December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Win On Their 27th Try

December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win a regular-season football game. This had never happened before.

The Bucs were an NFL expansion team, beginning play in the 1976 season. They and the Seattle Seahawks entered the League that season, the 1st new teams in the NFL since its 1970 merger with the American Football League. Like most expansion teams in sports, both teams were expected to struggle.

But John McKay, who had coached the University of Southern California to 9 Conference Championships and 4 National Championships, was named head coach by team owner Hugh Culverhouse. Lee Roy Selmon, star defensive end from the University of Oklahoma, the top defensive player in the country the season before, was their 1st draft pick. They'd also drafted Lee Roy's brother, Oklahoma linebacker Dewey Selmon.

And their 1st starting quarterback was going to be Steve Spurrier, Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Florida in 1966. Spurrier had been a bust in the pros, but some observers thought that playing in Florida again would revitalize his career. So most football fans didn't expect them to struggle as much as they did. They did win the 3rd of their 4 exhibition games, 17-3 over the Atlanta Falcons.

Officially, the longest losing streak in NFL history was, and still is, 29 games, set by the Chicago Cardinals from October 25, 1942 to October 14, 1945. However, in the 1944 season, due to the manpower drain of World War II, they merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were listed in League standings as "Card-Pitt," but were nicknamed the "Carpets," because teams walked all over them. The teams were separated for 1945.

So, for a single team, the longest losing streak in NFL history before 1976 was 17, by the Dayton Triangles, over the 1927, '28 and '29 seasons. The Triangles folded after the '29 season, so, in a manner of speaking, their losing streak continues to this day. The Washington Redskins matched that 17-game losing streak in 1960 and '61.

The Buccaneers debuted on September 12, 1976, against the Houston Oilers at the Astrodome. It was a wipeout: The Oilers, a team on the rise, beat them 20-0. The next game was their home debut: In front of 39,558 people at Tampa Stadium -- leaving it half-empty -- they lost to the San Diego Chargers, 23-0.

They came close to winning their next game, falling 14-9 at home to the Buffalo Bills. Three weeks later, with their fellow expansion team, the Seahawks, also still winless, coming to Tampa, predictions that neither team could win were voiced. There would be no tie: The Seahawks won, 13-10. They finished the season 2-12. The next week, at home, the Buccaneers held the 2-time recent Super Bowl-winning Miami Dolphins to a 23-20 win.

But as the losses piled up, McKay took the same tack as Casey Stengel did when managing another expansion team, the 1962 New York Mets: He became a quote machine, entertaining the media:

* "We've determined that we can't win at home and we can't win on the road. What we need is a neutral site."

* Well, we didn't block well, but we made up for it by not tackling well, either."

* "We can't stop a pass or a run. Otherwise, we're in great shape."

* When asked, "What do think of your team's execution?" he said, "I'm in favor of it."

On December 12, the Buccaneers lost to the New England Patriots, 31-14 at Tampa Stadium. They had finished 0-14. It was the 1st winless season in the NFL since the 1960 Dallas Cowboys went 0-11-1. It was the first all-loss season in the NFL since 1944, when both the "Card-Pitt" team and the Brooklyn Tigers went 0-10. Without the manpower drain of World War II, the previous all-loss NFL season was by the Cincinnati Reds, who lost their 1st 8 games of the 1934 season, and then folded.

For the 1977 season, McKay made Tampa native and former Chicago Bear Gary Huff his starting quarterback, and drafted one of his last USC players, running back Ricky Bell. But they still kept losing. There was progress, as 5 of their 1st 7 games were lost by 10 points or less. Their 2nd game was nearly a shocker, as they held the defending NFC Champion Minnesota Vikings to a 9-3 win.

Still, they had trouble scoring. Of those 1st 26 games, they scored fewer than 10 points in 17 of them; they failed to score a touchdown in 14 of them; and they were shut out in 11 of them. On December 4, they lost 10-0 at home to the Bears, falling to 0-12 on the season, and 0-26 all-time.

It got so bad that they were worked into pop culture. On an episode of the sitcom What's Happening!! that aired on ABC on November 10, Dwayne (Haywood Nelson) keeps winning in football predictions. Rerun (Fred Berry) wants to win the approval of his brother-in-law, Ike, a compulsive gambler, so he asks Dwayne to pick the Monday Night Football game.

Dwayne's pick is "Tampa Bay 10, Oakland 7." This pick doesn't make any sense: The Raiders are the defending World Champions, and the Buccaneers haven't won a game yet. (In real life, the Bucs did not play the Raiders that season.) But Dwayne says his system is foolproof.

