1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

[Music] april 1974 florida's tampa bay area is awarded the national football league's 27th franchise seven months later you culverhouse a jacksonville attorney and real estate investor becomes owner of the new franchise in february of 1975 the official team name is announced as the tampa bay buccaneers orange white and red its colors ground is broken for the expansion of tampa stadium to 72 000 seats in july of 1975 and in october john mckay is named head coach and vice president one buccaneer place becomes the new home of the bucks in june of 1976 and finally early in july the new training and office complex is ready to receive its first professional football team preparations are made to feed house and clothe over 90 veterans free agents and rookies it is a tedious yet necessary and extensive operation in the equipment room alone the buccaneers stand over a quarter of a million dollars but a football team takes its character from its people and only when 40 men take the field for the first time as members of the tampa bay buccaneers will the birth of the box be complete if we prove the experts wrong you have been challenged the fact that you're not the best football players physically i don't believe that it bothers me that they've picked us to be the worst team in football because what they're doing now is challenging your physical and your mental capacity and my ability to coach now this this hurts me second worst team i could stand it but not the worst team great running back in the nfl a super back there's no way anywhere you're gonna tell me the defensive back i'm gonna ride for this man full speed don't have any base at all get my feet like this and tackle his dummy going like that you can't do it we won't do it here come here get a base set it up for the sky and wrap it up [Music] after four weeks the first test of the bucks as a team arrives just how far they have come will be determined in their first game ever as the tampa bay buccaneers it will be a stern test [Music] if i win this game or we win this game i'll be the most amazed person on the sidelines i uh we always win with the anticipation of winning but we know our task here and our task against the rams is to find out who else is going to play the rest of the season for us to use a lot of people of course going back to my hometown and uh it'll be an unusual thing i guess but uh i'm fully prepared to meet my maker well everybody sit down let's everybody sit down stay up here with me louie back up fellas back up please so we can see is there any way that we can get these people to sit down this is unbelievable if i don't get them back down i will cut them baby so they'll be down john mckay's problems on the sideline are nothing in comparison to the buck's problems on the field the buck offense is mired in first game mistakes while the inexperienced tampa bay defense can't seem to stop anything you can't stop a pass or a run otherwise we're in great shape i've never seen this poor tackling come on knock somebody hey what's he what's wrong with playing mon in the game he tackles huh we got all these old pros nobody tackles well what's uh what's your other linebacker get him in the game get in there he's got to be twice as good as that guy he's only got one chance to make his football team he acts like he's got it made he ain't got nothing made gentlemen are you going to put your big band in are you going to stand here you're trying to get the ball to keep it about a week [Music] i don't know you're going to get a knocker back these guys have almost got this man the ones that aren't that are brainless i guarantee you next week you'll stay back because every guy up here is going to cost 500 what's your ucla rejects beating now oliver's in there blocking us he had blocked the guy in 12 years getting a bunch of if they were any slower they have to be two teams some of the ran backs must run 127 minutes and we can't tackle the last drive they had to go 70 yards and we missed the tackles right on down the field now that's all we asked you that isn't a hard thing to do tackle let's get out there and tackle second half we do get the ball to start the second half the people in that second part of the wedge that is a blocking wedge that is not a pass protection wedge if we'll block up through there carl or donny can go all the way now let's go on out warm up let's get going i'll tell you do my cnc things out there are that the worst tackle i've ever seen all right how's you tell those people up there to start giving us some information or go eat a hot dog or something would you please ask these people to stand back and the everybody time everybody is sitting a venture office on every the green bay [Applause] [Music] they're a hell of a lot of careers going in monday coach what do you think of your uh professional debut what's it like in the professional ranks anything special no i was beat 51. nothing 51 nothing to college ranks it's the same thing [Laughter] we were unaggressive we did not hustle and we were uninspired i thought we'd at least be aggressive and hustle we didn't before you got uh i had to scramble out of there quite a lot of sacks uh well we didn't block them but we made up for it by not tackling it seriously did you find it a challenge taking over an expansion team oh yeah we're having a good time trying to do it and we'll we'll get it done but we're not ready to play the los angeles rams at this time any radical difference should go all the way from the west coast to the east coast and to see three hour time change that's about it no the people back there been very nice very nice that was up to light [Laughter] for john mckay his staff and players 1976 was one long and torturous test it began with a loss to houston that was repeated 13 times ending with a loss to new england the difficult task of forging a team with players who had been together for only a short period was made virtually impossible by an injury blight that reached epidemic proportions all told 17 buccaneer players went down for the season whatever unit development had taken place was lost for now number one draft pick leroy seldman suffered a similar fate reporting late because of the college all-star game sulman had to undergo a crash course but worse he reported with an injury though he performed well by the ninth game of