Note: Fans familiar with history of Bucs losing up until Dungy’s arrival can skip to “Changing the Bucs ……longer than we thought”.
Bucs fans today are upset with their favorite team, frustrated at the lack of winning for years now. The late 1990’s and early 2000’s set the bar in the Tampa Bay area, the Bucs played in a Stadium that was not only sold out each game, but had thousands of people in line to get tickets. Each year the team knew it would win, and we knew they would win too. Playoffs were assumed.
Things were not always that way, in fact, they were worse than they are now. Tampa Bay became a team in 1976 and lost their first 26 games before finally winning the last two games of 1977. 1978 saw rookie QB Doug Williams keep the Bucs at .500 until being knocked out for pretty much the whole year and the Bucs went from 4-5 to 5-11. Then in 1979, the Bucs shocked the world and went to the NFC Championship game, and had winning playoff football seasons from 1979 to 1982. Thats when Doug Williams was allowed to leave over $100,000 discrepancy in contract talk, and the Bucs were never the same. The team traded their NO.1 picks twice for QBs that never panned out, spiraling and snowballing losing seasons with a defense that got old, starting 14 years of losing football.
How bad was it?
Today’s Bucs are fast approaching the dark days of Orange in franchises history, and unless the team can turn it around within the next few years, we could be looking at worse time in Bucs history. So what can be done? Lessons can be learned from history…lets go back to the dark days, lets go back in time and learn how Tony Dungy saved the Bucs.
DARK DAYS
The year was 1995, and a glimmer of hope had shined through, for just
a moment. The Bucs had upset the mighty Green Bay Packers on the National Spotlight, a Sunday Night home game, and with the win the Bucs picked up their 7th win of the year, guaranteeing the first non double digit losing season in 12 years. We didn’t know it then, but the surest sign it was hollow was the fact Bucs players made such a fuss over ending double digit losing.
You can hear a good coach now saying “we didn’t come here to win 7 games. The Bucs lost their next game, and finally, their last of the 1995 season. Sam Wyche, the head coach, the latest in a line of ‘experienced proven winners’ picked to turn around the Bucs, had failed in his attempt to change the attitude in the locker room.
Tampa Bay fans could wake up Sunday morning and decide if they wanted to go to the game that day. Tickets could be had at the ticket window on game day, or for even less from scalpers. The stadium was usually 40-50% empty except for two games, The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers games, whose fans would fill the stadium as if they were the home team. A win was so rare, that when the Bucs would win, fans would howl and scream exiting the stadium causing an erie echoing effect that would feed by the screams of fans so thrilled to be part of a rare win.
Hopes of preseason wins would usually still go well until October, when team would fall apart and lose 4, 5, 6 games in a row. In 1983 the Bucs gave up 49 first half points to the Packers. In ’85 Bucs lost 62 to 28 to the Jets. ’87 saw the Bucs give up a 28 point 4th quarter lead to the St. Louis Cardinals and lose on a Bucs FG that hit the crossbar.
Coaches with winning experience were hired, but the result was always the same; losing. Leeman Bennet was the winningest coach in Atlanta Falcons history, but won only 4 games with the Bucs in TWO YEARS! Ray Perkins turned around the NY Giants, yet in Tampa Bay he was known as a coach who beat up his Bucs so bad in camp and preseason that by September they were in midseason form. Its no wonder the Bucs blew out the Falcons 48-10 on opening day 1987, but only won 4 more games the rest of the year. Perkins was the only Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach to be fired after a win in 1990, but rather than look for a good coach, the Bucs hired a ‘players coach’ in Richard Williamson who was popular with players, but won 3 games in his first and only season.
HOPE and CHANGE ARRIVES
Tony Dungy was the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.
His defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin would tell their players when they would take on the Bucs to hurry up and get up on Tampa Bay. “Never let them in the game, if you get on top of them early they will feel like HERE WE GO AGAIN” and so the Bucs did.
Dungy was the DC at Minnesota for far too long, back then the NFL was just coming around to hiring minorities in head coaching positions. Dungy was one of only a handful of african amricans who became head coach in the NFL..in time he would see to it a whole tree of players under his wing make that jump.
The Bucs new owners, the Glazers, hired Tony Dungy as their first 
head coach of the Bucs, they were impressed with the message he preached to them. The Bucs had talent, several players on the Bucs Dungy had wanted himself for his Vikings team. Warren Sapp was just the defensive tackle for his tweaked defensive scheme he wanted to try, and Derrick Brooks was the perfect linebacker to roam sideline to sideline.
The problem with the Bucs was the lockeroom itself. Players would fight the good fight in a game, until something bad happened, then they folded. The Bucs knew how to make excuses, they had a lot of practice.
