Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a team in the National Football League. They are located in Tampa, Florida, and are currently in the South Division of the NFC. They joined the league in 1976, the same year as the Seattle Seahawks. Currently they are owned by Malcolm Glazer and their head coach is Raheem Morris. Though they started off terribly in the 70’s and 90’s they have become a recent contender for the Super Bowl. However they've only appeared in one Super Bowl which they won 48-21 over the Oakland Raiders.

1976-77
The Buccaneers started in 1976 under the ownership of Ted McClowsky, a construction company owner from Philadelphia. Though he quickly was replaced by a wealthy tax attorney named Hugh Culverhouse after McClowsky ran into some financial problems. In a Name-The-Team contest, the name "Buccaneers" was chosen for the team. Tampa Bay joined the NFL as members of the AFC West. Longtime USC Coach John McKay was recruited as the Buccaneers’ first head coach. The Expansion draft was not too courteous to the Bucs as they were left with aged veterans and other untalented players that were cut from other teams. Despite McKay’s coaching ability, the Bucs looked out of it and barely showed up. For the 1977 season, the Bucs were switched to the NFC Central, but that did not change their luck as they ended up losing an NFL record 26 straight games, until they claimed their first win defeating the New Orleans Saints.

1978
'78 was another losing season, but a diamond in the rough finally showed up in the Bucs organization as they acquired QB Doug Williams.

1979
In 1979 Tampa Bay had their first winning season as they went 10-6 and made the playoffs for the first time ever. They were led by Doug Williams, RB Ricky Bell, and Future Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon on defense. They then won their first division title after a tiebreaker with the Chicago Bears. In the playoffs, they upset the Philadelphia Eagles and hosted the NFC Championship game against the St. Louis Rams. They would lose that game 9-0.

1980
In 1980, the Bucs would finish last in the division with a record of 5-10-1.

1981
In 1981, the Buccaneers did not play the best football, but a late 3 game winning streak, they found themselves in playoff position. However, after a heartbreaking 1-point loss at home to the San Diego Chargers, the Bucs needed a win over the Lions in Detroit to win the division. The game was close through out, but Dog Williams hit WR Kevin House on an 84-yard TD strike to lift the Bucs to a 20-17 win. Unfortunately, their season would end quickly with a 38-0 shellacking in Dallas from the Cowboys.

1982
That season started just as poorly for the Bucs, as they went 0-3 before a player's strike shut down the NFL for seven weeks. When the league resumed play, the Bucs were nicknamed the "Cardiac Kids" for winning 5 of their next 6 games, all in the final moments, to go 5-4 and qualify for playoffs. In the first round, the Bucs once again faced the Cowboys at home in Dallas, but put up a much better fight, leading the game at the half. Tampa Bay lost 30-17.After the season, Doug Williams asked for a $400,000 dollar pay raise, and despite McKay’s pleads, the Bucs didn’t give it too him and Williams left for the USFL.

1983-1996
1982 would be the last winning regular season until 1990. After Doug Williams left, the Bucs immediately bottomed out at 2-14 in 1983, and started a string of 14 consecutive losing seasons. Included in their misery was the drafting of Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson with the first pick in the 1986 NFL Draft. Jackson never suited up for the Bucs, instead deciding to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals. Jackson would later return for parts of football seasons with the Los Angeles Raiders. Coach John McKay stepped down after the 1986 season and allowed former Atlanta Falcons coach Leeman Bennett to take over the coaching duties. Bennett who was optimistic about the Bucs was quickly replaced after two 2-14 seasons and replaced by New York Giants coach Ray Perkins. Perkins brought discipline and “three-a-day” practices to Tampa, but it turned out for the worst as the team was just too tired on game day, and the losses stacked up. He was then fired as assistant coach Richard Williamson took over, but he was fired right after the 1991 season, only serving a year on the job.

Sam Wyche was then hired to be the next coach of the Bucs. Wyche had coached the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance. Their was improvement as the Bucs would go on to draft key defensive players Warren Sapp, John Lynch, and Derrick Brooks. In 1994 Owner Hugh Culverhouse died after battling with cancer. Along with his death brought new ownership, new coaching, and a new era to the Bucs organization.

