Tampa Bay Buccaneers: What if Hugh Culverhouse paid Doug Williams?

Doug Williams was a pioneer with and away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Williams’s first pass as a Buccaneer came in the preseason that sailed ten yards over the head of Issac Hagins, but the Tampa crowd still gave a standing ovation. Why? Well because it was the first time the Buccaneers had a quarterback capable of throwing long passes downfield. We’ve come a long way.

The Buccaneers improved to 5-11 in 1978 with rookie Williams then 10-6 in 1979, winning the then NFC Central. In a game against the Chicago Bears that season, he and Vince Evans made history as being the quarterbacks in the first-ever NFL game having both teams starting a black quarterback. That year, the Buccaneers would advance to the NFC Championship with Williams at the helm, along with playoff appearances in 1981 and 1982.

That offseason, Williams asked for a $600,000 contract. However, Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse, a man known to squeeze a quarter so tight the eagle would cry, refused to budge from his initial offer of $400,000 despite protests from McKay. This resulted in Williams deciding to forgo playing football altogether in 1983 and agreeing to play for the upstart USFL’s Oklahoma Outlaws starting in 1984. In 1987, Williams would become the first black quarterback to both start, and win a Super Bowl, winning MVP of Super Bowl XXII as a member of the then Washington Redskins.

In 1983 without Williams, the Buccaneers went down the toilet. They went 2–14 and did not make the playoffs again until the 1997 season,14 years later. The Buccaneers would lose ten games in every season but one in that stretch. Culverhouse’s willingness to let Williams walk away over such a relatively small amount of money was seen as insensitive, especially as it came only months after Williams’ wife Janice died of an aneurysm.

What would have happened if the penny-pinching Culverhouse loosened his grip and paid Williams though? Let’s see how this would have affected the Buccaneers.