What was going on the last time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in the Super Bowl?

Let’s start with the NFL! The 2002 season was the most-recent time the NFL expanded, as the league added the Houston Texans to move to 32 teams. This also led to the rearrangement of the NFL’s divisions, which has stayed steady since. The Texans were given the first-overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, which they spent on quarterback David Carr. Behind a porous offensive line, Carr never developed and became a bust.

A few NFL records were broken in 2002, but one massive career mark fell. Smith surpassed Walter Payton’s record of 16,726 career rushing yards during the 2002 campaign, finishing the season with 17,162. This would be Smith’s last season as a Cowboy, but he padded his totals with a couple more seasons with the Cardinals. Emmitt still has the record, and with the way the NFL is going, it seems likely to stand the test of time.

How did the Raiders make it to the Super Bowl? The play of Gannon certainly went a long way. Gannon was a journeyman when he joined the Raiders in 1999, but suddenly his career took off. He made the Pro Bowl every season from 1999 through 2002, but this season was his best. Gannon led the league with 4,689 passing yards and threw 26 touchdowns against 10 interceptions to win the MVP 15 seasons into his career.

Pete Carroll had a few good quarterbacks during his time with USC, but Palmer may have been the best of the bunch. He would be the first-overall pick in 2003 by the Cincinnati Bengals, but that was coming off him winning the Heisman for the 2002 campaign. Do you remember who finished second? Why, that was Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, of course.

In 2002 we were in the middle of the BCS era, but there would be no controversy about the choices for the Fiesta Bowl. The Miami Hurricanes were a juggernaut and ranked first overall. The Ohio State Buckeyes were the only other undefeated team. We got a title game for the ages when these two teams squared off. While Willis McGahee’s serious knee injury put a damper on things, we can’t overlook the fact the Buckeyes pulled off the upset with a 31-24 win in double overtime.

Let’s move from the gridiron to some other sports. In baseball, Barry Bonds was still his dominating self, winning yet another MVP and leading the Giants to the World Series. However, they were not able to beat the Anaheim Angels, who took home their first and only title to date, with Troy Glaus being named World Series MVP.

The Los Angeles Lakers of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were at the pinnacle of their powers at this time. LA had won the NBA title in 2000 and 2001, and they were looking to pull off the rare three-peat. While Tim Duncan won the MVP of the regular season, the Lakers dispatched the Spurs in five games in the playoffs. After a tough, controversial seven-game series with the Kings in the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers made short work of the Nets in a four-game sweep to win a third title.

The 2002 NBA Draft was the second in a row where the first pick made history. In 2001, Kwame Brown became the first high-school player drafted with the top pick. The next year, the Houston Rockets made Yao Ming the first-overall pick out of China. There had barely been any Asian players in the NBA prior to Yao, and suddenly an Asian player was going first overall. He made the Houston Rockets the most-popular team on the continent and would make the Hall of Fame despite an injury-shortened career.

The 2001-02 NHL season was in the thick of the era of the trap. Jarome Iginla led the NHL with only 96 points scored. This was also before the salary cap, which allowed a team like the Red Wings to load up on talent. The team already had guys like Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Nicklas Lidstrom. That offseason, Detroit had added the likes of Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, and Dominik Hasek. It paid off, as the Wings won the Cup over the Carolina Hurricanes in five games.

The year 2002 was a World Cup year, and history was made as Japan and South Korea jointly hosted, becoming the first Asian nations to do so. While Korea managed to finish fourth in the tournament, in the end, two soccer heavyweights ended up in the title game. While Oliver Kahn had carried Germany to the finals, he was beaten twice by the Brazilian squad to give Brazil yet-another World Cup win.

The Final Four of the 2002 Men’s March Madness tournament came down to Maryland besting Kansas and Indiana beating Oklahoma. The Hoosiers were college hoops royalty, but the Terrapins were in their first title game. However, Juan Dixon would lead Maryland to a 64-52 win to give the Terps their only title to date. The women’s tournament was won, naturally, by UConn.

2002 was long enough ago that heavyweight boxing could still be a massive event. Lewis was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, while Tyson was still a big – and controversial – name. The fight was originally scheduled for Vegas, but then there was a brawl at the press conference where (shockingly) Tyson acted like a total psychopath, going as far as to bite Lewis in the leg. In the end, Lewis would win the fight in an eight-round knockout.

It wasn’t not only a World Cup year in 2002, but a Winter Olympics year. The event took place in Salt Lake City, though Norway took home the most medals. On top of that, Canada took home gold in both men’s and women’s hockey. This was also the Olympics of the pairs figure skating scandal with the Russian team beating the Canadian duo thanks to bribery (eventually the Canadians would get their own gold medals). However, it wasn’t all dour. For Americans, there was Sarah Hughes’ figure skating gold. Plus, there was Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury, who won Australia’s first goal medal at the Winter Olympics after his four competitors crashed into each other.

