cover image The Yucks: Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History

The Yucks: Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History

Jason Vuic. Simon & Schuster, $26 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4767-7226-4

Vuic, who previously chronicled the ill-fated Yugo car (Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History) here details another disaster: the 1976 and 1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team that lost 26 consecutive games in its first two years of existence and became Johnny Carson’s go-to punch line. Reduced to trying out a delivery man for wide receiver, the pro football team’s terribleness was not surprising. But it mattered. An NFL franchise signified good news for a metropolitan area besieged with economic and environmental woes. When the Bucs finally won on Dec. 11, 1977—a defeat that cost New Orleans Saints coach Hank Stram his job—8,000 rowdy fans greeted the conquering heroes. There was a dark side to the nostalgic glow. Coach John McKay, who deemed the fans “idiots,” was acidic to the point of cruelty. Owner Hugh Culverhouse’s penury was so vast that he leased the team’s plane and ordered the walls in the Buccaneers’ headquarters painted white so the coaches didn’t have to use screens for film sessions. The material is a bit thin—only 40 pages are devoted to the team after its embarrassing nadir—but Vuic, who grew up a Buccaneers fan, atones by offering a brisk, warmhearted reminder of how professional sports can occasionally reach stunning unprofessional depths. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (Aug.)