Unfortunately, not available.
Oh, if only Howard Cosell were still around.
Joe loved Cosell, who made his bones in the _Monday Night Football_ booth. No one was neutral on Cosell. You either loved him or hated him.
Most of the World War II generation, in their 40s when Cosell burst onto the scene, despised him. Their children, the baby boomers, mostly loved Cosell. He brought drama and insight and excitement to the booth. He always kept it real.
When Cosell broadcast a game featuring the Bucs, you knew it was a big game! (Just like you knew it wasn’t a big game when the Bucs were stuck with fossil Dick Stockton or irrelevant Kevin Kugler.) You only needed to hear Cosell’s nasally, booming voice to know a Tampa Bay primetime game meant something.
Joe guesses from reading Dan Pompei’s nugget for _The Athletic_ about each NFL team’s [most watchable game,](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6364266/2025/05/19/nfl-2025-regular-season-must-watch-games/) that somehow Cosell could be teleported at age 50 to Oct. 20 in Detroit.
There, at 7 p.m., the Bucs will square off against the Lions.
> **Tampa Bay Buccaneers: at Lions, Week 7**
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> The Bucs went to Detroit early last season and came out with a victory. It was a statement game and confidence builder for a team that was better than many imagined. The expectations are a little higher this season, but in order for the Bucs to keep the expectations high, they will have to show once again they can compete with the best teams in the NFC. This Monday night game is one of four scheduled in prime time for the Bucs.
Joe isn’t sure about the Bucs being “better than many imagined.” The Bucs fought toe-to-toe with the Lions the previous January in the divisional round of the playoffs — a week after blasting the mighty Eagles (on _Monday Night Football_). The loss to Detroit was a one-score game. (Full disclosure: Joe did not predict a Bucs win.)
Joe can understand if the Bucs surprised people by beating the Lions in Week 2, but that says more about the people floored by the Bucs win. When a team from the lil’ ol’ (NFC) South does well, that’s what happens. The whole division is off the radar for too many people.
Unless the NFL ditches divisional play or in some unforeseen division shakeup the Bucs are placed in the NFC East or return to their roots in the same division as the Bears, Packers, Lions and Vikings, that’s the way it’s going to be.