Williams was asking for. The Buccaneers missed Williams' confidence and ability to make big plays at key times, and lost their first nine games in 1983, when they had been expected to contend for the playoffs. They finished 2–14, the first of what would be 14 consecutive losing seasons—the longest since the merger between the NFL and the All-America Football Conference in 1950—and would not have another winning season in Culverhouse's lifetime. They would lose 10 or more games in 13 of those years, including 12 in a row from 1983 to 1994—an NFL record. The timing of the situation coincided with the ascendance of the Tampa Bay Bandits, who led the USFL in attendance with a wide-open, crowd-pleasing offense led by local hero Steve Spurrier, while the Buccaneers were losing games with a conservative offense that fans found boring. Attendance having dropped sharply, Culverhouse then further alienated fans by berating them, accusing them of apathy. Attendance and television availability The long losing streak further penalized fans, as the NFL blackout policy usually prevented poorly attended Buccaneer home games from being shown on local television. No Buccaneer home games were televised on local stations for several years following November 29, 1982 (a Monday Night Football game vs. the Dolphins), including a game on January 1, 1983 that sold out, but not in time to lift the blackout. In total, the Buccaneers had a streak of 32 consecutive blackouts before a November 9, 1986 game against the then-reigning Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears sold out in time to allow for local television. At one point, the CBS television network, which had the rights to NFC television broadcasts at the time, correctly anticipated poor seasons from all of the Southern (Buccaneers, Falcons, and Saints) teams, and reorganized their viewing markets in such a way that Buccaneers games were not broadcast anywhere in the state of Florida. Culverhouse went so far as to dictate that Miami Dolphins games also be blacked out, sometimes even when Buccaneer games were sellouts. He further inflamed fans in 1989 by proposing to move some of the team's games to Orlando, due to poor attendance. Several local radio stations responded with billboards saying "Hugh gotta go!", and with a picture of a screw next to Culverhouse's name. The Tampa Chamber of Commerce countered with a billboard thanking Culverhouse for bringing Super Bowl XXV to Tampa. Profitability Although enjoyment