Publisher's Synopsis
This book is written for those of us who love the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (TBB) and their great free home state of Florida. Those who dislike the Bucs for their own reasons, will also want this book, so they can try to get a leg up on the facts missing from the bookshelves of those TBB fans who do not have this book. The book first tells the story about the founding of the Bucs as the newest team in the National Football League. Most real NFL fans know that The Buccaneers, (often shortened to The Bucs, ) were established in 1976, and they posted what pundits have called for the ages an ignoble 0-14 record in their first season in the NF. The NFL wasn't sure what to do with them but after playing their first season in the American Football Conference (AFC) named after the old AFL, the Bucs moved to their current Conference (NFC) in 1977. Life did not change to greatness for TBB for a few more years and then the change was not permanent. I have a list available on the Internet of the top 50 TBB players in history (since 1976) It has been just 45 years, seven after the end of the AFL when football was at its greatest. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came along seventeen years after the AFL played its first game. Out of the fifty or so the pundits pick, we pick 33 great players and highlight them in the year in which they played for the Bucs as you are reading from season to season. You'll find we do take a peek at the beginning of Bucs football just to get you warmed up.As noted, the American Football League (AFL) in 1960 came and was subsumed by the NFL and then one of a number of NFL expansion brought in the Buccaneers in 1976. Hugh Culverhouse, a successful Florida Tax Lawyer and broker gained the franchise. He hired USC's successful coach, John McKay as the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he held the reins until 1984.After starting out 0-26 with 26 straight defeats, McKay' the Bucs first coach, and a great one, brought the team to its first win v the New Orleans Saints. And two years later they sported a 10-6 season record and they actually won their division and played in the conference championship game in 1979. The Bucs were not bad but circumstances for them, including the original ownership was perhaps bad. Up there in Heaven, Hugh Culverhouse has to answer his intentions for his 1976 to 1995 team. You will learn John McKay was a great choice, He had achieved major success at the University of California with four national championships in his 16 years there. Coach McKay is responsible for orchestrating the building process that led to the Buccaneers stunning early success. To describe most of their losses over the years, when writing stories about those games, I had to look at proper use of verbs. For example, in many games the other team nosed out the Bucs. To me that means 1 to 2 points. If it was less than a TD, I would say they were edged out. The Bucs had bad luck because their losses were either nose jobs or edge jobs, I wish it were different but now you know.This book captures the stories about the great players. The book often stops in time and talks about a particular great player such as Lee Roy Salmon, Ricky Bell, Doug Williams, and of course Tom Brady. The Bucs picked up their first NFL Championship with John Gruden and won Super Bowl XXXVII with a convincing 48-21 win. Of course we all know about 2020's Championship and Super Bowl victory Bucs have come of age. Tom Brady is the Bucs new MVP.And, so now, I dare you to pick up this book for, if you are a Bucs fan, and you will never put it down again. You cannot ever get enough of the Bucs greatness, but we do provide as many stories together in one spot as we can in this can't miss book.
