As the Americans might say, the “losingest” team.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won two Super Bowls and today, they are considered to be a successful organisation.
Tom Brady, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Vita Vea, Rob Gronkowski and Ndamukong Suh are just a handful of the legends who have played for the Florida outfit.
So how can they have the worst winning percentage in NFL history?
Slow out of the blocks
Despite not being the most recent team to join the league, the Bucs still have a win percentage of 0.410, good for dead last in the league.
The Atlanta Falcons, who joined the NFL just 10 years before the Bucs, have almost 100 more wins than Tampa.
The Bucs were an expansion franchise, landing in the Sunshine State in their inaugural season of 1976. And while new teams often struggle, the Bucs took it to the next level.
In fact, it took them nearly two whole seasons before winning their first game. The Bucs starting 0-26 is a classic nugget of NFL history.
Tampa beat the New Orleans Saints 33-14 at the Superdome in 1977 for their first-ever win. No wonder the Saints coach was fired afterwards!
Just a week later, the Bucs got their second win against the Arizona Cardinals.
Playing catchup
This 2-26 start put the Bucs at a huge disadvantage. They have never been able to recover and, as we speak, still have over 150 more losses than wins.
Despite winning two Lombardis and being a fairly competent team nowadays, the years between their Super Bowl wins were also very poor.
One Redditor put it perfectly when commenting on a list of most losing NFL teams. They said: “The Rams and Bucs are totally outliers. They are absolutely terrible most of the time, emerging out of the shadows to win a Super Bowl apiece, and then fading back in to mediocrity.”
The Bucs have lost more than 200 games in the past 20 seasons. That puts them on par with some of the poorest teams in the league.
But better than being Dallas
However, it is interesting to note that the Dallas Cowboys have the best win percentage in the NFL.
However, they have not won a Super Bowl since 1996 and have been eternal playoff chokers over the last three decades.
In contrast, the Bucs have won two championships in that time.
I would rather have two Super Bowls in the past 30 years, including one just a few years ago, than nothing since 1996.
Right, Dallas?
