Sports Americana

Fifty years ago today, the NFL looked a whole lot different.

It was September 15, 1976.

The 1976 season had just begun, and the league had expanded to 28 teams with the arrival of two brand-new franchises: the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

And after one week, nobody had any idea how the season would turn out.

Well…except maybe the Raiders.

The Week 1 Picture

Minnesota looked like a machine after crushing New Orleans 40-9.

Dallas handled Philadelphia 27-7.

The Rams beat Atlanta 30-14.

Cleveland scored 38 against the Jets.

And Oakland opened the season by beating the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers 31-28 in one of the weekend’s biggest games.

The Raiders were already sending a message.

They would eventually finish 13-1 and win Super Bowl XI.

Welcome to the NFL, Tampa Bay

The Buccaneers’ first season wasn’t going particularly well.

After one game, Tampa Bay was already 0-1, having lost 20-0 to Houston.

Things would get considerably worse.

The Bucs would eventually finish 0-14, becoming the first team in NFL history to go winless in a 14-game season.

But nobody in Tampa was worried about the future yet.

They had an NFL team.

That was enough.

Seattle Had a Little More Hope

The Seahawks also lost their debut, falling 30-24 to St. Louis in front of 58,441 fans inside the Kingdome.

Seattle would finish 2-12.

But buried in that expansion roster was a future Seahawks legend:

Steve Largent.

And eventually, Seattle would become a very different franchise.

The Stars of the Moment

The NFL’s biggest names weren’t necessarily the quarterbacks dominating today’s headlines.

Ken Stabler.

Fran Tarkenton.

Terry Bradshaw.

O.J. Simpson.

Roger Staubach.

Bob Griese.

And a young defensive star named Jack Lambert was helping lead Pittsburgh’s terrifying defense.

The league was still a game of running backs, defenses and quarterbacks who didn’t need to throw 40 times a Sunday.

The Spirit of 76

No salary cap.

No free agency as we know it.

No fantasy football dominating Sunday afternoons.

No RedZone.

No smartphones.

Just football.

And somewhere on September 15, 1976, a fan was probably sitting at the kitchen table with the newspaper, looking at the standings and wondering:

“Who is going to win this thing?”

Fifty years later, we know the answer.

But they didn’t.

And that’s the fun of looking back.