FAB 4. Lessons Learned From Bucs – Chiefs Game In 1993

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.

As I enter my 25th year covering the Buccaneers, I opened my trip down memory lane by discussing my arrival in Tampa in 1995 and working for Buccaneer Magazine. But that’s not really where my journey started. It started back in 1993 when I attended my first Bucs game.

Because Kansas City just won the Super Bowl, it’s only fitting that I tell the tale of the Bucs vs. Chiefs game in the 1993 season opener.

I had subscribed to Buccaneer Magazine to keep tabs on two Kansas State players that I followed and reported on in college – cornerback Rogerick Green and linebacker Elijah Alexander – that had been drafted by Tampa Bay in 1992. I used to vacation in St. Petersburg every August the week before school started, but I had never been to a Bucs game.

Growing up in Kansas City I was a Chiefs fan, but everyone was a Chiefs fan, so I wanted to follow another team to be different. I latched on to the lovable losers in creamsicle orange and white from where I vacationed every year – the Buccaneers.

Former Chiefs QB Joe Montana – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

So when the Chiefs were set to open the 1993 season in Tampa Bay, I had to go.

Kansas City had just traded for aging legend Joe Montana and signed Pro Bowl running back Marcus Allen, but trying to get tickets for any Chiefs game in 1993 was going to be expensive as Arrowhead had just began to attract sell out crowds a few years earlier. But seeing the Chiefs play the Bucs in the 1993 season opener was easy as Tampa Stadium never sold out.

I was a junior at K-State back then and I worked part-time for USAir at the Manhattan Airport about 15 minutes away from campus. Working for USAir, I got to fly stand-by for free, so I planned a trip. My stepbrother Jeff Jones also worked for USAir, but at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. He loved football and loved travel, so he agreed to fly down and meet me in Tampa for that game.

But before I could go to my first Bucs game I had some work to do at K-State. I was doing a broadcast internship with KMAN, the local sports radio station, at the time, and I was the statistician and spotter for the Manhattan High School football team radio broadcast. So each Friday night I went to the Manhattan Indians game before my Saturday internship with the K-State Sports Information Department at the Wildcats football games.

After watching Manhattan beat Park Hill on Friday night, 27-10, I watched Bill Snyder’s Wildcats beat New Mexico State, 34-10, before heading straight to the airport and flying to Tampa Saturday night. I met Jeff at the Days Inn on Dale Mabry Highway just south of the stadium and we made the mistake of walking to the game. Hey, Uber wasn’t around back then, and we were two college kids on a budget.

As anyone that attended that game will tell you, Tampa Bay’s 1993 season opener might have been the hottest Bucs game ever. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and there was no breeze, which was unusual for Tampa. As a result, the temperature was around 100 for that 1:00 p.m. kickoff.

I made the mistake of wearing a tank top and forgot to wear sunscreen. My shoulders got absolutely roasted. There were easily 15,000 empty seats as local fans weren’t too geeked about Steve DeBerg returning to Tampa Bay to quarterback the Bucs again. All those empty aluminum bleacher seats did was reflect the sun’s glare and turn the Big Sombrero into the Big Frying Pan.

I went to the bathroom in the second quarter and kept pulling the handle down on the paper towel machine, creating one really long sheet. Then I soaked it with cold water in the sink and wrapped it around my sunburnt head like a turban.

Ahhhh. Instant relief.

Former Bucs RG Ian Beckles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

My stepbrother followed suit and then pointed out to me after halftime that about a dozen people sitting around us had done the exact same thing to combat the heat. In fact, the men’s room had run out of paper towels in the third quarter because of the cold turban trend I created.

As expected, the Chiefs dominated and won, 27-3. Old man Montana beat old man DeBerg. In fact, there was a caricature of Montana and DeBerg sitting near the fountain of youth on the sports section that day. I can’t remember if it was in the old Tampa Tribune or the St. Petersburg Times.

Montana led the Chiefs to 400 yards, and passed for 246 yards and three touchdowns. Allen ran for 79 yards and caught a TD pass, while DeBerg struggled before being pulled for Craig Erickson, who didn’t fare much better.

Linebacker Lonnie Marts had a sack and dominated for the Chiefs, prompting head coach Sam Wyche to sign him the following season. I learned a valuable lesson that day without even realizing it.

No, I already knew I should have worn sunscreen. That was a big mistake.

I realized that with the NFL being a copycat league, sometimes a player that plays well against a team can be coveted by that team the next year in free agency. That was the case with Marts, who obviously made a good impression to the Bucs’ brass.

Having said that, Saints quarterback Teddy Bridgewater beat the Bucs, 31-24, in New Orleans in 2019, completing 76.5 percent of his passes for 314 yards with four touchdowns and just one interception. With Bridgewater becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2020, did he turn the heads of Bruce Arians and Jason Licht with that performance?

Arians praised Bridgewater before and after the loss.

“I’ve always had a ton of respect for Teddy Bridgewater,” Arians said. “I have always liked Teddy. Teddy is a good, solid player and he should be a starter in the league.”

Saints QB Teddy Bridgewater and Bucs OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Getty Images

Could the Bucs be interested in Bridgewater the way Wyche was in Marts?

Keep in mind that while the Bucs went 5-11 in 1993, the 37-year old Montana made it to his final Pro Bowl and helped lead the Chiefs to an 11-5 record and two postseason wins against Pittsburgh and Houston before losing to Buffalo in the AFC Championship Game. Chiefs QB Dave Krieg threw nearly as many interceptions (12) as he did touchdowns (15) in 1992, and Kansas City wanted an upgrade, so it took the chance with the trade for Montana, who wound up in the Hall of Fame.

Will the Bucs try a similar approach and pursue an aging future Hall of Famer like Philip Rivers or Tom Brady in free agency as an upgrade at quarterback the way the Chiefs did in 1993?

Time will tell.

But the fun didn’t end there in Tampa for me. Jeff asked me if I wanted to fly up to D.C. with him to go to the Redskins’ season opener against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football the next day. Why the hell not?

So my football odyssey continued. We hopped a USAir flight on Sunday night and flew up to D.C. where I surprised my dad with an impromptu visit. Jeff secured some tickets and we watched the Redskins beat the Cowboys in a rockin’ RFK Stadium in which was my Monday Night Football game. Thank goodness the sun was nowhere to be seen for that game, and that it was remarkably cooler than what was one of the hottest Bucs games on record.

That weekend I might have been the only person in America that went to a high school football game on Friday, a college football game on Saturday and pro football games on both Sunday and Monday. What a fun football trip – and one that I look back on today and see a few lessons learned.

SR’s Bucs memories 1-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 2-of-25

SR’s Bucs memories 3-of-25