Dungy went out and hired a staff of good teachers: he didn’t care if 
they were yellers, or calm, as long as they could teach players, and would gain their respect. A long list of future head coaches started here: Rod Marinelli defensive line coach, Lovie Smith linebackers coach, Herm Edwards defensive Backs coach. He knew the players needed more than just pats on the back, but needed to change the atmosphere in the lockeroom.
The process began a few years before, when a real leader, Hardy Nickerson, was brought in as a free agent in 2003. Nickerson found Bucs players who loafed on the field and at practice. His fight with Keith McCants is legendary, in the end McCants was gone, and Hardy was the perfect leader on the field to help groom Sapp and Brooks and the others.
CHANGING THE BUCS TOOK “Longer than we thought”!
When Tony first arrived, he talked to players to find out what they needed to be fixed. It was there he realized how bad the teams defeatist, second class, excuse laden attitude developed. It was at that time he developed his most important mantra:
NO EXCUSES, NO EXPLANATIONS.
He made a list for his players of all the excuses the team could use to explain any losing if they did lose.
- New Coaching Staff
- Had to learn new offense and defense
- Sub-par facilities (Old One Buc was small, outdated, and of low quality)
- Young QB (Trent Dilfer)
- Never get benefit of the doubt from Officials
- Distractions over new stadium, team may move (at this time stadium issue had not been decided)
- We never win in the Cold
Dungy was instrumental in giving the players a bone, allowing them to see that somethings would be different. The team was very frugal under former owner Hugh Culverhouse. Individual towels were assigned in the showers with names on them! Team stayed at low end hotels. Dungy had team make reservations with Marriots and Ritz-Carltons. Stypends were given to players on the road for meals and such, towels were freely available, or else the team would go back to the old way. They never had to. Dungy preached if we treat you like grown men, you will act like it.
Dungy insisted on players knowing what was expected of them;
- Be a Pro
- Act like a champion
- Respond to adversity, dont react
- Be on Time- if your late then its not important to you.
- Execute- Do WHAT your supposed to do, WHEN your supposed to do it. Not almost, all the way. Not most of the time.
- Take Ownership, whatever it takes.
- No Excuses, No explanations
It wouldn’t take long for Dungy to have to drill this message home to his team. During first training camp, Bucs had a scheduled scrimmage with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tony wanted to change things up and BUS the team to Jacksonville! Not only that, but he wanted to wake the team up at 4AM and BUS TO JACKSONVILLE RIGHT BEFORE THE SCRIMMAGE!!! The team did not react well. The men were groggy, and were destroyed by the Jaguars in the first practice. The Bucs were beaten both physically and mentally. The Bucs improved a bit in the afternoon, and Dungy let them know he noticed the improvement, but the team could have done better.
Bucs players were shocked, they thought they did well CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES. That was Dungy’s point to the team, you can’t consider circumstance. If things get unusually tough, you have to make due, you have to overcome the obstacles, not make excuses, this was why Tampa Bay was a losing football team for so many years. For the next few years when adversity happened on the field, a veteran player would sometimes yell out “come on guys, time for a 5 O’clock bus ride!!”
BEGINNING DISAPPOINTMENT
Week 1, 1996, Green Bay Packers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bucs players felt like they were much better than any Bucs team in recent history, full of confidence. Dungy’s message to the Bucs after the preseason:
“It may take some time to get things turned around. Coaches can’t tell you everything, if they could we would need 53 coaches. It has to come from you. We WILL GET IT…eventually. Probably not this year, but were going to get all the details covered”. Bucs coaches thought for sure the efforts would be noticed immediately on the field opening day.
It was 24-3 Green Bay at halftime, enrout to a 34-3 loss.
The Bucs lost week 2 at Detroit, then week 3 at Denver, in a game they could have won except for a mistake here and a mistake there. At 0-3 Dungy made sure everyone understood….there won’t be wholesale changes. We will keep doing what we do because its good and its right.
Week 4 Bucs were home to face the Seattle Seahawks and maybe 25,000 people were there. Bucs fans had become so apathetic towards the team, they were just used to the losing. Some probably felt Dungy was just another in the line of coaching; of course there was no social media then at the time, or who knows what would have been said. Maybe similar to whats going on now that Lovie Smith is having the same rough start?
Bucs lost that game 17-13 and squandered a nice 4th quarter lead, something unthinkable for a Tony Dungy coached team. Dungy heard catcalls walking off the field, he played that video to the team and told them to have faith…that there will be a time when that stadium will be packed and they won’t be able to get a ticket to the game. The next week the Detroit Lions came to town and shut out the Bucs 27-0. It was the last time the Bucs would lose that like as the old Bucs.
