Buccaneers vs. Broncos Was a Wild One--on the Field and Off : Pro football: Former Tampa Bay Coach McKay went on tirade after 48-13 loss to Denver in 1976.

On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers return to the scene of one of the more memorable tirades in NFL history.

In their only previous trip to Denver’s Mile High Stadium--in 1976 during their winless first season--the expansion Bucs lost to the Broncos 48-13, and ex-Tampa Bay Coach John McKay came unglued afterward.

The Broncos had scored 38 points in a span of 8 1/2 minutes of the second half to erase a 13-10 deficit, and as the teams headed to the locker rooms--which then were located under the south stands--McKay lost his cool.

Refusing to shake hands with Bronco Coach John Ralston, McKay hurled epithets, then challenged Broncos offensive coordinator Max Coley to a fight.

In the locker room, McKay puffed furiously on a cigar, removing it from his mouth long enough to launch into an X-rated diatribe.

McKay accused the Broncos of running up the score, noting that they ran tight end Riley Odoms on a reverse and had Rick Upchurch return a punt late in the game.

“My idea is that when you’ve got the game out of reach, you first try to protect your best players,” McKay said. “Odoms or Upchurch could be hurt and out for the season on plays like that.”

McKay, previously a highly successful college coach at USC, said the Broncos’ coaches refused to “think about the guy on the other side of the field who is miserable. We had some high scores at SC, but we were never plotting to pour it on.”

Citing defensive injuries, McKay added, “We just ran out of players. We had to put a linebacker in the secondary, we were that short. He (Coley) knew we were hurting.”

The loss dropped the Bucs to 0-9, and McKay was showing his frustration.

“I will not concede until the 14th game,” he said. “But winning one or two won’t make me happy. A 2-12 record is repugnant. An 0-14 record is equally repugnant. I don’t want to be another Denver or any of those jerks who’ve been in the league 17 years and never won anything.

“I have been in the other position a lot more than that horse’s ass,” McKay said of Ralston. “I don’t like any part of him. His day is coming.”

McKay said his dislike was kindled when he was at USC and Ralston coached at Stanford.

Ralston dismissed the accusations, noting that three of Denver’s late touchdowns were scored by the defense. Linebacker Randy Gradishar and safety John Rowser each intercepted passes by Steve Spurrier and returned them for scores. Linebacker Bob Swenson scooped up a fumble and lateraled to safety Randy Poltl, who ran for touchdown.

In the final nine minutes, Denver had 12 offensive plays--two of them passes and both on third-and-long.

“We were adamant about not throwing against them,” Ralston said. “Those were defensive points we scored. Hell, you can’t tell a linebacker who intercepts the ball not to run with it.

“I guess John has forgotten about some of those games when his USC teams pounded on my Stanford bunch and on other Pacific Coast Conference opponents. I can’t ever remember him taking out O.J. (Simpson) when he had us on the run.”

Coley was even more puzzled by McKay’s outburst.

“John must have lost his poise,” Coley said. “I’ve known him for 20 years. We play golf now and then, and we have a drink together when we meet. I guess this means I won’t be getting a Christmas turkey from him this year. He must be having a problem making the transition to pro ball from college if he doesn’t know the difference between an offense and a defense and who’s doing the scoring.

“We had all the second-stringers we had left in the game. Maybe he would have liked for us to punt on first down. I don’t know who he wanted us to run our offense against if not his defensive line. His coaching staff?”

Coley wasn’t aware of McKay’s challenge to fight until informed by the media.

“If he was talking about whipping somebody, he knew where I was dressing. I was only about 60 feet away. I learned a long time ago not to get into that particular kind of contest with a skunk.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a coach blame the other coaching staff for a loss.”

Two days later, McKay apologized in a phone call that was directed to Coley. Apparently, no apology was made to Ralston.