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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 1974 were presented as the National Football League's 27th franchise. To spearhead this team, John McKay was hired as the first head coach followed by his achievements and great success at the University of Southern California. By the 1976 season the Buccaneers were scheduled to begin their first season in the NFL. They lost a record 26 consecutive games which came to an end when they beat New Orleans on December 11, 1977. The team soon pulled it together and won the NFC division championships of 1979. In 2002 Tampa Bay acquired Jon Gruden as the new head coach. He led the Buccaneers to a 48-21 victory over Oakland winning Super Bowl XXXVII a first in their franchise history in San Diego on January 26, 2003.
Since the memorable '03 season the Buccaneers have not shown much success. For the past six years they have advanced to the playoffs just twice in 2005 and 2007. In both of those playoff appearances they couldn't make it past the first round. Because of the teams sub-par performance year after year head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen were both let go. They were replaced by Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik.
In February of 2009 the Bucs released veterans Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Joey Galloway, Ike Hilliard, Jeff Garcia, and Cato June. They later signed TE Kellen Winslow Jr., RB Derrick Ward, QB Byron Leftwich, and drafted Kansas State QB Josh Freeman 17th overall in the NFL Draft. After all of these moves it is hard to judge what to expect from this completely revamped Buccaneers team.
