Tampa Bay Buccaneers: What if Bert Emanuel’s catch wasn’t overturned?

How the rest of the NFL, not just the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are affected.

If Dungy is never fired, he never becomes the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. This means Peyton Manning more likely than not won’t get his ring until his final season in 2015 with the Denver Broncos. Also, if the Emanuel catch wasn’t overturned, the league doesn’t feel the need to adjust their catch rule, a rule that has since caused a plethora of headaches, so who knows how the Calvin Johnson or Dez Bryant catches are looked at.

Back to the Buccaneers, come 2005 with Dungy on the hot seat and the team needing to replace Shaun King, perhaps a young gunslinger named Aaron Rodgers coming out in the draft doesn’t fall all the way to the Packers. This is certainly another fun possibility, but that could be a discussion for another time.

So in conclusion, if the Bert Emanuel catch isn’t reversed, the Shaun King and Tony Dungy Buccaneers are back-to-back Super Bowl champs in 1999 and 2000, but never get their 2002 win. The Eagles get their Super Bowl in 2002 while the Greatest Show on Turf have more of an “Air Coryell” legacy and ends up ringless, as does Peyton Manning until his swan song with Denver. The evolution of the catch rule is also a far different story. If there’s another “what if” scenario in Buccaneers history you want us to explore shout them out, and join us next week for another trip down to the multiverse.