure better only than the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers. However, the arrival of veteran quarterback Tom Brady in 2020 brought renewed focus onto the Buccaneers and greatly elevated fan attendance numbers.

History

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers represent the Tampa Bay area rather than a single city. The team is intended to draw its fan base primarily from the Tampa and St. Petersburg metropolitan areas. Tampa is the third-largest city in Florida behind Jacksonville and Miami. In 1976, when the NFL engaged in discussions to award the league’s two franchises, the area was regarded as a tantalizing potential warm-weather market in the quickly growing Southeastern United States. Unlike later expansion processes, the city was selected first, with ownership determined later. Ultimately, majority ownership was awarded to Hugh Culverhouse, a tax attorney from Jacksonville, Florida. Culverhouse had long wanted a franchise and had previously expressed interest in buying other NFL teams before settling on the Tampa Bay franchise, which he bought for $16 million.

A contest was established to name the team, with the Buccaneers nickname ultimately selected from hundreds of submissions. The name was intended to honor the city’s reputed history as a former haven for pirates. Fans typically affectionately refer to the team as the “Bucs.” The Bucs originally played their home games at Tampa Stadium, which was first constructed in 1967 with the hope of drawing an NFL team to the region. At the time, the region lacked any professional sports franchises and city leaders saw the potential of having an NFL team raise its profile to a national level. Several preseason games held at Tampa Stadium had drawn healthy crowds, one of the factors that weighed heavily on the NFL’s decision to present an expansion team to the region. After being selected as the host for an NFL expansion team, the city expanded the stadium to seat nearly 72,000 people in accordance with NFL rules. The Tampa Stadium would later play host to Super Bowls in 1984 and 1991.

University of Southern California coach John McKay was persuaded to leave the NCAA ranks and try his hand at building an NFL team, becoming the team’s first and longest-tenured coach. The initial team was built via an expansion draft and the 1976 NFL Draft; there was no free agency to allow the Bucs to pick up veterans still in the prime of their careers that might provide the team with more weapons. These limited avenues left the Bucs with a thin talent pool of aging veterans and first-year players.

The team’s inaugural game against the Oilers at the Houston Astrodome set the tone for the team’s futile first season. After the Buccaneers’s pre-game inspirational speech, the team ran from the guest locker room and got lost in the Astrodome’s tunnels. They lost the resulting game 20–0 after gaining only 108 yards of total offense and 80 penalty yards. The team fared little better over the course of the season, and set records for fewest points for the season, scoring only 125 points in fourteen games. As the losing streak stretched into the following season—eventually reaching an NFL-record twenty-six games—fans grew increasing frustrated at the poor fundamentals on display. Many fans assumed a level of gallows humor as the losses continued to mount, and the team became part of a running national joke. After Miami recorded a close win in 1976, linebacker Nick Buoniconti even described the win as the lowest point in Dolphins history.

Nonetheless, the team persevered and finally recorded the franchise’s first win 33–14 on the field of the 3–9 New Orleans Saints. The Bucs were greeted by thousands of fans at the airport upon their return. The following week they began a brief winning streak with their first-ever home win against the St. Louis Cardinals 17–7. Despite the franchise’s early difficulties, McKay continued to press forward with his plan for the team. Although a 5–11 campaign in 1978 demonstrated the progress he was making, the sporting world was nonetheless surprised when the Bucs went 10–6 in 1979, going to the Conference Championship in only its fourth year of existence. Even more remarkably, these achievements were only thirty-five games removed from its twenty-six-game losing streak. McKay continued to provide a level of stability for the team, eventually recording two more playoff seasons (in 1981 and 1982) before Culverhouse decided the team was losing momentum and fired him after the 1984 season.

Over the next fourteen seasons, the Yucks of old returned, and the team failed to record a winning season between 1983 and 1996. After Culverhouse’s death in 1994, the team was placed up for sale. Several potential buyers considered moving the team to other cities due to declining revenues in Tampa that were partly attributable to the team’s dismal on-the-field performance. Eventually the team was sold to Florida businessman Hugh Glazer for $192 million—the highest price ever paid for a pro sports franchise up to that point. Glazer decided to finance a revamping of the mundane roster by reaching out into free agency.

