With the Super Bowl played at the CITS in February, if somehow the Bucs make it, will they be able to use the cannons?

Joe will post the weekly Power Rankings in the near future. But in the process of gathering the data, he ran across something interesting from Don Banks of SI.com.

Banks, a former Bucs beat writer, wondered if the Bucs make it to the Super Bowl in February (yeah, Joe understands it’s a real reach right now), will the Bucs get to use the cannons from the pirate ship?

Super Bowl sites are regarded by the NFL, which runs the Super Bowl, as neutral sites. The NFL has never had a team play a Super Bowl in its home stadium. The closest was the 1980 Super Bowl when the Los Angeles Rams played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Rose Bowl. At the time, the Rams played at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

So technically, the CITS will be a neutral site. Just like the Ravens-Giants Super Bowl in 2000, the cannons were not used. But if the Bucs advanced to the Super Bowl, would the NFL allow the cannons to be used? Would Bucs fans get to hear Gene Deckerhoff bellow, “Fire those cannons!”

Joe will try to find the answer to such a compelling question. But he doubts the NFL would allow such a thing.