So Rerun gives Ike the pick. Ike calls his bookie, and bets $500 -- about $2,460 in 2022 money. Rerun yells at him: "I told you to bet big, not crazy!" Now, Rerun knows that if Dwayne's pick isn't foolproof, he's in trouble. Sure enough, the Raiders win, 47-0. Ike tells Rerun he's going to work at his store until that $500 is paid off.

Rerun and Raj (Ernest Thomas) demand to know how Dwayne's "foolproof system" works. Dwayne gives them the convoluted way he picks the score. As for which team wins? Helmets: He picks the team that he thinks has the better-looking helmets. I have to admit: The orange and white Tampa Bay helmets, with a pirate known as "Bucco Bruce" on the side, did look better than the silver and black Oakland helmets, which also had a pirate logo.

And on NBC, in his "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch for The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson said this:

Answer: The Titanic and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Question: Name two disasters that were accompanied by band music.

At the time, if you asked an NFL fan what team would give the Bucs their first regular-season win ever, the likeliest answer would have been the New Orleans Saints, a team that had been perennially snakebit since their 1967 debut, and had never had a winning season. (They wouldn't have one until 1987, wouldn't make the Playoffs until that season, wouldn't win a Playoff game until 2000, and wouldn't reach a Super Bowl until the 2009 season, winning Super Bowl XLIV.)

So it wasn't a total surprise that, on December 11, 1977, at the Superdome in New Orleans, the Buccaneers beat the Saints, 33-14, finally winning in their 27th regular-season game. Dave Green kicked a field goal in each of the 1st 2 quarters. Huff threw a touchdown pass to Morris Owens to make it 13-0 Tampa Bay at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Mike Washington intercepted a pass from Archie Manning -- Peyton and Eli's father -- and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. In the 4th quarter, Richard Wood intercepted Manning, and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown. It was 26-0 Tampa Bay. Had that turned out to be the final score, it would have been poetic justice: A reverse of 0-26.

Manning ran for a touchdown to put New Orleans on the board, but on the Saints' next drive, he got sacked deep in his own territory, fumbling, and Greg Johnson recovered the ball in the end zone for another Buccaneer touchdown. Manning threw a late touchdown pass to John Gilliam, but the Saints would get no closer than 33-14.

The big surprise was the margin of victory. The Bucs had only scored as many as 20 points twice before that, topping out at 23 in another loss to Seattle earlier in '77.

The following week, the last game of the regular season, the Bucs gave their home fans their 1st win, beating the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-7, to finish the season at 2-12. In 1978, they improved to 5-11. In 1979, they finished 10-6, winning the NFC Central Division, and advancing to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. After a losing season in 1980, they won the Division again in 1981, before falling apart again.

It would take until 1997 -- the season when they dropped Bucco Bruce for their pirate flag helmet design, and their "creamsicle" uniforms for their red and "pewter" version -- for the Bucs to stop being a joke franchise and make the Playoffs again, beginning a run of success that included winning Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. They have also won Super Bowl LV in 2021.

The longest losing streak in the NFL since the '76-'77 Bucs is 20, by the 2020 and '21 Jacksonville Jaguars. Although the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns both went 0-16, neither threatened the Bucs' 0-26 mark.

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December 11, 1977 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 14-10 at Shea Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 14-10 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Baltimore Colts, 13-10 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cleveland Browns, 19-15 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 21-10 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-31 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 17-9 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* In a rematch of the previous season's Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-13 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The day before, Washington Redskins lost to the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 26-20 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* Also the day before, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 42-35 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There was 1 college football game played, the Mirage Bowl at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Grambling State beat Temple, 35-23.

There were 3 NBA games played that day:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 106-95 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Buffalo Braves, 124-119 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 43 points and had 19 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 116-84 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 8-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Cleveland Barons, 11-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Tom Bladon had a hat trick.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* This was the season of an experiment where Soviet and Czech All-Star teams played in the WHA. The Czechoslovakia team played 8 games, and won only 1, This was not it: They lost to the Quebec Nordiques, 8-4 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

January 27, 1991: The Scott Norwood Game

January 27, 1991: Super Bowl XXV is held at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida. It might have been the best Super Bowl of them all.

Four years earlier, the New York Giants were favored to win the Super Bowl. Coach Bill Parcells had a good offense, quarterbacked by Phil Simms; and a ferocious defense, led by linebacker Lawrence Taylor. And they did win, beating the Denver Broncos, 39-20.

This time, they won their 1st 10 games, but faltered, dropping 3 straight before winning their last 2 to win the NFC Eastern Division. One of their losses was to the Buffalo Bills, and Simms broke his foot in the game, forcing former West Virginia University standout Jeff Hostetler. to become the new starter, having started only 2 NFL games in 7 seasons.

