Neil O'Donoghue...

Yes, that was Neil O'Donoghue, in his first year, chasing after that bouncing ball in the classic NFL Films tape during that 1978 game at Minnesota. Ironically, that was a breakthrough game of sorts for the Bucs, who won on the road in that Week 3 matchup, 16-10, and went on to a respectable 5-11 mark, hinting at better things to come.

Now I can recall Dave Green going to Tampa Bay, as he was made expendable in Cincy when the Bengals drafted Chris Bahr out of Penn State. Also around that time, Pat McInally came in from Harvard to do double duty as a receiver and punter, though I will have to check the dates on him as well.

Green might not have been the last straight-away kicker, as Fred Cox lasted a bit longer in Minnesota, and of course Russell Erxleben hung around into the early '80s. Surely, though, Green was in the last handful of straight-away booters.

Mirro Roder kicked for the Bears in the early 70s before bouncing around, I had completely forgotten that he landed for a bit at Tampa Bay. Then again, those Bucs from '76 and '77 were easy to forget, they were never on TV. They were actually in the AFC West in 1976, but played a schedule against each of the other 13 AFC teams, plus Seattle.

The Seahawks and Bucs flip-flopped in 1977, Seattle to AFC West, Bucs to NFC West, and simply flip-flopped schedules, as the '77 Bucs played every NFC team once plus the Seahawks, while Seattle played every AFC team once plus the Bucs. In 1978, their division assignments became permanent, with Seattle in AFC West and Bucs in NFC Central, the latter ostensibly to bring a warm-weather site to the frigid black-and-blue division.

Twenty-five years later, things changed around again, and the Seahawks technically came back "home" to the NFC West, where they were in 1976.

Paul, were you at the Bucs-Eagles game in 1977, the 13-3 season opener, I believe? I remember being pleased that Vermeil had beaten John McKay again, just as Tommy Prothro had bested the McKay '76 Bucs with his Chargers, 23-0. I remember thinking that Prothro could have used a few of those points to turn around some especially bitter losses vs. McKay's SC when he was UCLA's coach (particularly the 21-20 teeth-gnasher in '67 and the gut-wrenching 14-12 heartbreaker in 1969).

For a couple of years, SC haters could take solace in McKay's early avalanche of defeats at Tampa Bay, though it became quite unbearable a few years later when the Bucs started to win, and many Trojans adopted Tampa Bay as their NFL team...