Bucs' luck is bound to turn around
Tom Zucco, The St.Petersburg Times, published 1988

Up in the stands, about 40,000 vaguely human forms rose in their seats and began to jump up and down, looking for all the world like the largest - and worst-dressed - aerobics class ever assembled. Really now one simply does not wear a sleeping bag to a football game. Especially when it clashes with your ski mask.

Then again, when the wind-chill factor is 25 degrees below zero and the sun has gone down and your watch and your fingers stopped working sometime around the second quarter, you're allowed to wrap yourself in whatever is handy. It was a terrible pass, that thing that Tony Eason heaved in Irving Fryar's direction. But Fryar saw it coming, which meant he had just enough time to apply the brakes, lean back and pluck the ball out of the air just before it hit the ground.

They had to carry Fryar off the field after the play. In sacrificing his body to make the catch, he had pulled a hamstring muscle and couldn't walk. And that's when the fans started bouncing and making like Richard Simmons. They knew what that catch had meant.

Two meaningless plays later, Jason Staurovsky kicked a 27-yard field goal and the New England Patriots, a team that was oh-for-franchise-history in overtime games, had beaten the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10-7 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Kevin House, when he played for Tampa Bay, used to say circus catches like the one Fryar made came under the heading Buc Luck, which is actually a variation of Murphy's Law.

According to the theory, the Bucs are hopelessly cursed. All the guys they let go seem to turn into stars. And all the guys they keep seem to turn into duds. If a Buc bought a lottery ticket in Florida next week, the numbers would turn out to be winners - in seven other states. A cynic would say that what happened late Sunday afternoon on the frozen field in Foxboro was another example of the House hypothesis. After all, didn't the Bucs have a field goal negated for the second week in a row? And didn't they commit seven of their eight penalties in the second half, when it hurt the most?

And wasn't that Ray Perkins, the only man in the tri-state area who decided not to wear a hat, who opted to give the Patriots the ball in overtime after the Bucs had won the coin toss? And what about Fryar's catch?

Yeah, all that stuff is true. And there just might be something to the Buc Luck theory. But maybe the time isn't too far off when those mistakes don't happen as often and don't make as much of a difference. After last week's 10-5 victory over Buffalo, a lot of inquiring minds wanted to know if the Bucs could play well two weeks in a row.

The answer is an unqualified yes. To be sure, penalties killed the Bucs on Sunday. No team plays mistake-free football, but few make as many errors at the worst possible moments as the Bucs. That remains a huge concern. But as for the coin-toss decision, that wasn't a bad call. The Tampa Bay defense had played extraordinarily well up to that point, and when the Buc offense eventually got the ball, they'd have a 25-mph wind at their backs.

And consider the alternative. If New England had kicked off, the Bucs probably would have run three plays, punted for the customary 30-35 yards, and the Patriots would've had the ball deep in Tampa Bay territory. And as for Fryar's catch, Bucs defender Ricky Reynolds would've had to have eyes in the back of his head to see the ball. No, he did the right thing. It's just that the Bucs didn't win. Again.

“You know,” defensive lineman Kevin Kellin said as pulled on his coat in the locker room, “I was off the team for 11 weeks, and when I came back, it was a totally different team. It's something I can see that maybe a lot of the guys here can't. It's like being around a little kid all the time. You don't realize he's growing up so fast until you run into somebody who hasn't seen him in a while. No, you can't candy-coat a loss. But the changes I've seen this team has made incredible strides in the right direction.”

Then he left for the trip home. Due south. Where sleeping bags are for sleeping.