In their First game as an Expansion Team, the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs lost their Starting Tackle to injury during Pregame Warmup, got Lost in the Tunnels of the Houston Astrodome, were Shutout by the ...

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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/DarkPriestScorpius on 2024-01-02 14:39:12.

Original Title: In their First game as an Expansion Team, the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs lost their Starting Tackle to injury during Pregame Warmup, got Lost in the Tunnels of the Houston Astrodome, were Shutout by the Oilers 20-0, and almost died in a plane crash when arriving back in Tampa Bay.

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Here are some of the articles/videos detailing what happened to the Bucs in their first game ever:

“John McKay must have known it was going to be a long afternoon Sunday in the Houston Astrodome. As he was leading the team off the field after the pre-game warmups, he got lost in the concrete labyrinth.

The Astrodome is a maze of passageways, tunnels and dead ends. One wrong turn and someone could wander undetected for years under the stands. Which is what the Bucs and McKay nearly did.

They probably should have stayed lost, for when they showed up on the field the Oilers proceeded to administer a 20-0 Defeat.

The day wasn’t quite finished, however. As the Team’s charter flight was landing in Tampa, those aboard later said the craft bounced once, titled to the right, then righted itself and landed, producing a few sweaty palms.

It was one of those days they should have stayed in bed.”

“Zier, Patrick. “Buccaneers’ Future Rests With Young Talent”. The Lakeland Ledger. July 10, 1977”

"On Offense, Starting Tackle Dave Reavis Went out for the season warming up for the first game at Houston.

“That”, McKay deadpans, “should have told us something.”

In this short video below from NFL Film, Chris Harry and Joey Johnston who co-wrote the book “Tales from the Bucs Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest Bucs Stories Ever Told” recall this exact incident of the Bucs getting lost in the Tunnels:

Here is the Link and the incident is timestamped from 0:40 to 1:06

Regarding the incident with the Plane, The reason for the problem was due to owner Hugh Culverhouse being cheap. As a result, he had leased the team jet from McCulloch Airlines. At times, Culverhouse had to pay for fuel with his own credit card, because of McCulloch’s financial difficulties. Culverhouse had refused to update the plane because he considered himself to be a frugal owner.