The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an expansion team competing in the National Football League (NFL). Tampa Bay joined the league in 1976 alongside the Seattle Seahawks. Over 49 seasons, the Buccaneers have amassed more than 300 regular season wins and 12 playoff appearances. The franchise has won every Super Bowl game it has appeared in. That said, it took many seasons for the franchise to find success in the NFL.
The Buccaneers began playing in the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The 1976 team set an NFL record, though not a good one: Tampa Bay became one of just five teams, and only the second at the time, to win zero regular season games. The team posted 14 straight losses, including five shutouts. The Buccaneers only scored 20 points once during the season.
In 1977, Tampa Bay was moved from the AFC West Division to the National Football Conference (NFC) Central Division, swapping places with the Seahawks. The switch to the NFC did little for Tampa’s fortunes: the 1977 squad ran the franchise’s losing streak to 26 games before closing the season with back-to-back victories, the first wins in franchise history. Despite the minor improvements, the Buccaneers failed to score in six games and scored seven or fewer points in four additional games.
The franchise continued to support head coach John McKay, who improved to five wins the following season and then doubled that win total in 1979. Tampa won the division that season and advanced to the playoffs for the first time. The franchise recorded its first post-season win in December 1979, a 24-17 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, but then fell to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Conference Championship by a score of 9-0.
The playoff experience did not immediately translate to regular season consistency. The team would not win 10 games again until 1997, a gap of almost two decades, and the franchise’s playoff drought would last just as long. The Buccaneers experienced just two winning seasons during that period.
The franchise enjoyed its first period of prolonged success from 1997 to 2002, during which time Tampa Bay recorded a combined regular season record of 60 wins and 37 losses. The team reached the playoffs five times in six seasons. Head coach Tony Dungy matched Coach McKay’s 10-win record in 1997, then won 11 games in 1999. Dungy was replaced by Jon Gruden ahead of the 2002 season. The team won 12 games, the second-best mark in franchise history.
Several of the Buccaneer’s post-season wins came during these years. After advancing to the NFC Conference Championship for the second time in 1999, losing another close, low-scoring game to the Rams, Tampa Bay scored wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles to advance to the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 2003.
Tampa Bay had previously scored a combined six points in the organization’s NFC Conference Championship appearances. An inability to score would not be a problem in the Super Bowl. A combination of Keyshawn Johnson, Brad Johnson, and Derrick Brooks powered the Buccaneer’s offense to a 48-21 victory and the franchise’s first championship nearly 25 years after joining the NFL.
Tampa fans had a much shorter wait for the franchise’s second championship. The 2020 team, led by Tom Brady, won 11 regular season games and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 for a second Super Bowl win.