At 0-5 the Glazers took Tony to lunch, to which he was sure they were going to mention how the team wasn’t this bad the year before. Instead the message to Dungy was…we know its going to take time to turn around, and that Mr. Glazer had his back. It was a great feeling to come out of the bye week with your owners support, and facing his old team the Vikings who were 5-1, and led 7-0 at halftime. But the Bucs came out in the 2nd half and dominated. Sapp and Chidi Ahanotu were all over Warren Moon for the 24-13 first win for Tony!
Tampa got on a roll, but not the kind you want, it was another losing streak. But this time it was different;the Bucs did not lose by more than a Touchdown, and they held each team to 13 points or less! One of those losses was a 13-7 loss to Green Bay, on the road. Dungy preached to his team how they had closed the gap in one season! Keep doing what you do..no excuses, no explanations.
THE TURNING OF THE ORANGE TIDE
As most people know, Dungy is an even keeled mild mannered man who does not curse and has good values. But in 1996, he came the closest he’s ever come to losing his cool, and it came as the Bucs were 1-8 and hosting the Oakland Raiders. What happened was two Bucs players really disappointed him; the first was Errict Rhett- Bucs running back who recently ended his hold out that really crippled the Bucs rushing attack. Rhett had been 30 minutes late for an autograph session at a local car dealership. The other, Reagan Upshaw, completely missed a visit to a 4th grade class, and to make things worse, it was the SECOND TIME, because he missed the original meeting and this was the rescheduled one. Dungy had to read the letter written by the 4th grade class who were so disappointed in the no show by their Buc guest.
Dungy began the Wednesday team meeting with a message…that football was not on the menu for that day! That obviously your word isn’t isn’t as important to you if it doesn’t involve the game of football! “We’re not going to talk about the Raiders. You don’t seem to think that being accountable off the field is important. As far as I’m concerned we’re never going to win consistently until you all get rid of that attitude, and the quicker you figure that out, the better”!
Champions, Dungy stressed, know that it is ALL important.
Tampa Bay kept things close with the Raiders who were tied with the 
Bucs 17-17 but were driving for easy FG range at the Bucs 11 yard line, until placekicker Cole Ford missed the 28 yard FG. In Overtime, the Bucs kicker Michael Husted MADE his kick, and beat the Raiders.
Then one of the more amazing changes in the Bucs happened in San Diego. Last year during his Hall of Fame induction speeches and shows, Warren Sapp talked about how he watch the ESPN pre game show that mentioned how many times the Bucs had lost on the west coast and against the NFC. The numbers were sad, even worse were the feeble attempts to alleviate the problem. Some coaches kept Bucs players watches and hotel clocks on Tampa time. Some coaches the Bucs over to the west coast two days before the game, some the day before. It was Dungy who practiced to just ‘do what we do’.
It couldn’t have started any worse for the Bucs. The Chargers put up 14 quick points, on the road, vs AFC team, normal old Bucs would have folded. Instead, Bucs got into FG range and Husted gave them 3 points seconds before the end of the 1st Qtr. Then midway through the second Mike Alstott scored a TD to cut the lead to 14-10. Michael Husted kicked another FG at the buzzer to go into the half down by 1 point, quite the accomplishment.
Tampa Bay continued to put points on the board to win 25-17, both ending the AFC road losing streak, West Coast losing streak, and winning in spite of falling behind by 2 touchdowns. The Bucs and historians all agree, that at this point, the Bucs had made the turn around as a winning football team.
That was how Tony Dungy turned the Bucs from perennial losers to winners. The Bucs would get beat 24-0 on the road by Carolina, but that was after Tampa Bay won its 3rd game in a row, a 13-7 win over New Orleans. Then after the loss to the Panthers, the Bucs beat Washington in Tampa Stadium, lost to Minnesota, and in the 1996 season finale, Tampa Bay laid it on Chicago for a 34-19 win at home.
It was the first time in decades that Bucs fans could feel the electricity in the air. With the release of the new uniforms during the offseason, and knowing the Bucs were not going anywhere but staying in Tampa Bay in a new stadium names Raymond James, Bucs fever, Pewter Power was born.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?
History doesn’t always repeat itself exactly. Lovie Smith was a key 
element of that turn around, and he turned around the St.Louis Rams defense before turning the Chicago Bears into a perennial winner. The NFL is different today. We have more pressure on coaches with social media and call in shows on the radio. The days of 5 year building programs are long gone. Free Agency can bring players to a team faster and with more experience. But as all of that happens faster, it still takes time for a message to soak in.
It doesn’t matter how frustrated you are, or how many years of losing you have put up with, because its not as bad as it was 20 years ago. But these Bucs have both the coach and the ownership who are willing to do whatever it takes to build a winner.
Excerpts taken from Tony Dungy’s “Quiet Strength”
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