Once asked about his team’s execution during a game, McKay responded: “I’m all for it.”

Toomay recalled Denver coach John Ralston running a reverse late in a game the Broncos won 48-13, and Patriots coach Chuck Fairbanks ordering a timeout in the closing seconds of the final game so that Steve Grogan could break the season record for touchdowns rushing by a quarterback.

“Payback came in interesting ways. ... All the sportsmanship stuff went out the window,” Toomay said.

“I loved his sense of humor. He was hilarious. But he was deeply ironic and acerbic at times. As long as it was directed out, it was a release. He disarmed a lot of people. But after a while, it started to turn in. Now and then, it got a little dark. During the week we didn’t see him after the third game. He would stand farther and farther away at practice, symbolically disassociating himself.”

Wayne Fontes, an assistant who later became the successful head coach of the Detroit Lions, describes the ’76 team as mostly a collection of no-name players, many of whom were entering the twilight of their careers.

But many went on to be successful in and beyond the NFL.

Selmon, the only Tampa Bay player who’s a member of the Hall of Fame, and Wood were part of the backbone of the Bucs team that reached the NFC championship game in 1979. Spurrier is one of the top coaches in college football, and general manager Ron Wolf later helped the Green Bay Packers assemble a Super Bowl-winning team around Brett Favre.

Unlike the 1972 Dolphins, who were a perfect 17-0 and gather every year for a toast when the NFL’s last unbeaten team falls, the ’76 Bucs have no such tradition. It doesn’t mean they don’t have a close bond.

“When you go through a season like that, you connect. It’s not unlike the military in that regard,” said Toomay, now 62 and a freelance writer in New Mexico. “When you’re in the trenches with somebody, and it’s bad, you share that and it doesn’t go away. Here it’s 30 years later, and it hasn’t gone away. It’s as if it happened yesterday.”

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One of his favorite moments was the team plane arriving home at 4 a.m. after a 49-16 loss at Oakland in Week 12.

Team officials promoted ticket sales for the inaugural season with the slogan: “Bucs Fever. Catch It.”

“We start to file off the plane and there’s three fans at the foot of the stairs, and they’re totally wasted,” he said, again erupting in laughter.

“As we come down the stairs, two of them unfurl this gigantic banner of the Bucs logo, and the most inebriated of the three steps in front of the other two and he starts the chant: ‘What have we got?’ And all three in unison say: ‘Bucs fever!’ I thought I was going to cry.”

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