The Giants dominated Mike Ditka's Chicago Bears in the Divisional round, 31-3. But the task ahead of them was daunting. They had to play the NFC Championship Game against the 2-time defending World Champion San Francisco 49ers, who were 14-2, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and they had to do it without their starting quarterback.

The Giants didn't score a single touchdown. They didn't have to. Leonard Marshall evened the playing field a little by sacking Joe Montana, and knocking him out of the game. On the last play, Matt Bahr kicked his 5th field goal of the day, from 42 yards out, and the Giants beat the Niners, 15-13. They were headed for the Super Bowl.

The Buffalo Bills were an unlucky franchise. They were an original AFL team in 1960. They had won the AFL Championship in 1964 and 1965, the last 2 times the AFL Champion did not get to play the NFL Champion in a Super Bowl. In 1966, the 1st season for which that would be possible, they lost the AFL Championship Game to the Kansas City Chiefs.

They got old. They got the Number 1 draft pick in 1969. It was O.J. Simpson. Putting aside what O.J. has done since 1994, he was one of the best running backs in NFL history. But the Bills only made the Playoffs once while he was there, and lost their only Playoff game. They won the AFC Eastern Division Championship in 1980, but lost in the Divisional round.

By 1988, head coach Marv Levy and general manager Bill Polian had built a team capable of winning the AFC East again. In 1990, they went 13-3, including a win over the Giants. They won a 44-34 shootout against the Miami Dolphins to advance to the AFC Championship Game, and in that game, they throttled the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3. It remains the most points scored in a Conference Championship Game since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

The Bills were favored by 7 points as Whitney Houston sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," in the midst of the Persian Gulf War, a hyper-patriotic moment for the country.

The Giants forced the Bills to punt on their 1st drive, and then took 6 minutes and 15 seconds off the clock, but only got a field goal out of it. The Bills came back with a field goal of their own. On their next drive, quarterback Jim Kelly threw some quick strikes to take the Bills down, and Don Smith scored on a 1-yard run. The Bills were up 10-3.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Bruce Smith, who would go on to become the NFL's all-time sacks leader, sacked Hostetler in the end zone, to make it 12-3 Buffalo. But there was something that happened on that play that hardly got noticed, but would loom large. Hostetler was holding on with only his throwing hand. He managed to avoid fumbling. Had he fumbled, it probably would have been recovered by the Bills for a touchdown, making it 17-3.

The Giants launched another long drive, and just before the half, Hostetler threw a 14-yard pass to Stephen Baker, and the teams went into the locker rooms with the score Bills 12, Giants 10.

The Giants went to the ball-control strategy again to start the 2nd half, going 75 yards in 14 plays, taking 9 minutes and 29 seconds, a Super Bowl record at the time. On the 14th play, Ottis Anderson scored from 1 yard out. The Giants had the lead, 17-12, and that lead held through the end of the 3rd quarter.

In contrast, the Bills went for the quick strike again, going 63 yards in 4 plays, the last of them a 31-yard touchdown run by Thurman Thomas. It was 19-17 Buffalo. The Giants were not fazed: Many of them had been there 4 years before. They went 74 yards in 14 plays, in 7 minutes and 32 seconds. The Bills stopped the Giants 3 yards short of the end zone, but Bahr was able to kick a field goal, and it was 20-19 Giants.

Following a trade of punts, the Bills got the ball back on their own 10-yard line with 2:16 play. They had 1 time-out, plus the 2-minute warning. They only needed a field goal, but they would need at least 60 yards to get it.

The key would be to get enough time to do it. That would mean Kelly throwing to receivers such as James Lofton, Andre Reed, Don Beebe and Steve Tasker, and tight ends Pete Metzelaars and Keith McKeller, and then having them run out of bounds to stop the clock.

But that's not what happened. Instead, on the 1st play, Kelly ran up the middle for 8 yards. The clock only stopped for the 2-minute warning. On the 2nd play, Kelly ran up the middle, and got only 1 yard, and the clock did not stop. On the 3rd play, Kelly handed off to Thomas, who ran up the middle for 22 yards and a 1st down. The clock only stopped long enough to move the chains.

On the 4th play, Kelly threw to Reed -- over the middle. It only gained 4 yards, and did not stop the clock. On the 5th play, Kelly ran up the middle again, for 9 yards, and a 1st down. Now, the Bills were in Giant territory. But the clock only stopped long enough to move the chains. And now, the Bills took their last time out. There were 48 seconds left. They were on the Giant 46. They needed at least 15 more yards for a good shot at a field goal.

