Pirates

Every year the Buccaneers travel to Atlanta, Carolina and New Orleans knowing the NFC South title runs through one of the three, a division they have topped seven times since realignment in 2002. The older grudge sits with Miami: the Dolphins were the opponent on the very first Sunday the franchise took the field, and the fixture has carried enough weight over the decades that in 2017 the game itself crossed the state, moved from Miami to Tampa when Hurricane Irma made the original venue unusable.

The name has caused more confusion than the rivalries. Supporters picked "Buccaneers" from more than 400 contest entries, reaching for the pirates who worked the Gulf Coast centuries ago and for Gasparilla, the folklore raider Tampa still marks each year. The club has never gone by "Pirates" in any official capacity; where that label appears, it is simply a mistranslation.

Hugh Culverhouse paid $16 million for the expansion franchise and ran it until 1994. Malcolm Glazer bought the club in 1995, and his family has held it since his death in 2014.

Two Super Bowl runs bookend that defensive identity. Jon Gruden, handed a roster built by his predecessor, won the franchise's first title after the 2002 season. Eighteen years later Bruce Arians did it with a roster built around a 43-year-old free-agent signing, Tom Brady, who took the MVP award in Super Bowl LV.