The 1976 Buccaneers might have had one of the more memorably bad seasons in professional sports, but we tabletop sports simulation gamers are positively in love with that team. You can count on one thing when a new tabletop cards-and-dice gridiron game emerges: Folks will want cards for the 1976 season and the 1976 Buccaneers.   

But while those games give a glimpse into what that season might have been like to experience first-hand, Super Bowl champion Pat Toomay has the final word on what that campaign felt like in the flesh. Pat, who joined the Dallas Cowboys in 1970 —the year of the AFL-NFL merger — and won a ring with them in the 1971 season against dynasty-to-be Dolphins, talks about the difficulties of playing for that ’76 Tampa Bay team in its inaugural year. But of course we delved into all phases of Pat’s career, from the Cowboys to the 1975 Bills and, of course, “Dah Raidahs” from 1977 to 1979.

Pat shares plenty here about the differences playing for Landry and Madden and alongside all the colorful Raider characters — Snake, Stork, Foo, Tooz and more. You likely also know of Pat as an author of two pivotal books about professional American football: The Crunch, detailing the Landry-era Cowboys, and “On Any Given Sunday,” the inspiration for Oliver Stone’s film “Any Given Sunday” (in which Pat has a cameo as an assistant coach for Y.A. Tittle).   

Whether your game is APBA Football, Strat-O-Matic, Statis Pro, Paydirt!, Fast Drive Football, Game Winning Drive, Inside Blitz or any of many others, here’s some real scoop about the real players behind the numbers  

Pat’s interview commences at 10:27

Pat’s Salon article “Fathers, Sons and Football”: https://www.salon.com/1999/10/08/football

“A debilitating case of Bucs fever” by Pat Toomay: https://www.espn.com/page2/s/toomay/011227.html

The 1976 Buccaneers’ page on Pro Football Reference:  https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/tam/1976.htm

APBA Football store: https://apba.stores.yahoo.net/cosecase1.html

Fast Drive Football: https://fastdrivefootball.com/