After he died, his son filed for bankruptcy and put the team’s future in jeopardy. He then elected to sell the team to either New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner or Baltimore Orioles Owner Peter Angelos. However in a surprising move, former Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer outbid both of them with a $192 million dollar bid. He then put his sons in charge of the team. They hired Tony Dungy to be the coach. In Dungy’s first season (1996), the Bucs started off 1-8, before finishing 5-2, mainly due their defense and the rising of their former draft picks.

1997
In their final season at Houlihan’s Stadium, the Bucs made it back to the playoffs as everything came together in 1997. They went 10-6 and went to the playoffs as the wild card team. Sadly they lost to the Packers in the NFC Championship.

1998
With high expectations, and in the all-new Raymond Jones Stadium, the Bucs lost several close games and finished with a disappointing 8-8.

1999
1999 turned out much better with a surprising season by rookie QB Shaun King and the Bucs defense. The Bucs D turned out to be number 1 that season, and Shaun King helped lead the team to their third Central Division title and finished them at 10-6 once again. They then marched into the playoffs edging out the Washington Redskins in the first round, but in the next round they were dropped by the St. Louis Rams 13-6 in a controversial finish.

Head Coaching Moves
Dungy was released by the Buccaneers following a disappointing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles 31-9 in the Wildcard Round of 2001 and soon thereafter hired as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, while the Bucs mounted a prolonged and much-maligned search for his replacement. Several potential candidates were offered the job, including University of Florida head coach Steve Spurrier, former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells, and Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis. Spurrier jumped to the Redskins when he was offered the most lucrative salary package ever offered to an NFL head coach, and Parcells eventually passed on the Bucs' offer--the second time he had done so in the history of the franchise. Bucs general manager Rich McKay threw his support behind Lewis. The Glazer brothers were so displeased with the selection of yet another defensive-minded coach that they overruled McKay and took control of the candidate search themselves. They made it clear that their top choice was Jon Gruden. The problem was that he was still under contract to the Oakland Raiders.

While talks with the Raiders were secretly under way, the Glazers publicly pursued another respected offensive mind, San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci. Just when initial reports indicated that Mariucci had agreed to become both the Bucs' head coach and their general manager, Raiders owner Al Davis agreed to release Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay.

The Glazers' shrewd move eventually paid off in acquiring Gruden, but it cost the team dearly. The team hired Gruden away from the Raiders on February 20, 2002, but the price was four draft picks, including the Bucs' first and second round picks in 2002, their first round pick in 2003, and their second round pick in 2004, along with $8 million in cash; the league as a result prohibited any further trading of draft picks for coaches. Gruden, who was frustrated by the limitation of his coaching authority by Davis, was more than pleased to return to Tampa Bay, as his parents lived nearby, and he had spent part of his childhood in Tampa in the early 1980s when his father had worked as a Bucs running back, coach, and director of player personnel.

2002
Upon his arrival in Tampa, Gruden immediately went to work, retooling a sluggish offense. The league's sweeping realignment sent the Bucs to the new NFC South Division, along with the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.

Led by the league's top defense, the 2002 campaign was the Buccaneers' most successful season to date. They won the NFC South title with the team's best ever record, 12-4, and went on to rout Gruden's former team, the Oakland Raiders who had the league's number 1 offense, by a score of 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.

2003
Soon after the Super Bowl victory, a growing number of press reports indicated Gruden's lack of patience with general manager McKay. McKay was a major architect of the Bucs rebuilding effort over the previous ten years, and he, like Gruden, had long-established ties to the Tampa Bay area. However, during the 2003 season, the Gruden-McKay relationship deteriorated as the Bucs struggled on the field. In November, Keyshawn Johnson was deactivated by the team ten games into the season for his conduct, which included sideline arguments with Bucs coaches and players. Johnson was eventually traded to the Dallas Cowboys for wide receiver Joey Galloway.