On the 6th play, Kelly threw to McKeller, who just barely caught it before it hit the ground. It gained only 6 yards. With 29 seconds left, the officials called time-out to review the play, to make sure they got the call of a completed pass right. The replay showed that they did.

On the 7th play, Kelly handed off to Thomas, to gain 11 yards and a 1st down. On the 8th play, Kelly ran up to the line of scrimmage, and spiked the ball to stop the clock. There were 8 seconds left, setting up a game-winning field goal attempt.

The kicker was Scott Norwood, a 31-year-old native of the Virginia suburbs of Washington. He had played in the USFL before joining the Bills, and was used to kicking on the artificial turf at what was then named Ralph Wilson Stadium. He had led the NFL in scoring in 1988. But he had difficulties kicking from beyond 40 yards, and this kick was going to be at Tampa Stadium, on real grass. On real grass, from 40 or more yards, he had made 5 attempts in his career, making only 1.

Adam Lingner snapped the ball for the Bills. Backup quarterback Frank Reich was the holder. Norwood got the ball up. It was long enough... but it went wide right. One Bills kickoff and one fall on the ball by Hostetler later, and the Giants were World Champions again.

Many people blamed Norwood for the Bills' loss. No: Blame Kelly. If he hadn't kept going up the middle, he could have gained his team an additional 10 seconds, and maybe an additional 10 yards.

I used to argue this point with my brother-in-law, a tremendous fan of the Giants. And the Yankees. And the Rangers -- nobody's perfect. He insisted that Kelly couldn't throw to the sideline, because the Giants had it covered too well, with cornerbacks Everson Walls (who finally got his Super Bowl ring, 9 years after being burned as a Dallas Cowboy by Dwight Clark of the 49ers) and Mark Collins, and safeties Dave Duerson (the former Super Bowl winner for the Chicago Bears) and Greg Jackson. I reminded him that Kelly, Lofton and Reed were Hall-of-Famers, and were better than the men covering him. He and my sister are no longer together. This argument, which he still thinks he won, is not the reason why.

This performance, with a Super Bowl record 40 minutes and 33 seconds' possession, remains Bill Parcells' masterpiece. He never won another Super Bowl, although he got the New England Patriots to one and the New York Jets to within a game of one. The Giants wouldn't reach another Super Bowl for 10 years, or win another for 17 years.

The Bills got right back to the Super Bowl, and ended up making 4 straight -- and losing all 4. They have never been to another. They fell victim to "The Music City Miracle" in 2000, and then took 17 years to get back to the Playoffs. Since then, they've shown they can get to the Playoffs, but not to the Super Bowl.

"The Curse of Scott Norwood"? No: If there's a curse on the Bills, it struck long before this, maybe as far back as 1966.

Halfway through their Super Bowl run, the Bills cut Norwood, and signed Steve Christie, whose signature kick sealed the Bills' 1993 Playoff win over the Houston Oilers. Norwood became a real estate agent.

Kelly didn't get the Bills close enough. Marv Levy got outcoached by Bill Parcells. The Giants played a great game. And, even in good weather like this, even for a seasoned professional, making a 47-yard field goal on natural grass is not easy.

Still, fairly or not, this has gone down in history as "The Scott Norwood Game."

In 2019, a poll ranked this game 10th on a list of the 100 Greatest Games of the NFL's 1st 100 years.

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January 27, 1991 was a Sunday. Obviously, there were no other football games played. And baseball was out of season. As is traditional, the NBA and the NHL scheduled as few games as possible, knowing that they'd get clobbered in the TV ratings, even against the long pregame programming for the Super Bowl.

The NBA scheduled only 1 game, maybe its best rivalry, in an attempt to peel viewers off ABC and onto NBC for their broadcast: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 104-87 at the Boston Garden. Earvin "Magic" Johnson scored 22 points for the Lakers. Brian Shaw, substituting for the injured Larry Bird, led the Celtics with 20.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders were the only team from the New York Tri-State Area in action, and they lost to the Washington Capitals, 5-4 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And, in an All-Canadian matchup -- an attempt by CBC to lure CTV viewers off the Super Bowl, maybe? -- the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

And in English soccer, old foes Arsenal and Leeds United faced each other in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Three days later, a replay was held in Yorkshire, and it ended 1-1 at Leeds' home stadium, Elland Road. On February 13, a 2nd replay was held at Highbury, and it ended 0-0. Finally, on February 16, Arsenal won, 2-1 at Leeds. Arsenal would lose to neighboring rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Semifinal, but won the Football League title.