It’s 1974. Tampa, Florida.
The city itself has about 270,000 people, but the broader Tampa Bay region, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco counties, pushes the population close to a million. Tampa is known for its port, citrus groves, and the cigar factories of Ybor City. It’s growing, but nowhere near a big-league town.
Enter Leonard Levy. Born and raised in Tampa, Levy was a local success story in business and as civic leader. He had a deep pride for his hometown and wanted Tampa to be seen as a major city.
By this time, the NFL was already a powerhouse. Television ratings were exploding. Stadiums were filling. The league had just completed its merger with the AFL and now sat at 28 teams. More than fifty years later, the league tops out at 32 teams. That’s how rarely the NFL expands.
To earn a team, a city had to prove it could support one for decades. Fans. Ownership. A stadium. Corporate support. Community buy-in.
A pipe dream for a not-so-big city next to some swamp land in Florida?
Not if you’re Leonard Levy.
In 1974, the NFL awarded franchises to two cities.
Well, one city and one region.
Seattle. And Tampa Bay.
Now all they had to do was…
Build a stadium.
Pick a name.
Hire a coach.
Draft some players.
Design a logo.
Sell some tickets.
Convince a million people to care.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won zero games in its first season.
Lost the first 12 games in season 2.
Would you believe fans still showed up? In droves.
1976: Average home attendance: 42,000 fans per game
Record: 0-14
1977: Average home attendance: 52,000 fans per game
Record: 0-12 to start, 2-12 to finish.
The team kept losing. The fans kept showing.
Why go to a game when your team has no chance of winning? Are we even sure at that point they were playing football?
When they finally won their first game at the end of season two against an overconfident Archie Manning and the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay fans treated it like the Super Bowl. Cars lined the streets to meet the team at the airport. Huge celebrations ensued.
A few years earlier, the Tampa Bay area wasn’t even an NFL city. No name, no coach, no players. Until there was.
And suddenly it mattered.
Why?
Not because they were winning.
Not because they had a rich history.
Not because they were curing disease or solving world hunger.
In fact, if the Buccaneers had never existed, most people’s lives would have looked exactly the same.
And yet…
People bought tickets.
They painted their faces.
They wore orange.
They began saying “we.”
“We lost.”
“We’ll get them next week.”
Somehow, the story of a football team became the story of a region.
The team became a symbol of belonging.
A source of pride.
A way of saying, “This is where I’m from.”
And once that happened, the wins and losses almost became secondary.
Because people weren’t really cheering for football.
They were cheering for each other.
An hour away in Orlando, Walt Disney looked at a swamp and imagined a place millions would someday visit.
Sara Blakely cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose and built Spanx into a billion-dollar company.
Different ideas.
Different industries.
Different outcomes.
Same beginning.
Someone decided something mattered.
Most of us spend a surprising amount of time living inside things that other people decided mattered.
The question isn’t whether you’ll devote your energy to things that matter.
You will.
The question is: did you decide?
What are you willing to show up for when the scoreboard says 0-26?
What cause, community, idea, or dream deserves your effort even before there’s evidence it will succeed?
Because nothing matters until someone decides it does.
And that decision has a funny way of becoming contagious.
What will you decide matters?
And who will you invite along for the ride?
Afterthought: For someone whose athletic career peaked at enthusiastic participation, I seem to write a surprising number of One Thing Thursdays inspired by sports.
Maybe that’s because sports are one of the clearest reflections of life, wrapped in entertainment. Hope. Disappointment. Belonging. Identity. Resilience. Teamwork. Friday night lights and a scoreboard just make it easier to see.
The stakes are lower, but the lessons are often the same.
If you’d like a few more examples, here are some other sports-inspired editions.
The Very Best Thing About Spectator Sports | OnPrpose
What makes us care so much? | OnPrpose
A house divided | OnPrpose
This week’s One Thing Thursday was inspired by Raise the Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football, a docu-series I’m loving right now.
New to One Thing Thursdays?
Each week, I share something I’m learning, living, or working out in real time. It’s part storytelling, part reflection. I hope there’s something in it for you too.
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