I’ve seen a lot of rhetoric online after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Detroit Lions 20-6 on Sunday. While many have criticized the team’s putrid play on offense (and rightfully so), there’s a small crowd of people out there who have put some of the blame on another aspect entirely — the uniforms the team wore.
The Bucs threw it back to the 1970s with their “creamsicle” uniforms for the first time since 2012, but that wasn’t the only tribute the team made. The Bucs transformed Raymond James Stadium, decking out the sides with vintage 70s flair, painting the field like the days of the Old Sombrero and even going as far as to make the scoreboard graphics more vintage. The cheerleaders wore their old uniforms, creamsicles were handed out in droves and the fans showed up with their vintage Bucs jerseys — the Bucco Bruce era was celebrated thoroughly, and for one day, Tampa Bay became a time capsule of an NFL era long past.
But then the Bucs lost, of course. And online after, many have called for the immediate end of the era, purporting that it embodies a losing culture and that the team shouldn’t wear them again.
But I digress. I think that the Bucs should wear these uniforms and paint those endzones and bring out those pom-poms every year, because the Bucs’ creamsicle uniforms and 1970s iconography are way too cool to give up.
To begin, these uniforms aren’t the reason why the Bucs lost — far from it, in fact. The Bucs lost because their offense couldn’t get in the end zone and their running game can’t get off the ground, and what uniform they wore had nothing to do with it. In fact, head coach Todd Bowles had a quote early last week that said just as much when asked if the creamsicles delivered an element of excitement to the team:
“The Creamsicle is nice for the fans, even some of the players looked at it nice, but the game is played the same way. We’re not going to win the game because we put on different colored uniforms. We’ve got to get back to the grind, we’ve got to work, we’ve got to scratch, we’ve got to claw, we’ve got to do all of the little things right to give ourselves a chance.”
Tampa Bay certainly didn’t do all of the little things right come that Sunday, but they sure looked great doing it. The Bucs’ orange uniforms are some of the best-looking throwbacks in the NFL’s arsenal, and the 1970s vibes in the stadium and through promotional material were tons of fun. It would be a shame to retire them simply because they “embody a losing culture,” especially because there was plenty of good to come out of that era despite the tough times.
Yes, the creamsicle era was full of futility and losing ways, but it spawned Buccaneer heroes that are still beloved today. I wrote about a few of them before the game, but players like Lee Roy Selmon, Doug Williams, James Wilder and more are all players that many Bucs fans grew up watching, and those players helped so many around Tampa Bay fall in love with the game. I myself was not alive for the creamsicle era, but some of my favorite memories of my love for the Buccaneers include going back through the internet for hours reading about the Bucs heroes of the era.
So no, the Bucs should not retire the uniforms. They should wear them not because they have a losing culture, but to turn these uniforms into winners all by themselves and honor the players who wore them years ago. Hell, the 1979 Bucs made it to the NFC Championship in these uniforms — why can’t the Bucs win a game in them?
It was a throwback spectacle on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, and it needs to continue for as long as the Bucs play football. The past isn’t always pretty, but the future is only what you make of it.