138. Dewey Selmon: Losing Seasons, Lasting Wisdom

The August 23, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated — titled "The Buccaneers Come Aboard" — put Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Steve Spurrier on the cover, marking the very first Sports Illustrated appearance for the fledgling expansion franchise. The cover photo, shot by Heinz Kluetmeier, captured Spurrier in action during a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers in Milwaukee. By that point, Spurrier — the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner who'd spent nearly a decade with the San Francisco 49ers — was in his lone season as an NFL player with Tampa Bay, part of Coach John McKay's roster for the winless inaugural 1976 campaign, before Spurrier's playing career wound down and his far more decorated coaching career began. Dewey Selmon was part of that historic inaugural roster alongside Spurrier, joining the expansion franchise as one of its foundational defensive pieces after a standout career at Oklahoma, where he and younger brother Lee Roy anchored back-to-back national championship defenses in 1974 and 1975. While Lee Roy became the Buccaneers' most iconic and decorated player, earning Hall of Fame induction, Dewey carved out his own respected role as a steady, physical presence on the defensive line during those brutal early expansion years, when the winless 1976 Bucs were still searching for any semblance of cohesion under head coach John McKay. Selmon's Tampa Bay tenure placed him squarely within one of the more unusual chapters in NFL history — a team that went 0-14 in its debut season but whose young core, including both Selmon brothers, helped build the foundation for the franchise's eventual playoff breakthrough just a few years later. Dewey joins Past Our Prime to reflect on a career and life shaped by both triumph and hardship, starting with Lee Roy, the No. 1 overall pick who became the face of the franchise. Dewey speaks candidly about what those brutal early losing seasons taught him about resilience and self-knowledge, crediting his eventual Ph.D. in philosophy with giving him the intellectual and emotional framework to endure not just the team's first 26 losses, but the far more devastating loss of Lee Roy himself years later. He reflects on John McKay as exactly the right leader for that moment in franchise history, someone whose steady, wry perspective helped a struggling expansion team survive its darkest days, and he shares warm memories of Steve Spurrier, praising him as both a tremendous teammate and an even better person during those formative Tampa Bay years. All of that and more when the great Dewey Selmon goes Past Our Prime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices