The Lost Generation
March 6th, 2019
How the pirate ship sank.
It is so damn sad to think there are people who are legally able to guzzle cold beer at Hooters and not remember one play of the Bucs beating the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
This sad state of affairs is not because they were blacked out drunk from partying that wonderful night in January 2003, but they were too young to have it sink in.
This same lost generation cannot remember a Bucs playoff win.
It has been 16 years since the Bucs won a playoff game, currently the second-longest drought in franchise history (after beating Philadelphia in the playoffs in 1979, the Bucs went 18 years without a playoff win, the worst rut in team history).
The sorry state of the Bucs between 1979 and 1997 is considered by many NFL historians as one of the most dreadful periods for any team. Yet here we are today with the Bucs not that far from tying that mark.
How could the Bucs have gone from the very top of the mountain winning the Super Bowl with Chucky hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory, largely on the heels of the NFL’s best defense, to last year featuring a defense so horrific that it toyed with setting 99-year NFL records for hideous defense? That’s a mighty plunge from grace.
Well, SB Nation put together a video highlighting the fall of Chucky with the Bucs. While Chucky may not have been the football savant we all thought he was at one point, he did get the Bucs to the playoffs three different times in seven years, including a glorious Super Bowl victory.
Compared to what Bucs fans have had to put up with the past decade, Chucky’s tenure looks like a damn dynasty.
If this video doesn’t make you want to go to Hooters tonight, nothing will.
The video is very well produced with one major issue. No team loses 7-12. The score with the most points between two teams is always listed first. This is both Associated Press style and that any half-arsed publication.
Otherwise, well done.
March 6th, 2019 at 3:57 pm
thank god gruden was able to clean up the mess dungy the clown and mckay made…. it’s truly a shame dungy the clown wasted sapp for 6 years…
March 6th, 2019 at 4:03 pm
Bad drafts
Offensive genius who couldn’t develop players
Bad luck with injuries (Alstott & Jurevicius) injured on the same play
McKay and Gruden not being able to co exist
Bad free agent signings
Just an awfully run organization for a long time now
March 6th, 2019 at 4:07 pm
So….this is the “bright future” ?….time to take of the shades….we been hoodwinked Jethro !
March 6th, 2019 at 4:10 pm
That was a painful reminder…the MNF loss to the Colts perhaps the most painful of all.
March 6th, 2019 at 4:17 pm
Actually the void after the SB was to be expected…2- 1st and 2 -2nds for Gruden…a 1&2 for Kenyatta …a few other busted picks whose names escape be…the veteran SB roster moving on….cap hell…..so I understood there would be a tough hole to climb out of….thing is despite plenty of time and draft picks and G’Boyz money…..the team is still stuck in the muck of McKay Bay……HELL…John McKay without free agency …took a roster to the playoffs in 4 years…and that was an achievement that has his name in the Ring Of Honor
March 6th, 2019 at 4:21 pm
Loyaltotheend
stop trying to rewrite history pal
mckay was a garbage gm who could not field an offense to go with the defense whyce handed dungy the clown. mckay and dungy failed… those two clowns won absolutely nothing in tampa… again the way you fools live in a failed past and attempt to rewrite history daily is really sad and pathetic….
March 6th, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Yet you want to bring back the memory of Bucco. I would not want any part of it. Sad times they were too. Most of them.
March 6th, 2019 at 4:23 pm
HELL…John McKay without free agency …took a roster to the playoffs in 4 years…and that was an achievement that has his name in the Ring Of Honor
that does not get mentioned enough.
March 6th, 2019 at 4:24 pm
Gruden the GM killed Gruden the coach
March 6th, 2019 at 4:28 pm
I was at the Monday night game against the panthers. It will always be a nightmare for me. Willams and Stewart ran the ball down our throats like there was no tomorrow.
March 6th, 2019 at 4:30 pm
Gruden big ego and narcissism killed Gruden de coach…….Thanks god he is in Oakland, I want him as far as he can be from One Bucs place……
March 6th, 2019 at 4:31 pm
guessing tmax = relative of jon gruden at this point
March 6th, 2019 at 4:33 pm
Will never forget that Peyton Manning comeback or the Panthers game.
At least I was at the opener last year to have some positive sh1t to remember even in a sh1t season
March 6th, 2019 at 4:39 pm
Tmax
I never mentioned Dungy…
When your GM and HC don’t get a long it’s a bad look for the organization
Bad drafts and lack of player development has killed this franchise for years
March 6th, 2019 at 4:44 pm
2003…wasted opp! automatica blew week 2 and howdid we lose to the colts. If we get in that year, could still make a run. Mccay showed how bad he was in atlanta
March 6th, 2019 at 4:58 pm
i wish I hadn’t decided to give up booze minutes before watching that. Back to the sauce for me.
