The Tampa Bay Buccaneers share a common birth year with the USA. The one thing of difference to note however is that the dates are 200 years apart. Aside from that, the Bucs as a brand new NFL expansion team in 1976 had quite a few start-up agonies, just as the brand new United States of America did back in 1776.

The Tampa Bay, Florida area was awarded the 27th franchise by the NFL in 1974 and in 1976 the Bucs began their career with very few advantages. At least not as many advantages as are given to new expansion teams now. Now, however after 3 decades, they can claim their righteous place in the NFL history books. Their rocky start began with losing their first 26 games. This was despite the fact that their first quarterback was the ever-famous Steve Spurrier of "Heisman Trophy and University of Florida coaching" fame. Also lost in the history books is the fact that they actually won one of their first ever 1976 pre-season games when they beat the Atlanta Falcons.
The Bucs had a brief winning streak in the late 70's and early 80's and then had to suffer through an agonizing 14 consecutive losing streak. However, in 1996 led by head coach Tony Dungy, their luck started changing. The hard work of their defense led by the likes of Hardy Nickerson and Warren Sapp started to pay off. The team, even though with losses to their record, began to win more than lose.

In 2002, the Raiders owner Al Davis agreed to let the Bucs have Jon Gruden. This delighted Coach Gruden. He had spent part of his youth in Tampa in the 80's when his dad was a running back coach for the Bucs and he was only too happy to return to the Tampa Bay, Florida area.
2002 saw the Bucs, led by the league's top defense, win the NFC South title. And they did so with the team's best record ever, a 12-4 record. They then proceeded to capture the Super Bowl title that year by beating Coach Gruden's former team, the Oakland Raiders, with a score of 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.

2003 was a different story for the Bucs. They unfortunately finished the season 7-9 and did not even make the playoffs that year. 2004 wasn't any better. The legendary Warren Sapp was released and this was a shock to many Buccaneer fans. This is attributed by many to their losing record or 5-11 for the year.

2005 was a much better year for the embattled Tampa Bay Bucs. Even though their starting quarterback Brian Griese was injured, they still came out the NFC South Division champs with an 11-5 season. This winning stretch was abruptly ended however with a loss of 17-10 in a Wild Card game to the Redskins. The following 2006 season was very disappointing for the Buccaneers. Many of the starting lineup players were sidelined by injuries at one time or another during the entire season. This led to a dismal 4-12 2006 season for the Tampa team. However, this allowed the Florida team to spend some free agency money and boy did they. A few of the players they added to their roster were QB Jeff Garcia and linebacker Cato June.

The 32nd season for the Bucs was a winning one. In 2007 they won the NFC South title again and finished with a 9-7 record. This was the second division crown for Coach Gruden with the Tampa Bay football team within a three year span. Even though they finished the year with a loss in the Wild Card round of playoffs, it was to the eventual 2007 Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a very popular team with Florida fans and with good reason to be so. They are young compared to some other NFL teams but play with the spirit of the country with which they share a birthday. Even though they are 200 years apart in age.