the season a new injury cost the bucks sellman's boundless talent for the rest of the season an indication of his value was that in the nine games before seldman was hurt the bucks compiled 20 sacks they got only four more the rest of the season and seldman was a healthy part of the buck squeeze of o.j simpson holding him to just 39 yards the other part of the brother seldman number two draft pick dewey number 61 will be tried at linebacker next year but the defensive line slots will be filled by brother leroy and other young if you've never before seen a real live tampa bay buccaneer here's what one looks like this is steve spurrier for nine years a quarterback for the san francisco 49ers following his heisman year at florida last week steve spurrier almost gave tampa bay florida its first professional touchdown almost but not quite the houston oilers didn't give spurrier many chances to score john mckay's buccaneers in fact were able to gain just barely 100 yards in their first official nfl action and it didn't matter much whether the quarterback was spurrier or rookie parnell dickinson of mississippi valley state college houston's dan pastorini had a somewhat easier time of it against tampa bay's fledgling defense number 44 running back fred willis was left all by himself to account for the oilers first touchdown of the season in all houston succeeded on 19 of 27 pass plays including the clincher from pastorini to ken burrow as the oilers quite rudely welcome the bucks to the nfl 20 to nothing in tampa bay the buccaneers also have a good defense but their offense has mysteriously died and they haven't scored a point in regular season play an official investigation has failed to turn up any clues but last sunday the buccaneers certainly had a case against the san diego chargers san diego stole three of tampa's passes and tom hayes returned one of them 37 yards for a touchdown [Music] there's no mystery about san diego's offense ricky young led a winning assault with this 46-yard touchdown as the chargers won their second straight 23 to nothing [Music] in tampa bay there was another fumbler and if oj simpson doesn't pay his electric bill pretty soon his power could stay shut off oj's line is known as the electric company and whether planned or unplanned they left the juice in the dark with a mere 39 yards on 20 attempts the third poor performance in a row for oj [Music] but while the improving bucks closed the roads they couldn't shut down the airways as joe ferguson hit reuben gantt for one score [Music] the bucks put nine points up on three field goals but ferguson the number 81 bob chandler iced the bill's first win of the year 14-9 [Music] [Applause] [Music] in baltimore quarterbacks were having their problems too even the highly praised bert jones was not above an untimely slip-up or two but it was the tampa bay buccaneers who suffered the most embarrassment as they made numerous errors and at one point allowed the colt to score on seven straight possessions in fact one of the best plays of the day for the bucks was made by their fearless phantom tackler who came cleverly disguised as a field official but in the end not even ten shiploads of buccaneers could stop the pony express as jones to number 26 lydell mitchell accounted for 24 yards and a touchdown and then it was jones to number 81 roger carr for 48 yards and a 42-17 victory which left the three and one colts tied for first with the patriots in the afc's eastern division [Music] tampa bay is so called offense has scored only one touchdown all year last sunday the cincinnati bengals feasted on the bumbling bucks shutting them out 21-0 [Music] tampa's protective passing cup is a splintery croc that leaks defensive linemen and quarterback steve spurrier has been sacked more times than anyone in the league says buccaneer coach john mckay we couldn't find the end zone with a seeing eye dog [Music] expansion bull the officials stole the show calling 34 penalties 37 is the nfl record and stepping off over 300 yards [Applause] it was only natural therefore that when jim zorn hit steve largent for a touchdown it was called back but on the very next play a flagless one zorn found sam mccullum over the middle as the seattle seahawks led the tampa bay buccaneers 13-3 at halftime ten points isn't insurmountable but to the bucks it must seem that way in the previous five weeks they had scored only 26 points on two touchdowns and four field goals one of the touchdowns in fact was scored by the buck defense as tampa bay just can't seem to buy a touchdown [Music] bad luck and good seattle defense looked like they would keep the bucks out of the end zone for yet another sunday [Music] finally late in the third quarter a unique pass from lewis carter to morris owens brought the score to 13-10 but that was all tampa bay could muster jack patera and the seattle seahawks had won but why is jack smiling when the victory may have cost him next year's number one draft pick well he's smiling because in reality there isn't a team in the nfl that wouldn't trade a draft pick for a victory the seahawks now have their first victory ever but it's just the sixth week of the season and for the tampa bay buccaneers there's still plenty of time some people in tampa actually believe this but last week kansas city's conference leading offense arrived equally well prepared kansas city's prolific attack turned in yet another outstanding performance as mike livingston passed the chiefs into a 20-point fourth period lead tampa bay football fans have suffered through a most difficult first season but neither their loyalty nor their enthusiasm has been dissipated and period four gave buccaneer fans a tantalizing preview of better days ahead [Music] [Applause] [Music] trailing by 20 steve spurrier directed his florida pirates to three fourth quarter touchdowns including this one to the coach's son jk mckay the fledgling buccaneers rallied when they could have easily thrown in the towel no they're not number one yet but they'll keep working on it meanwhile in denver the other expansion team did not fare so well [Music] tampa bay was ahead in the third quarter but the broncos led by otis armstrong and quarterback steve ramsey scored 38 straight points to put the game far out of reach of the wobegone buccaneers denver's defense came up with three touchdowns of their own more than enough to win the game for