March 6th, 2019 at 4:58 pm
@Tmax
Team has been awful in the draft and player development for years. Gruden and his puppet Allen were no better than McKay
The nfl is all about drafting and developing Bucs can’t do either very well it’s why they are the losingest franchise in nfl history
March 6th, 2019 at 5:17 pm
AE for the win on this thread.
You nailed AE. Too many draft picks for Gruden left the cupboard bare. I realize that makes many get excited since Chucky did bring us our only SB but we are talking post SB. BTW he went
7-9 and 5-11 the two years immediately following the SB win. Talk about a fall from grace!!!
AE gave the other reasons…old team…salary cap hell…and no draft picks which normally correct both of those problems.
Bassenger did a good analysis on how the Pats have been a dynasty through hoarding draft picks…gives them more choices and more players on rookie contracts that do not bust the cap.
The Pats never pick in the top ten and yet they make a silks purse out of those sow’s ears in the 3rd 4th and 5th rounds. And part of it is because they stockpile them through trading and the compensatory picks they get for letting their biggest talents walk in FA.
March 6th, 2019 at 5:33 pm
Lord Cornelius Says:
March 6th, 2019 at 4:31 pm
guessing tmax = relative of jon gruden at this point
nope just a dude who judges RESULTS and one who is unaffected by meaningless emotional garbage like nice guys and good in the community garbage. they are sports entertainers no different than wwe wrestlers… they are paid to win nothing else.
the legend of dungy surpassed his actual accomplished years ago all based on nice guy BS that is totally irrelevant when being considered for the hof…. the hof fame used to be for the best of the best. now it’s meaningless…. lowering the standards to include nice guys who could not win when it matters most in the post season is unfair to actual candidates who deserve to be there…. plus nothing bothers me more than religious hypocrites who constantly play the god card while judging others…. dungy is a clown who failed in tampa period….
March 6th, 2019 at 5:47 pm
“all was not lost…. YET”
March 6th, 2019 at 5:55 pm
Loyaltotheend
the nfl is about winning…. other franchises turn it around every year but every year by week 4 we are nut punched followed by draft talk by week 8… clearly the bucs are incompetent at every level from ownership to janitors… no offense to the hard working men, woman and trannys changing out the urinal cakes but this organization has been embarrassing
you can’t be scared of free agency or the cap. competent teams with the right people in the right roles make good decisions. bucs consistently make bad decisions top to bottom. teams with a ton more talent needing to get paid figure it out. bucs need winners. they do not need to keep hanging on to failed draft picks on the hope of building their own… they will never catch up doing it that way. it will be another 2 decades of collecting basement titles while methodically attempting to build through the draft. successful teams do it all well…. draft, free agency, off season and on field. bucs fail at each every aspect daily…
March 6th, 2019 at 6:02 pm
The difference for me is the 79-97 era is the fresh memory of 0-26 and wondering if we would ever win a SB were we couldn’t even watch homes games due to blackouts. The last 16 years we at least have a SB memory. I do feel bad for 18-24 year olds who have been hardcore fans that have never seen a playoff victory. The Yucs at least won one in year 4/1979
March 6th, 2019 at 6:47 pm
Tmax—
I’m a janitor by trade and I can guarantee the Bucs have the shiniest floors and the cleanest locker rooms in the NFL. I’ve seen em! Take a hike, buddy. I could buff your mouth closed in a heartbeat and blind you with windex! How dare you insult my trade!
Also, too bad your lack of education reflects the obvious shortcomings in your pathetic ability to write with clarity…
Hell, most of us janitors could write you under the table.
Although I do agree with you about Dungy. Great guy but a bad coach. Without Peyton Manning he’d still be uttering those immortal words, “we were just out of sync.”
March 6th, 2019 at 6:50 pm
Gruden destroyed the team so he could rebuild it in his image, that’s the legacy of Gruden, who won a SB with Dungy’s team, then turned around and got Rich McKay fired because McKay vetoed him signing an old washed up Andre Rison. So what did Gruden do once he got control of the team after getting McKay fired? He cuts Lynch (only 3 more Pro-Bowls for him) and lets Sapp walk (still has a 10-sack season playing out of position) so he can sign Charlie Garner to a big deal, and every injured mid-30s OL to a big deal, so he resign Ellis Wyms to a big deal, so he can give Ion Gold a big deal, and so he can bring in guys like Tim Brown to big deals. Gruden also hated young QBs, so despite the Bucs badly needing a QB he passes on Rodgers to take Cadillac Williams. Gruden took Dungy’s SB winning team and ran it into the ground, all to feed his ego. He’s a douche.
Still better than Dirk, but that’s a low bar.
March 6th, 2019 at 7:20 pm
I had forgotten about that Colts game. Oh how the memory slips with age. But once that clip started, I remembered it clearly. I was out of town on travel and feeling the confidence of another great season unfolding when suddenly it started to go south. God, it took me a long time to get over that loss. The beginning of the end for our glorious Bucs!