This was a time when Tiger Woods was still the king of the jungle. While Ernie Els took home the British Open and Rich Beem beat Tiger by one stroke to win the PGA Championship, Woods won both the Masters and the U.S. Open. Over in the LPGA, Annika Sorenstam was still a force to be reckoned with as well.

In men’s tennis, we had the great story of Pete Sampras winning the U.S. Open, his 14th grand slam, and then promptly retired. However, the story of tennis in 2002 has to focus on Serena Williams. Sure, Jennifer Capriati won the Australian Open, but Serena would win the other three Grand Slams of the year. In 2003 she would actually win the Australian Open, completing the “Serena Slam.”

We’re leaving the world of sports for the world of entertainment. In a battle of second films, “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” beat out “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” to finish atop the box office. Also in the top 10 were “Men in Black II” and “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.”

While “Return of the King” would earn Oscars glory for the “Lord of the Rings” saga, “The Two Towers” would not be so fortunate. Instead, it was the musical “Chicago” that won Best Picture. Best Actor went to Adrian Brody for “The Pianist” and Best Actress went to Nicole Kidman for “The Hours.”

Amidst all the major IP and massive studios releasing films in 2002, there’s the feel-good story of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” It began as a one-woman play by Nia Vardalos, which grabbed the attention of Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, who optioned it for a film, also written and starring Vardalos, who was far from famous at the time. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” only cost $5 million to make, but it eventually became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all-time and finished in the top 10 of the box office on the year.

For many, “The Wire” is a seminal TV program. While it wasn’t a ratings smash at the time and didn’t even get Emmys love, David Simon’s story of crime and life in Baltimore is beloved by those who watched it. Many considered it the best TV show ever. It all began in 2002 with the debut of the first season.

“Family Guy” debuted in 1999, and while it had some fans, the show was canceled after its third season in 2002. However, that would not be the end of the story. The DVD sales were big, and the ratings for reruns in syndication were as well, so FOX decided to bring “Family Guy” back. Now, here in 2021, “Family Guy” is still going strong.

A couple of heavy hitters were still going strong in 2002. The winners for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series were two shots that were super popular then and still are now. “Friends” took home the comedy award, while Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing” took home the drama.

Eminem was a cultural force at the beginning of the 2000s. His fourth album “The Eminem Show,” which featured the song “Without Me,” was the top-selling album in the United States, beating “Nellyville” from Nelly. In third was the debut album from Avril Lavigne, by the way, as the “anti-Britney Spears” finished one spot ahead of the actual Britney Spears.

People make fun of Nickelback – mostly because they are terrible – but they were also once upon a time quite popular. Their song “How You Remind Me” was declared the top hit of the year by “Billboard.” It is considered, by some measures, the last rock song to earn that distinction.

It’s wild to think that Elizabeth II is still the Queen of England. After all, the same year the Buccaneers were making the Super Bowl she was celebrating her 50th year on the throne. In the intervening years, she’s seen multiple grandchildren get married and have children of their own.

This one hits home here in 2021. Back in 2002, severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS, began popping up in China. It would begin an outbreak of SARS that spanned all over the globe before beginning to curtail late in 2003. SARS was a strain of the coronavirus, by the way, though it didn’t rise to the level of COVID-19, fortunately.

In 2002, George W. Bush was still President (he would win reelection in 2004), and the wake of 9/11 was still being felt. Part of that was when President Bush signed into law the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. That changed the way the U.S. government works in a way that is still being felt to this day.

Several famous names passed away in 2002, but we are going to focus on a couple of massive names from the world of sports. In baseball, there was Ted Williams, one of the best hitters of all time. Williams is still the last player to hit over .400 for a full season. Football fans also suffered the loss of Johnny Unitas, the iconic Colts quarterback. While Unitas was on the losing end of the iconic Super III upset to Joe Namath and the Jets, he had a Hall of Fame career that has him considered among the best to ever play the position.

In 2002, apparently, everybody was dying to play “Grand Theft Auto.” The top-selling game of the year was “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” the fourth game in the violent video game series. What’s really impressive is the second-highest-selling game of 2002 was “Grand Theft Auto III,” which was released in 2001. It proved so popular it outsold every game in 2002 except its sequel.

The Roomba is introduced (also Monster Energy and Pepsi Blue)

Prior to 2002, nobody had seen a little robot clean their floor. Now, we’ve grown quite accustomed to the Roomba. It wasn’t the only invention of 2002, of course. There was also the introduction of Monster Energy, which has become one of the top energy drink companies. Not everything introduced worked out, though. 2002 was also the year of Pepsi Blue, the berry-flavored soda that did not last long.