the team's first head coach. McKay had never been a fan of the NFL and turned down three previous offers for a coaching position, but was finally convinced after being offered a $3 million contract and the challenge of building a new team from scratch. He stressed a five-year plan that relied on veteran players, quality draft picks, and patience. However, the expansion draft prior to the entrance of the Bucs and Seahawks into the league was not as generous as it would become for later NFL expansion teams, so the Buccaneers were saddled with aging veterans and castoffs from other teams. Despite McKay's coaching, the Bucs often appeared incompetent, with missed tackles, fumbled snaps, and a frustrating inability to score, and the patience of fans and local media soon wore thin. McKay was also criticized for relying too much on the USC playbook—for example, the “student body right” rushing play—not to mention choosing running back Ricky Bell over future NFL Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett in the 1977 NFL Draft. This frustration, and even anger, that Buccaneer fans targeted at McKay – which prompted the brief popularity of bumper stickers that proclaimed “Throw McKay in the Bay” – stemmed from the team's notorious 26-game regular season losing streak, including a then-record 0–14 season (a record since broken by the 2008 Detroit Lions and 2017 Cleveland Browns who each finished 0–16). The 1976 Bucs are widely considered one of the worst NFL teams of all time. They were shut out five times and scored only 125 points the entire season, an average of nine per game, while giving up 412. The Buccaneers suffered so many injuries that they were forced to hire players off the street and from the CFL. The team became the butt of many jokes, especially from Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, but also from fans themselves, who late into the 1977 season, wore bags on their heads and encouraged the team to “go for 0”, as in zero wins. After a particularly dismal effort during the streak, McKay gave perhaps the quintessential comment on the team's plight. In a post-game press conference, Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen asked McKay about the execution of his team's offensive line. McKay responded,Another choice quotation that summed up his frustration at the time: The 1977 season started even worse as the Buccaneers were shut out six times. In