Sebastian Scalera – LRHS News

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – Football is one of the great American sports. Whether it’s after Thanksgiving dinner, Monday night or Sunday afternoon, an NFL game is something everybody can enjoy. It requires, and creates, a certain morale and excitement. Usually, these qualities show through faith in the local team. This may be missing, however, with the 2-10 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have not visited the post season in seven years. Seven years, 112 opportunities to win. 112 games gone to waste.

“I used to love going to Raymond James Stadium,” said LRHS sophomore Alex Williams. A former Bucs fan, WIlliams claims that losing teams are just no fun.

With declining fortunes of the Bucs, is it possible that football fans in the area are losing interest in the sport altogether? Not only at the professional level, but at the college and high school levels?

“I don’t think the Bucs being terrible change my liking for college football. Same thing for high school, because I still play for ours (LRHS),” said Sophomore Nick Hoskinson.

Sophomore Aaron E. (who asked his name not be disclosed) referred to a recent Bucs mistake when he said, “It’s had a little bit of an impact.. I can’t watch any more plays where the coach sends twelve players out on offense.”

Only 11 players are supposed to be on offense at once. The Bucs lost their last game to the Cincinnati Bengals by a surprisingly close score of 14-13. The cause? A last minute penalty for having 12 players on the field, preventing the Bucs from kicking a winning field goal.

Since the last time the Bucs made the post-season they have started more than 10 different quarterbacks. To go with that, they’ve changed head coaches four times. Out of all of those personnel changes, zero of them has been successful in the long run.

At the end of the day, we can only hope Tampa Bay rights the ship. For now, it seems many Mustangs consider watching college and high school a better option.