You may have heard by now that the 2025 season will be the Bucs’ 50th as an NFL franchise, and there are plans – some announced and some still to be announced – to celebrate and make it a special campaign for the organization and its fans.

I can’t pretend that I was there in 1976 when the team played its inaugural season. I can’t even pretend I was there when the franchise transitioned from the orange and white to the red and pewter. But from the moment I was born in 1998, I grew up in Tampa as a Buccaneer fan.

So, I’ve watched a lot of Bucs football and seen some good – but mostly bad – teams. I’ve also been around just long enough to see some traditions come and go, and I certainly have been around enough to build a strong appreciation for this franchise and its history.

I say all of that to preface the idea behind this column. The point is not to do the jobs of the great marketing and gameday experience teams that the organization employs, and it’s not based on any intel gathered about plans the team might have for its 50th season.

Rather, these are some ideas (many of them being abstract and quite random) that have come to mind as I’ve sat and reflected in recent days, weeks and months about what I – and hopefully the Pewter People and Buccaneer fans reading this – would like to see as the Bucs play their 50th season as a franchise. And perhaps some of these may already be in the team’s plans over the coming months. Only time will tell.

Let me know what you think in the comments down below, and give some of your own ideas if you feel so inclined.

Outfit Raymond James Stadium In A Way That Honors Past And Present

This is perhaps the most obvious and most likely idea for the Bucs to put into action as they celebrate 50 seasons, but my pitch is for the team to go all in with it.

I’m talking about putting the exteriors of the north and south end zone video boards to good use so that anyone driving north and south on Dale Mabry and Himes can (safely) look up and get a smile of nostalgia in seeing some combination of the old Bucco Bruce logo, the 1990s-2010s-era logo and the 2014-present logo all side by side. Even if it’s not something like that, adorning those boards with the 50th season logo would be fitting, of course.

Bucs 50th season logos Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I’d love to see the stadium wrap and tunnel covers inside Raymond James Stadium have some 50th season flair and theming to them, too. Maybe even alternate the flags on top of the 300 level between current logo, throwback logo and 50th season logo as well.

Perhaps the most outside-the-box idea that I’d love to see put into motion involves the player murals on each corner of the stadium. One of the aspects of the summer that I tend to geek out about is seeing which players are featured on the north and south corners of both Dale Mabry Boulevard and Himes Avenue. Well, this year, why not go with both past and present players?

Let’s see a past and present player on each corner. Doing so with quarterbacks may be tough because it’s probably too soon and perhaps too confusing to feature both Baker Mayfield and, say, Tom Brady in the modern-day uniforms on the same corner. But maybe they go with Mayfield for present day and represent the past with Doug Williams in the creamsicle throwbacks?

Maybe we see Antoine Winfield Jr. and Ronde Barber together on one corner. Perhaps Lavonte David and Derrick Brooks on another, with Warren Sapp and either Vita Vea or Calijah Kancey on another. The original Buccaneer Lee Roy Selmon and 2025 Ring of Honor inductee Simeon Rice could be featured, too.

It could get tricky because of how many iconic players there are who deserve featuring, so maybe there are more than two players per mural.

Another idea would be to represent iconic moments in franchise history on each corner. Brady raising the Lombardi Trophy on one, Jon Gruden and Malcolm Glazer hoisting the trophy on another, Ronde Barber’s pick-six to shut down the Vet on a third and maybe even Michael Spurlock’s kickoff return on the other.

Some how, some way, the corners of Ray Jay should be different than your average season. It’s only right.

Bucs Need To Bring Back “Crazy Train” At Kickoff

I don’t know where it went. I don’t even know when it left us.

But Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Crazy Train” needs to come back at the start of Bucs home games at kickoff.

Seriously, I don’t know how many times I leaned over to Scott Reynolds in the press box last year (and maybe even the year before) to tell him I wish they still played that song at kickoff the way they did throughout my childhood. I even asked last month if we could come up with a campaign to bring it back, and that’s legitimately where the idea for this column came from.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

I can’t even tell you why I want that song back at kickoff so badly, really. I think it’s just nostalgia? There are arguably better songs they could go with to get the crowd going just ahead of kickoff, but it’s the 50th season and “Crazy Train” is a song that I associate with this team from games on TV or games I would attend as a kid.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t even remember what song currently plays at the start of games. I think that’s part of the problem. Shouldn’t it be something memorable? Maybe it should be something consistent, modern and memorable going forward.

But for the 50th season, bring back Ozzy.

Add A Second Bucs Ring Of Honor Inductee For 2025

Full disclosure: The idea for this column came before the Bucs announced when the 2025 creamsicle game would be. Originally, as I wrote earlier this summer, I was going to once again make the pitch for Hardy Nickerson to be announced as another Ring of Honor inductee during a creamsicle game against John Lynch’s 49ers in October. But the creamsicle game has been announced for the Bucs’ Thursday Night Football game against the Falcons in December.

The team is inducting Simeon Rice into the Ring of Honor at halftime of its November game against the Cardinals, which is long overdue and well earned. But I can’t get the idea of two Ring of Honor inductions for the 50th season out of my head, so I’m pivoting here.

Longtime radio broadcaster Gene Deckerhoff deserves his moment.

Gene Deckerhoff – Photo courtesy of the Buccaneers

Maybe the Bucs go ahead and do it at halftime of the creamsicle game on Thursday Night Football. They can really do it whenever, but this season would be a great time to honor Deckerhoff, who is returning in 2025 for his 37th season as the voice of the Buccaneers.

Deckerhoff, Dave Mishkin of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the late great Dave Wills (along with Andy Freed and TV man Dewayne Staats) of the Tampa Bay Rays were the voices of my childhood. It was moving to watch the Rays posthumously induct Wills into their Hall of Fame last year, and there’s no doubt that Mishkin deserves to be a Lightning Hall of Famer sooner or later.

But now is the time to dedicate a Ring of Honor ceremony to Deckerhoff, the man who has introduced each of the Ring of Honor inductees for their own speeches over the years. It goes without saying that in addition to serving as the emcee of those ceremonies over the years, the 80-year-old Deckerhoff has called the majority of the most iconic moments in Bucs history, including both of the team’s Super Bowls.

For a long time, he served as both the voice of the Florida State Seminoles and the Bucs. But these days, he’s cut down on that travel and remains the voice of Bucs Radio. It’s fitting that he’s back for the franchise’s 50th season. But it’d be even more fitting to see him watch on as his name is uncovered inside the stadium.

What do you think, Pewter People and Bucs fans? What other ideas do you have for the franchise’s 50th season, short of the team just going out and winning a third Lombardi Trophy as the ultimate celebration?