Word: mckay
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After three losses in exhibition games, the Buccaneers defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 17 to 3. "Ho-hum," McKay said, in controlled delight. "Another dynasty." Then came this championship season. Tampa lost consecutively to Houston, San Diego, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle (another expansion team), Miami and Kansas City. When I caught up with them in Denver their record was 0 and 8, but their spirits were stained with hope. The Denver Broncos had been playing poorly, and a Denver physician who played football told me, "We need a new quarterback and a new coach." That complaint classically signifies trouble, and trouble...
...Game. The afternoon offered a brilliant Colorado sky. Denver scored ten points in the first quarter and McKay lost Lee Roy Selmon, his best defensive lineman, with a knee injury. But the Buccaneers resisted collapse. Helped by three penalties, Steve Spurrier put together a reasonable touchdown drive in the second quarter. Later Dave Green kicked a field goal and tied the game...
...half, Tampa, sensing the possibility of victory, drove to the Denver 9. They stalled. The Buccaneers drove again, reached the 18 and got a field goal. Two good drives. Ball possession for most of a quarter. And a total of only three points. Then that brilliant sky fell on McKay and his urchins...
Afterward McKay refused to congratulate his conqueror, Coach John Ralston, who came to Denver out of Stanford. Instead, he called Ralston a ten-letter word, "for stacking on the points." When Ralston was mentioned in a press conference, McKay chomped a cigar. "He's a prick. He always was a prick. I hope he gets fired," said this devoutly civilized man. From another world Lombardi smiled ferociously...
...office at Tampa the next afternoon, McKay had regained his poise. "I shouldn't have said those things. Bear Bryant, my best friend in coaching, says that after a bad loss you ought to stay in the closet for a week. I know Denver needed a win and maybe Ralston was saving his job by winning...