Bucco Bruce and the Creamsicles are back.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will wear their beloved original uniforms in a Week 6 showdown with the Detroit Lions, the team announced Monday.
Tampa Bay has not worn the orange, white and red uniforms -- which are a recreation of its set worn from its debut season of 1976 through 1996 and include a white helmet -- since 2012, when the NFL's implementation of a one-shell rule made wearing these alternate kits impossible.
Thanks to the NFL's elimination of the rule, teams across the league have adopted various alternate uniforms incorporating a helmet of a different color in the last year. Some clubs were able to revive very popular throwback uniforms (e.g., Dallas brought back its 1960s retro look made popular on Thanksgiving), while others decided to introduce an alternate helmet to pair with existing uniforms (e.g., Arizona, Philadelphia, Houston, Cincinnati, etc.).
Tampa, however, needed the extra time to get its throwback look right. After all, one cannot simply rush the return of Bucco Bruce.
The Buccaneers announced their return last year, but a firm date was not set until Monday. Tampa Bay will put on the uniforms worn by its first playoff team -- the 1979 Buccaneers, who fell one game short of a Super Bowl appearance just four years after entering the NFL as an expansion franchise -- and some of the club's earliest stars for a contest against an upstart contender with its own rich history.
