Cocaine use by Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the start of the decade disrupted the team and was a factor in the franchise's decline, owner Hugh Culverhouse and other team executives say.
Cocaine use was a new phenomenon at the time, and assistant to the president Phil Krueger acknowledges it was one for which he and the NFL were unprepared."We had some key players who were involved with drugs - with cocaine," he told the Tampa Tribune, but did not identify the players.
"It was just at the onset when drugs were starting to come on. Marijuana had been around before. But cocaine, freebasing, I didn't know what they were talking about," Krueger said. "I'm pretty well aware of drugs these days and the symptoms. But I didn't know anything then. None of us did."
Culverhouse and former coach John McKay also confirmed in recent interviews that several members of the 1979 Bucs, the NFC Central Division champions, became victims of their own success.
Tampa Bay finished 1979 at 10-6, but went 5-10-1 the following season.
The team would soon spend $500,000 on drug training alone.
Coach Ray Perkins, who joined the Bucs in 1987, questioned the relevance of the report and said: "If you look back to every National Football League team in 1980, three-quarters had some level of a drug problem. So it wasn't the Buccaneers. It wasn't just the Buccaneers. It was the entire league. That's what brought about the NFL's so-called Pete Rozelle drug program."
Drug testing wasn't addressed until 1982 in the NFL's collective bargaining agreement.
"It was Party Time, U.S.A.," said Culverhouse, who made it clear that such problems have been erased.
Cocaine use by key players disrupted the team, coaches and management, Krueger said.
"I don't want to damage the whole team, but there were enough key players involved that it disturbed other key players and the focus to win was not there," Krueger said.
The team tried to trade as many drug-using players as it could, obtained counseling for some and sent some to treatment centers, Culverhouse said.
The failure to re-sign quarterback Doug Williams after the 1982 season and subsequent bad drafts also contributed to the team's decline.
But because of drugs, team emphasis shifted somewhat from training to investigating.
"We had to do our own investigating. We had to become more educated in drug problems," Krueger said. "It was taking away my focus and taking away Coach McKay's focus - and breaking his heart, really. These were guys he loved, and I had to go and tell him what the deal was. It ripped the heart out of the team."
Culverhouse said he was angry, upset and frustrated.
"I wanted to cry out," he said. "So I went and learned about it. And then I spent a half-million dollars, not on treating players, but on the education program alone. It was tough, but you could spot it."
Some players recalled isolated drug incidents but didn't consider it a serious matter.
"While I was there, I never thought it had risen to the level of affecting the team's performance on the field," said former linebacker Rik Bonness, who was released before the 1980 season. "Especially not to the extent that was revealed by later circumstances. I guess I was wrong."
Among drug instances involving Bucs players:
- Linebacker David Lewis was placed in a rehabilitation center in 1981, team sources told the Tribune.
- Offensive guard Greg Roberts was arrested in 1987 and still faces charges of racketeering and drug possession in Tampa.
- Linebacker Cecil Johnson pleaded guilty last December to charges of cocaine trafficking in Broward County.