For some NFL organizations, it can be hard to pick the greatest team in franchise history. The Green Bay Packers had a dynastic sort of run in the early days of the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the “Steel Curtain” dominated during the 1970s.
Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers followed with their own legendary run in the Bay Area, and the Dallas Cowboys seemed to cinch the idea they were “America's Team” at the start of the 1990s. Then, of course, there are the New England Patriots, a team that has won six Super Bowls since the beginning of the millennium.
But while all these fanbases have ample teams to choose from, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers really have just one: the 2020 Super Bowl squad.
The Buccaneers entered the NFL in 1976 as the laughingstock of the league, going 0-14 in their very first season. They seemed to garner some momentum at the end of the decade and into the 1980s, reaching the playoffs three times between 1979 to 1982.
However, that would be the last playoff appearance for quite some time. The Buccaneers failed to make the postseason for the next 15 years. They became known as the franchise that traded away Steve Young and Vinny Testaverde.
But Tony Dungy's arrival in Tampa Bay revitalized the franchise. Dungy led the Bucs to four playoff appearances in six years, including a run to the NFC Championship Game in 1999.
Still, a new face was needed to put the Buccaneers over the top. After a pair of consecutive losses in the Wild Card round, the Bucs made one of the most famous trades of all time.
Gruden Comes To Town
Jon Gruden was one of the hottest coaching commodities in football in the 2000s.
Gruden led the Oakland Raiders to the AFC Championship Game in just his third season as a head coach, racking up 38 wins in four seasons for a franchise that had previously not made the playoffs since 1993.
But Al Davis and the Raiders pulled off a shocker in the 2001-02 offseason.
Oakland traded Gruden to the Buccaneers in exchange for a pair of first-round picks, two second-round picks and $8 million. It was quite the investment for both sides.
The Buccaneers were building Gruden up as the head coach who could finally lead them to the promised land, while the Raiders believed they were adding future draft capital to an already successful team.
Both teams were right, in a way.
Dominant Defense
Tampa Bay steamrolled to the best record in franchise history (12-4) in Gruden's first year.
The Buccaneers had a thoroughly dominant defense. Opponents averaged just over 12 points per game, which ranked tops in the NFL. In fact, the Buccaneers also held opponents to the least amount of yards and scored 10 defensive touchdowns.
From the front seven to the secondary, the Buccaneers possessed elite personnel. Warren Sapp was a run-stuffing tackle up the middle, while a young Simeon Rice terrorized opposing quarterbacks off the edge.
At the second level, Derrick Brooks cemented himself as one of the best linebackers in football. Brooks had a whopping five interceptions and three defensive touchdowns to go along with 11 pass deflections and 118 combined tackles. Middle linebacker Shelton Quarles also made the Pro Bowl.
Sapp, Rice, and Brooks were all named first-team All-Pro. But there was even more star power in the secondary, with Ronde Barber and Brian Kelly locking up receivers and John Lynch and Dexter Jackson providing help over the top.
The Buccaneers simply suffocated opposing offenses, making up for an offense that ranked just 18th in scoring and really relied on veteran quarterback Brad Johnson to be a game manager.
The Game
As fate would have it, Gruden and the Buccaneers would face the Raiders in the Super Bowl.
The contest pitted the second-highest scoring offense in the NFL against the best defense in football. In this case, as the old saying goes, defense wins championships.
Tampa Bay swarmed the Raiders, winning 48-21 in a romp, which featured three defensive touchdowns from the Bucs. Oakland scored just three points in the first half, as Gruden used his knowledge of Oakland's system to perfection.
This Super Bowl is one of the most famous “revenge games” in NFL history, and it was the perfect cherry on top for the best team in Buccaneers history.
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