"The Buccaneers had to find anyone and everyone they could find," historian Jason Vuic says. Vuic is talking about the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an NFL expansion team, as they prepared for their inaugural season. The Buccaneers had reason for some optimism, having selected the highly regarded defensive end Lee Roy Selmon with the No. 1 pick in that year’s draft. But how to fill out the rest the roster? The Beginning Of Buccaneers Football "They found one guy off the streets of Watts. He’d been out of football for three years. Guys who were cut by the Canadian League were on the Buccaneers’ roster. They found guys from the defunct World Football League," Vuic says. "I know for a fact that the Buccaneers actually tried out a Coca Cola delivery man at one point."

"You kinda hate to be linked with one of the worst football teams in history. But, at the same time, you know, if it didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be talking about anything." Dave Green

Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse had made a fortune as a tax lawyer. But, according to Vuic, much of his money was tied up in real estate, so he didn’t have a lot to spend on players. Or on refreshments. "He had a Coke machine in the locker room. So there were no free drinks," Vuic says. "You know, the great Lee Roy Selmon would say, 'Hey, you got a quarter?' in the middle of an interview, because he wanted a Coke." Culverhouse also refused to cover players’ phone calls when they were at hotels during away games. "There were two roommates on the road. Someone made a 75-cent phone call, and he billed each roommate 38 cents," Vuic says. "One time a player separated his shoulder, and he couldn’t get his arms up. So they cut his jersey off and billed him for the jersey." "The whole scene when we arrived in Tampa was not that good, for so many reasons," says Dewey Selmon, the brother of Leroy (the star defensive end who asked a reporter for a quarter). "I said, 'Lee Roy, are we sure we're supposed to be here?'" Dewey recalls. "There is this orange-colored little uniform, and I said, 'Well, I don’t know what to call it, but who is this swashbuckler on these helmets?' And he was — he was so cute looking!" The Bucs eventually did cobble together an NFL roster. And on Aug. 21, 1976, at Tampa's first preseason game at their home stadium, Hugh Culverhouse, wearing what looked like a very inexpensive plaid polyester suit, expressed optimism. "May I say that we're here for one reason and one reason only, and that's to bring the fans great professional football," he told the crowd. Veteran defensive end Pat Toomay, who’d won the Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, was picked up in the 1976 expansion draft. He said it felt like being “exiled to Siberia.” "Pat Toomay, very early on, saw the train wreck that was developing," Vuic says. "And he comes out of a film room one day with Larry Ball, a linebacker who had played on the perfect Miami Dolphins team. And Ball goes, 'What do you think?' And Toomay says, '0-14.'" The Bucs began their first season by racking up losses against Houston, San Diego, Buffalo and Baltimore while being outscored 99-26. The defense, behind the Selmon brothers, performed reasonably well, but the offense was inept. Bucs punter Dave Green was a busy man. And that brought him closer -- literally and figuratively — to the fans in the wheelchair section near the end zone at Tampa Stadium. "I was having one of those games. And of course, when I was punting, it was always 4th and 80 every time I went in," Green says. "I was always on that end line. We were just always so backed up. I heard one of the guys in the wheelchair yell out at me. He says, 'Green, if you shank this one, I’m jumping out of this chair and kicking your ass.' And I’m starting to go — but it kinda woke me up. I’m going, 'Here’s a guy in a wheelchair, and he’s got a better attitude than I got.'" Pat Toomay's Prediction Comes True The Bucs dropped their next four games to Cincinnati, the previously winless Seattle Seahawks, Miami and Kansas City. The losing began to wear on Dave Green and Dewey Selmon. "After you lose eight straight games, well, at that point you’re hurting inside pretty bad," Dewey says. "Coaches, players, the fans. But then you kinda grow up. You say, 'Well, we can’t beat ourselves up after every loss, 'cause we’re going to lose a few more.' You start reading between the lines. You say, 'We’re not very good.'" "You didn’t like losing. You hated it," Green says. "I remember one morning, getting up Monday morning, and it was a bad game. I wanted to get up that morning and run through the neighborhood and pick up all the newspapers. I knew the press was gonna be all over us."

"The '76 season, Lee Roy and I did not go into restaurants and sit down to eat. We always went through the drive-through. He said, 'Last time I’m going in and taking all them questions. Let’s get our drive-through and head home." Dewey Selmon