Buccaneers’ Fans: The Greatest Eternal Optimists Of All Time (G.E.O.A.T.)

Historically bad, Record setting excellence

There may not be another NFL franchise with a more love-hate relationship with its fans. While it’s true that a few others can stake a claim to that relationship, they cannot take ownership of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows — hence the “love-hate” moniker. It’s perfect. Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Houston have never even been to a Super Bowl. Atlanta has been to two, Cincinnati to three, and Buffalo and Minnesota have been to four each and never won the big one. The Buccaneers are two for two, batting a thousand. Crushing the competition in the Biggest Championship in professional American Sports has become kind of how the Bucs do things when they get there. Beating the Raiders on our first Super Sunday for me will always be the biggest of the two Lombardi Trophies because it was our first. Nothing beats your first, especially after such a mostly dismal history up until that point. The Brady Super Bowl was the most impressive because the opponent wasn’t a “flash in the pan” but an established juggernaut with a recent Super Bowl win of their own. It didn’t matter; ‘blew their doors off and never looked back to see them twitch.

Blind Faith, No matter what

It really has never mattered the situation, the win/loss record, or how strong the opponent was; most Buccaneer fans believe their team will win on any given Sunday. Most football fans believe that — you might say. I would have to agree, but not to the extent of the way that Bucs’ fans do. Take this year, for example, the Buccaneers of 2022 were very close to horrible. They never gave their fan base any reason to have faith or even hope. The closest to it would have been the second Carolina game a few weeks ago when they appeared to have rediscovered Biscuit Ball. Maybe they had finally found their groove again. That silly notion was shot down in flames the following week against Atlanta — a team far inferior to the Bucs. You cannot expect your team to have played like garbage most of the season and then become the Super Bowl Shuffling ’86 Chicago Bears; once in the playoffs. They were who they showed us they were, and unfortunately, nothing more — not even with big, mean, and nasty Ryan Jensen back at center. The team was healthier as a whole than they had been all season. The Defense never showed up in the Dallas game. Carlton Davis had another lousy game. In my opinion, he’s the most overrated Buccaneer on the team. Top-of-the-line cornerbacks have consistency in their game. Case in point: Donovan Smith only allowed one sack all last season, yet, I wouldn’t rank him in the top 3 tiers of players at his position, especially after this waste of good talent year. The Defense was supposed to — at the very least, slow Dallas down — come up with a turnover or two. They were not even a slight discomfort to the Dallas Offense. Dak and company had their way, and they imposed their will with ease. This was a total team loss. This next season is going to be one of many changes for the Buccaneers. The feeling here is that it may be an uphill battle to achieve what this season’s team was able to do, a game below five hundred. Yet when the pre-season is here, most of us will have high expectations with little to support that view. We are Buccaneers.

It’s all Tom Brady’s fault, recently, anyway

In very recent history, It’s all Tom Brady’s fault! He is responsible for making us believe in the face of unrealistic expectations. Brady is magic, and surely he would work some of it in his favorite place, the playoffs — even though I had shot down the idea of a playoff win many weeks ago. That inner Buccaneer actually had me thinking we could win the Dallas game. My common sense side: the practical, level-headed side, knew the Bucs had no chance. But, while that eternal optimism is screaming in my mind, it drowns out all the good sense that God and Momma gave me. A quote from John McKay, way back when, fits this Offense in the Dallas game perfectly. McKay was asked in a post-game loss press conference what he thought about the execution of the Offense, and McKay jokingly replied that he was all for it. Got to love him!!! Go Bucs!!