March 6th, 2019 at 8:05 pm
JA
I was not bashing janitors I was feeling sorry for them having to work for the incompetent glazers….. I love janitors… I own 2
March 6th, 2019 at 9:11 pm
JA
Hear! Hear! Great response. I admire all working men.
I drove a semi for three and a half years. I worked as a TV Sportcaster for a decade. I am as proud of either. And both satisfied me immensely.
I’m glad you like writing and the post was well written. Our nation has lost it’s way when we respect greedy arseholes more than the working folks who really make this country great.
March 6th, 2019 at 9:44 pm
I don’t think the Bucs ever win a Super Bowl without Gruden.
In fact I think Dungy would have just kept losing in the playoffs and wasting away great careers on the d side of the ball.
Shyte-ton of new starters on O and Jon Gruden is what won them a Super Bowl IMO.
March 6th, 2019 at 9:57 pm
Rod great post tell it like it was
March 6th, 2019 at 10:15 pm
I thought about this a couple years ago….
No one has ever celebrated a Bucs playoff win by posting something to Facebook or Twitter
March 6th, 2019 at 10:22 pm
Rod Munch
gruden won with dungy the clowns players when dungy the clown could not… and if gruden did not clean up dungy’s mess you people would have nothing to live in the past about.
March 6th, 2019 at 10:59 pm
what Rod said. Gruden began the tradition followed by every subsequent head coach of swapping out players for lesser replacements and drafting bums with too many premium picks. save us bruce
March 6th, 2019 at 11:02 pm
*except for the “dungy’s team” thing. this team’s best players preceded dungy and the x factors for the superbowl season were many guys dungy would never think to add, and that doesn’t even cover how the defense found a new gear adding some un-dungy aggressiveness to their game
March 7th, 2019 at 12:44 am
pick6 – It was a team McKay built, but a team isn’t “McKay’s team” – and if you don’t think it was Dungy’s team then you weren’t paying attention. Gruden didn’t touch the defense at all, that was all Kiffin, and that was the only part of the team that was worth anything. Meanwhile Dungy goes to Indy, and takes a chokemaster like Manning and gets a SB ring. People will say that ring is on Manning – but it wasn’t, it was on Dungy’s #1 defense that he built. There’s a reason Dungy is in the HOF and Gruden will never be considered for that conversation.
March 7th, 2019 at 1:34 am
@tmax
Just because someone professes their faith does not mean that they are judging you (we all are sinners!). Please don’t feed the anti-Christian bias that is being pushed these days. Other than that, I usually agree with you.
March 7th, 2019 at 1:43 am
That loss to the Rams in ’79 still pi$$es me off. If we had kicked field goals instead of “going for it” 4 times, we would have won. And if I’m not mistaken, Doug Williams called a timeout when we had none left, killing our last slim hope.
March 7th, 2019 at 6:39 am
OWNERSHIP!! No other way we get to where we are at besides Idiots with money thinking they can run an NFL football team.
March 7th, 2019 at 6:46 am
Yes it hasn’t been pretty for a while now. But I would never be upset for Gruden took us to every football fan’s dream…..WINNING THE SUPER BOWL.
That experience will never be taken away or diminish by any comment or film by anyone specially those who claim they are fans but are just doing their JOB.
I truly wish for every football fan to get to experience that specially young Buccaneer fans.
The remembrance of Brook intercepting Gannon for a touchdown in the Super Bowl can never be forgotten by the pass 17 years. And the greatest interception ever by a Buc… Barber to the house!!!!! The look of Philly fans remind us why Gruden came to town…..PRICELESS!
no risk it no biscuit!
Go Bucs!!!
March 7th, 2019 at 6:51 am
Rob Munch your obviously have no idea what your talking about. The only reason Dungy won a SB is because of Manning. Look up the stats! There defense was good but there offense was in the top 2 in the league!!! They won the SB based on OFFENSE on defense.
March 7th, 2019 at 6:54 am
Joe, I remember nearly EVERY SNAP, not only from the Super Bowl win, but also (in my opinion, the greatest Bucs’ game EVER) the NFC Championship game at Philadelphia.
March 7th, 2019 at 5:04 pm
The 9-3 to 9-7 is still the worst memory I have as a Bucs fan. The 99 championship game is a close second for me. That Colts game is up there too.
March 8th, 2019 at 7:47 pm
Depressing stuff I tell ya!
There’s a lot of games I remember since becoming a Bucs fan in 96’…the Monday Night Football Panthers game is one that I still lose sleep over. I mean the way Williams x Stewart destroyed the defense that night was epic. The Bucs defense hasn’t been the same since that night. I mean 10+ yrs later & the defense hasn’t returned…
I think that changes this yr w/ Bowles!