After cycling through five coaches between 1985 and 1995, the team settled upon Tony Dungy as its new coach in 1996. Dungy was able to record a winning season in only his second year at Tampa Bay—its first playoff game since 1982. Between 1999 and 2001, Dungy was able to guide the team into the playoffs each season. Despite the renewed competitive spirit of the team, Glazer and his sons controversially fired Dungy at the end of the 2001 season for failing to reach the Super Bowl. During the lengthy search for a new coach, Tampa Bay management settled on Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis. They were overruled by the Glazers, who instead chose Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden to be the franchise’s seventh head coach. Although the Glazers were heavily criticized for what was seen as overreach, Gruden immediately disproved their critics by winning the Bucs’s first Super Bowl in 2002 with a 48–21 victory over the Oakland Raiders.

Gruden led the team for a total of seven seasons, but was unable to repeat his first-year magic. He eventually was only able to coach the Bucs to two more playoffs, in 2005 and 2007, both of which resulted in first-round losses. His dismissal at the end of the 2008 season kicked off another lengthy playoff drought and coaching carousel. Under the next four coaches—Raheem Morris (2009–2011), Greg Schiano (2012–2013), Lovie Smith (2014–2015), and Dirk Koetter (2016–2018)—the team was only able to manage two winning seasons, a 10–6 campaign in 2010 under Morris and a 9–7 season in 2016 under Koetter. By the 2018 season, the Bucs had failed to reach the playoffs for eleven consecutive seasons, and had not recorded a playoff win since their Super Bowl campaign in 2002. New head coach Bruce Arians took over the team in 2019, and promised change.

The 2020–2021 season proved historic for the Bucs in a few ways. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 created logistical chaos for the NFL, and many teams suffered from outbreaks of the disease among their players as the season went on. However, this season also marked some positive changes for Tampa Bay. In March 2020, after a highly successful twenty-year career with the New England Patriots, quarterback Tom Brady became a free agent. The Bucs acquired Brady, and soon after acquired former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. The reunion of this highly successful pair of former Patriots, combined with Arians' leadership and a strong defense, helped the team finish the season with an 11–5 record and secure a spot in the playoffs. After upsetting the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, the Bucs went on to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, 31–9. This victory was a record-breaking seventh Super Bowl win for Brady, and the second for the Bucs organization. However, Arians retired from coaching following the 2021 season and was replaced by Todd Bowles, the former defensive coordinator.

Notable Players

The Bucs have seen several players who spent the majority of their careers with the franchise inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including defensive end Lee Roy Selmon (who played for the team from 1976–1984), defensive tackle Warren Sapp (1995–2003), and linebacker Derrick Brooks (1995–2008). Selmon was the very first draft pick of the Buccaneers in 1976 and went on to become a five-time all-NFC selection over the course of his career. Sapp anchored the defensive line for the sweltering Tampa defense on the way to the team’s only Super Bowl victory. A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, he was also named as the Defensive Player of the Year in 1999 and had his number retired by the Bucs. Brooks was an eleven-time Pro Bowl selection, the 2002 AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and another leader of the 2002 Super Bowl-winning defense.

Other key players for the Bucs include defensive back Ronde Barber (1997–2012), who retired as the franchise leader in interceptions (47) and defensive touchdown returns (8); safety John Lynch (1993–2003), a five-time Pro Bowl selection; tight end Jimmie Giles (1978–1986), who set a single-game team record with four receiving touchdowns against Miami in 1985; running back James Wilder (1981–1989), the former team record holder for career receptions (430); and fullback Mike Alstott (1996–2002), who once held the Bucs’s record for most touchdowns (71). Quarterback Tom Brady (2020–21), who originally earned fame during his twenty-year career with the Patriots, joined the Bucs prior to the 2020–2021 season, and helped lead the team to victory in Super Bowl LV, during which he threw for three passing touchdowns. His former Patriots teammate, tight end Rob Gronkowski, also joined the Bucs in 2020, and continued to deliver strong results on the field. In February 2022, following the conclusion of the 2021–2022 season, Brady announced his retirement from professional football. Then, in March 2022, Brady surprisingly announced that he was coming out of retirement to play with the Bucs for the 2022–2023 season. Following the end of the season, Brady announced a final retirement from the NFL.

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