It only took 32 seasons, 498 regular-season games and 1,865 kickoff returns for us long-suffering Bucs fans to finally witness a real, live, kickoff return for a touchdown. Michael Spurlock did the magic, fielding a kick midway through the first quarter of yesterday's game against the Falcons, a returning it the length for the score. Announcers and producers everywhere are also overjoyed, since they now don't have to feel obligated to say before the start of every game something along the lines of "the Bucs have never returned a kickoff for a touchdown," which had turned from an interesting sidenote, into some sort of obligation.
In all my years as a Bucs fan, I've been around for a lot of fun, memorable moments. I remember the first punt return for a touchdown by Vernon Turner against the Lions--I was listening to it over the radio in Gainesville, since the game as per usual in those days wasn't shown on local TV. I remember the 10-6 record and that first playoff game in ages in 1997. There was the division championship (the first after all those years of futility) in 1999. There was the NFC Championship victory in Philly when the temperature was below 40. There was the Superbowl in 2002. I've seen a lot of records fall while being a Buc fan, and having this last, final notorious stat go down wraps up everything nicely.
Here's a fun little site put together by the St. Pete Times to commerate the feat. You can infer the magnitude of this just by all the hoopla surrounding it. Also from the site, here's some great statistics:
"Like those faceless workers who built the pyramids, or didn't build them, 139 other men had slaved on Bucs kickoff returns across those 32 seasons, running 37,395 yards, more than 21 miles, without paydirt. Isaac Hagins went first, on Sept 12, 1976. Sunday marked 11,418 days and six presidents since that had happened.
The Streak was a beautiful thing. The Bucs played 497 regular-season games, in 53 stadiums in 38 cities, without running a kick back. Next to 497, the longest other streak from the beginning of a franchise's history belongs to Seattle - at a puny 112 games. The Dolphins and Saints returned kickoffs for touchdowns on the first plays in their histories.
Since The Streak began, other NFL teams had combined for 298 kickoff return touchdowns, Chicago leading with 18, with Devin Hester having four of those in just 29 career regular-season games."
I didn't realize just how much I missed football until I watched the first score of the Gators' game today and cheered a bit when they punched it in. Then I really got psyched, because I realized my one true love, Buccaneers football, kicks off next week! That is, they should, barring a washout of New Orleans by Gustav...
