Tampa Bay Buccaneers Greatest QB: Remembering Doug Williams

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will salute the 1979 NFC Central championship team on Sunday and induct Lee Roy Selmon into the inaugural Ring of Honor. This is the first of three parts, remembering those who formed the backbone of that special team.

"You can break the back but you can't break the spirit of a small-town Southern Man.."

--Alan Jackson, "Small Town Southern Man"

John McKay took what appeared to be a major risk in the 1978 NFL draft. The Buccaneers had the 17th pick in the first round and selected Doug Williams, a quarterback from tiny but legendary Grambling State University.

African-American quarterbacks were few and far between back then and McKay felt that Williams, a small-town kid from Zachary, LA, was the final piece to the puzzle that could provide Tampa with a winner, a championship-calibre team.

We marveled at his size. At 6'4" and nearly 235 pounds, he looked up close like a linebacker. His throwing arm was powerful, he was a physical specimen. But could he handle the pressures of an NFL quarterback?

The answer came slowly but Williams progressed. He won the heart and respect of his teammates. He learned the game. He was humble in the process. He was easy to interview, just a country guy from Louisiana.

He took his lumps in 1978 but never complained. Doug was a gamer. He could take a beating and gave up his body time and again for a first down. He didn't mind taking a big hit to complete a pass. He was pure heart.

Then came 1979 and what a special year it would be. These lowly Buccaneers from seasons previous were off to a 5-0 start and made the cover of Sports Illustrated . They were the talk of the town, the talk of the NFL, the talk of the nation. It became clear that the confidence McKay had in Williams paid off.

Williams was the leader of the offense, no mistaking that.

McKay had Williams, Ricky Bell, and Jerry Eckwood in that backfield. One day, McKay looked at the three of them and said:

"You guys remind me of the great old Army teams..."

"You mean the Four Horsemen?" Williams asked.

"No," quipped McKay, "the Black Knights of the Hudson."

Williams laughed, realizing he had the wrong college team with his guess.

That's how he was. He smiled easily and his fearless play won over the fans.

"We knew we were never out of a game," Jimmie Giles once said. "With Doug's arm, he could strike at any time, complete the big pass at any time, didn't matter if we were behind, he could bring us back and we knew it." Giles, the tight end on that team, was Williams' favorite target.

Those grand '79 Bucs came within a game of the Super Bowl, but lost 9-0 to the Rams in the NFC championship game on Jan. 6 in the old Tampa Stadium. It was a heartbreaker, but still, Williams and his team got there fast, in the fourth season of the young franchise.

The biggest sin of the franchise came when the Bucs didn't sign Doug in 1982. He was looking for $600,000 a year, the team offered $400,000 and it could  have become a deal at $500,000. But the Bucs lost their franchise quarterback over a lousy $100,000.

Williams toiled in the USFL but found his moment for all time in Super Bowl XXII when he led the Redskins to a 42-10 romp of Denver. He became the only man to throw four touchdown passes in a single quarter.

It was his finest moment. He was a Super Bowl MVP.

His path of life led him home and he took over as the head coach at Grambling after the legendary Eddie Robinson retired.

He was a hit, he restored the program and its pride.

Then what seemed impossible, improbable, happened.

Doug Williams returned to the Buccaneers.

And that's where we find him today. Home.

He's the father of eight and the Bucs director of pro personnel.

But he'll always be THAT great quarterback of the 1979 team.

He was a man of huge stature, huge heart on the football field.

And still is today.