There’s only one Brady. If the Bears were inspired by any part of Sunday, it’s this: If the Bucs can be turned around by the sheer force of a quarterback, anyone can.
The most famous quote ever uttered about NFL ineptitude came out of the mouth of the Buccaneers’ first coach, John McKay. When asked about his team’s execution, he famously said: “I’m in favor of it.” It took his team almost two full years to win its first game. When the Bucs beat the Saints in 1977 to snap an 0-26 start, McKay was ready with another quip. “Three or four plane crashes,” he said, “and we’re in the playoffs.” The Buccaneers began their existence as the NFL’s laughingstock. They spent the next four decades living down to their reputation, save for a span from 1997-2002, when they went to the playoffs five times and won one Super Bowl. Their.393 all-time winning percentage is still the worst in the NFL. Entering this season, they hadn’t been to the playoffs since a wild-card loss in 2007. They’d hired five coaches since; the four fired before Bruce Arians — including Lovie Smith, who won a quarter of his games — combined to go 55-105. They whiffed on their No.1 overall pick, quarterback Jameis Winston. In 2018, the NFL suspended him for three games following allegations that he groped an Uber driver. The next year, he became the first NFL quarterback to throw 30 interceptions since 1998. His team went 7-9. The Buccaneers replaced Winston with Tom Brady, a free agent after 20 years with the Patriots. Sunday night, they celebrated a Super Bowl victory in their home stadium. “This was a very talented football team last year, but we didn’t really know how to win,” Arians said Monday morning. “When you bring a winner in and he’s running the ship, it makes a total difference in your locker room, every time we step out on the field.
