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What: “Lost Treasures of NFL Films--Vol. XIV: The Birth of the Bucs”

Where: ESPN Classic, Tuesday, 4 p.m.

It can be argued which NFL team is the greatest of all time. There are many candidates. But there is no argument when it comes to naming the worst. That distinction belongs to the 1976 Tampa Buccaneers, an expansion team that went 0-16 and then didn’t win until December of its second season after going 0-26.

NFL Films has profiled a lot of the NFL’s great teams. Now, 25 years later, it profiles the league’s worst as part of its “Lost Treasures” series.

In 1976, Buccaneer owner Hugh Culverhouse gave his friend, NFL Films founder Ed Sabol, total access--something that usually wasn’t done back then, because Culverhouse wanted that first season documented.

“Most films have ‘outtakes’--mistakes, flubs, all the embarrassing things you leave on the cutting room floor,” NFL Films President Steve Sabol tells viewers at the outset. “Imagine trying to make a film with nothing but outtakes.”

The result is an entertaining one-hour show, mainly because of the Buccaneers’ entertaining coach, John McKay, who went from the joy of victory at USC to the agony of defeat at Tampa Bay.

But McKay never lost his sense of humor, and that makes him the star of this show. The supporting cast includes Dick Beam and Wayne Fontes, two USC assistants McKay brought with him to Tampa Bay, and two of McKay’s sons, Rich and J.K. Rich, a ballboy in 1976, is now the Buccaneers’ general manger. J.K. was a rookie wide receiver for the Buccaneers in ’76.

Some McKay lines in the show:

He tells Beam at practice, “Tell them, don’t forget to take off the shoes, please. That’s the only thing we’re going to get right today, I think.”

While meeting with the press: “Expansion teams average 2.7 wins in their first season. I can figure out the 2, but the .7 has me wondering what is going on.”

When asked about his team’s execution: “I’ll go for that.”

After the Buccaneers lost to the Rams in Los Angeles, McKay, in front of media members familiar with his quips, says, “We didn’t block but we made up for it by not tackling.”

The ’76 Buccaneers may have been a bad team, but McKay and his troops have provided NFL Films with a very good show.