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FAB 4. The Bucs’ First Game In Red And Pewter
The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. As I begin this milestone season, I’m going to spend the next 25 weeks telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.
Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski arrived in Tampa Bay just in time for something special. In 2020 the Buccaneers will don some ultra-cool new uniforms that closely resemble the old original red and pewter uniforms that the team worn from 1997-2013.
The Bucs scrapped the uniforms the team had worn from 2014 during Lovie Smith’s first season, which ended in humiliation with a 2-14 record, and decided to return to the glory days with the red and pewter ensemble that the team wore when it won four division championships (1999, 2002, 2005 and 2007) and the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship in 2002. The Glazers and Nike also added an awesome looking all-pewter alternative uniform that the Bucs will wear three times in 2020.
Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This reminds me of the first time the Bucs appeared in the new red and pewter look to start the 1997 season. Tampa Bay had won five of its last seven games at the end of Dungy’s first season in 1996 and had some real momentum heading into ’97. Wearing the new pewter helmets with the red flag featuring a skull and crossed swords, matching pewter pants and white jerseys, Dungy’s team looked like a band of menacing marauders – rather than a bunch creamsicles with the Errol Flynn-looking pirate on the white helmets from the previous three decades.
The Bucs started the 1997 season with a bang in a game that probably half a million Tampa Bay fans say they were there for – a 13-6 opening day win over the favored San Francisco 49ers. Only 62,554 fans were in attendance – nearly 12,000 fans shy of a sellout of Houlihan’s Stadium, which seated 74,301 – but they saw an amazing display of force by defensive tackle Warren Sapp and the Bucs’ ferocious defense.
It was Steve Marucci’s first game as head coach in San Francisco, and the 49ers were still quite formidable with future Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young and future Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. But on August 31, 1997, Sapp and the Co. were looking to make a statement and put the entire league on notice that the new-look Buccaneers were bad asses, and Young, Rice and the 49ers were the first victims.
Literally.
Sapp played like a man possessed that day, leading the Bucs with a career-high 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles. One of those sacks came in the first half when he dragged Young down from behind and middle linebacker Hardy Nickerson’s knee came crashing down on the side of Young’s helmet, forcing the former Bucs quarterback from the game.
Moments later, Sapp shot through the line of scrimmage like a 300-pound panther exhibiting catlike quickness and grabbed Rice’s facemask on an end around, dragging the 49ers star to the ground and tearing the receiver’s ACL in the process.
Sapp was a force majeure that day – an absolute juggernaut.
Tampa Bay’s stingy defense held the 49ers to just two first half field goals and 191 total yards of offense. Young and backup quarterback Jeff Brohm were sacked a total of seven times that day by the Buccaneers, who rallied from a 6-0 deficit at halftime to win 13-6. Tampa Bay would have put more points up on the board, but an ill-advised play-call to have rookie fullback Patrick Hape take a hand-off at the San Francisco 1-yard line resulted in a fumble and a turnover.
That win over the 49ers was no fluke. That was a good team – even without Young and Rice in the lineup for most of the game. Rice’s season was over after the Week 1 loss to Tampa Bay, but San Francisco went on to finish 13-3 before losing in the NFC Championship Game.
Former Bucs DT Warren Sapp and former 49ers QB Steve Young
I was in San Diego in 1996 for Tampa Bay’s 25-17 come-from-behind win against the Chargers in a game that many, myself included, really turned the franchise around. That was the game that they were no longer the Yuccs. They officially became the Bucs.
But that win over the 49ers on opening day in 1997, was the day the Buccaneers went mainstream and got league-wide respect. Sapp made the cover of Sports Illustrated that week and the Bucs went on to win their next four games to start the year 5-0 en route to a 10-6 season and a Wild Card playoff berth, which ended a 13-year postseason drought.
Perhaps Brady and the new-look Buccaneers can end the team’s current 12-year playoff drought wearing the throwback uniforms that first debuted on a glorious – and victorious – Sunday afternoon in 1997.
Stay tuned for another Bucs story from yesteryear in next week’s SR’s Fab 5. And if you missed my previous Bucs memories from the past 24 years of covering the team, click on the links below.
The Hook: Brate Discusses Brady, Winston, Gronk, Bucs' Run Game
Ranking The NFC South By Position: Safeties