In December, the Glazers allowed McKay to leave the Bucs before the end of the regular season, and he promptly joined the Falcons as president and general manager. Thus, McKay watched his first game as a Falcons executive sitting next to owner Arthur Blank in a Raymond James Stadium skybox. The Falcons defeated the Bucs 30-28. Despite opening the season with a Monday night win over the Eagles in Philadelphia's new stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, the Bucs finished the season 7-9.

2004
For 2004, Bruce Allen was hired as general manager. After Allen's arrival, both John Lynch and Warren Sapp were released, stunning many Buccaneer fans. The distracted Buccaneers began the 2004 season with a 1-5 record, their worst start under Gruden. The fading accuracy of kicker Martin Gramatica did not help matters, as the team lost many close games en route to a 5-11 record.

2005
In the 2005 season, the Buccaneers celebrated their 30th season in the league, and returned to their winning ways. The Bucs selected Carnell "Cadillac" Williams in the first round of the 2005 draft, and the rookie would provide a running game the Buccaneers had not possessed since the days of James Wilder in the 1980s.

After starting 5-1, the team entered a midseason slump hampered by a season-ending injury to starting QB Brian Griese. Replacement starter Chris Simms struggled early, but came into his own leading to the team to a last-minute win over the Redskins. The Bucs won the NFC South Division finishing 11-5. The season ended abruptly, however, with a 17-10 loss in the Wild Card round, in a rematch with the Redskins.

2006
After winning the division in 2005, the Bucs suffered through an abysmal 2006 season. The season was plagued by injuries, with starters such as G Dan Buenning, WR Michael Clayton, RB Carnell Williams, DE Simeon Rice, CB Brian Kelly, and QB Chris Simms all being placed on injured reserve at some point in the season. The season also saw a lot of rookies starting for the Bucs, such as QB Bruce Gradkowski, T Jeremy Trueblood, and G Davin Joseph.

The Bucs started off the season 0-3, with QB Chris Simms throwing only 1 touchdown to 7 interceptions. In the third game of the season, a last-minute loss to the Panthers, Simms's spleen was ruptured, and he was placed on injured reserve for the balance of the season. After their bye week, the Bucs elected to start rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, a 6th-round pick from Toledo. After nearly beating the Saints, Gradkowski lead the team to last-minute wins over the Bengals and Eagles. The success was short-lived, however, and the Bucs lost five of the next six games. Tim Rattay replaced Gradkowski as quartback late in the season, and the team finished 4-12. The aged defense, with 5 starters who had played there for a decade or more, was ranked 17th overall, the first time a Tampa defense was not ranked in the top ten since 1996.

2007
After a disappointing 4-12 effort in 2006, the Buccaneers for the first time in several seasons had money to spend in free agency. They brought in quarterback Jeff Garcia, offensive tackle Luke Petitgout, defensive end Kevin Carter, and linebacker Cato June. On April 28, the Buccaneers drafted Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams with the 4th overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. After the draft the Buccaneers picked up tight end Jerramy Stevens and defensive tackle Ryan Sims.

The offseason changes resulted in the Buccaneers winning the NFC South title, finishing with a 9-7 record, and the 4th seed in the NFC. The division crown is the 2nd one in three seasons while under Gruden. In the Wild Card round of the playoffs held on January 6, 2008, the Buccaneers lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants by a final score of 24-14.

On December 16, Micheal Spurlock returned a kickoff 90 yards for the first kickoff return touchdown (1865 tries with 140 different players in 498 regular season games) in Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise history, as the Bucs went on to clinch the NFC South.

2008
The turnaround from 2007 helped convince Bucs ownership to re-sign head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen through the 2011 season. Although the team would lose many of its peripheral players, it would retain its core for the 2008 season. The Bucs didnt make it to the playoffs that year after losing the last 4 games in a row.

2009
The Bucs signed Raheem Morris as the new head coach after firing Gruden. They didnt finish good with Morris. They are currently in the offseason and have the 3rd pick in the 2010 draft.