the broncos [Music] as has become almost routine in denver victories the special teams were indeed special especially punt returner rick upchurch number 80. rick upchurch knew he had his record-setting fifth punt return touchdown of the season but a clipping call cancelled the score it was just about the only thing that went wrong for the broncos as they won big 48-13 last week the winless tampa bay buccaneers faced the two and seven new york jets in an nfl game of the week tampa bay's biggest problem this season has been an almost non-existent offense to put it bluntly the bucks have been falling all over themselves in an effort to find a leader for his offense buck head coach john mckay used all three of his quarterbacks against the jets and if nothing else he discovered that he has consistency at the position steve spurrier has been the buck quarterback most of this season but when he failed to move the team mckay brought in his newest passer terry hanratty when his newest quarterback couldn't do it mckay put in his youngest hurler parnell dickinson whose performance was remarkably similar to han randy's three quarterbacks added up to tampa bay's fourth shutout in 10 games and when the jets saw the problem spurrier hanratty and dickinson were having new york elected to go without a quarterback [Music] actually the jets were going with joe namath in shotgun formation not because nameth needs more time to read defenses or because he has a slow release but simply because in the shotgun formation namath would be better protected from the conventional set namuth led the jets to victory by moving new york to 24 points in just over one quarter [Music] rookie clark gaines great run began the streak late in the first quarter when namath had the jets safely in front he retired from further competition and the only touchdown in the second half was lou picone's 60-yard punt return that concluded a 34 to nothing beat up of the bucks the jets had their third victory of the season while for the buccaneers it was lost number 10 as they continued to bumble along winless early like brian seif gave florida fans a pretty good chance to reminisce over an old friend 12-year wide receiver paul warfield number 42. midway in the third quarter sipe found warfield for the touchdown which broke a 7-7 tie this rare buccaneer touchdown play from steve spurrier to essex johnson had averted a possible fifth shutout for the nfl's bottom ranked offense [Music] unfortunately for steve spurrier the buccaneer offensive line is not yet capable of giving him much protection and cleveland took full advantage of this weakness the browns rolled to their sixth victory in the last seven games 24-7 and remained tied with pittsburgh for second place in the amazing afc central division meanwhile out in oakland windlass coach john mckay had the demeanor of a man wearing metal underwear and a thunderstorm he didn't expect to win but some of his players didn't either however the bucks did manage to ring up 16 points against the proud poised and playoff bound raiders but for most of the afternoon tampa bay signal caller steve spurrier was rolling around the oakland coliseum floor like a playful kitten all rolled up in a ball of silver and black yarn those parts of the day that weren't spent playfully were spent instead somewhat painfully for the bucks [Music] throughout the afternoon spurrier seemed somewhat tentative like a man walking the plank over shark-infested waters and number 39 willie hall's theft pointed out some weaknesses in buccaneer fundamentals such as tackling [Applause] and so last sunday the buccaneers did little swashbuckling while those patch-eyed pirates from oakland carved a mighty swath on the sword arm of ken stabler and his receivers like number 25 fred belletnikov with a game locked in the treasure chest mike ray came in at quarterback and sent a 37-yard torpedo to mike cianni who made a center fielder's catch that made the final score 49-16 and once again last week the raiders proved that no matter who's throwing them or who's catching them there's fun profit excitement and playoffs for any team who lives by the past as well as they do [Music] last week after a long injury-caused layoff pittsburgh's terry bradshaw was ready to return to action as the steelers playoff hopes flickered like a flame in the wind bradshaw seemed to be in top elusive form and the winless tampa bay buccaneers were no match for the world champs who put 42 points on the blinky board the steel curtain rose to its fourth shutout of the season a new team record [Music] but while the red hot steelers were marching to their ninth win of the year they were not the captains of their destiny instead they had to rely on an oakland win over cincinnati in last monday night's game to keep their title hopes alive and when lynn swann offered a prayer of supplication someone up there hurt him as the raiders whipped the bengals 35 to 20 and the steelers playoff flame roared to life and warned the rest of the nfl that they'd better get on their asbestos underwear john mckay's winless season has eroded his ordinarily keen sense of humor and placed his team on the verge of making history against new england mckay's pirates set out to avoid making the record books [Music] fullback ed williams 17-yard run lifted tampa bay into a surprising first half lead and before the good luck spell had worn off the buccaneers dazzled the playoff bound new englanders with yet another semblance of solid offense a touchdown pass [Applause] [Music] but while tampa bay could only flirt with offensive success new england's potent ground attack demonstrated its mastery of the subject and pro football's second most productive ground game powered through the touchdown alleys andy williams followed this 69-yard sprint with a 9-yard touchdown run in the second half as new england knotted the score at 14. but on this day tampa bay seemed destined to become part of nfl folklore sam hunt's 68-yard interception return and encore added the epilogue to tampa bay's abysmal 1976 story with this defeat the buccaneers became the first team in nfl history to finish o and 14. while for the tough young patriots it's on to the playoffs [Music]

Channel: Classic Sports

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Id: nbUusbKfWg0

Length: 27min 55sec (1675 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 26 2022