Hats off to the New Orleans Saints for winning Super Bowl 44.

They have come a long way since the days of the New Orleans Aints.

The Saints franchise has struggled for most of its existence, and seeing Drew Brees proudly holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy last night shows just how far that franchise has come.

The sight of the Saints players celebrating victory reminded me of another team that came from the bowels of the NFL to ultimately win the sport’s richest prize; the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

For years, the Buccaneers were THE biggest joke in the NFL. This was the first team to finish a season winless; in fact the team started off 0-26 until they beat (you guessed it) the Saints.

After a few playoff runs in the late 70s and early 80s, the team became the poster child for poorly run franchises.

The “Yucks” as they would affectionately become known as, would not win more then 6 games in a season for an astounding  12 seasons.

The team managed to draft both Steve Young AND Bo Jackson, but received no contributions from the two players.

Fans would show up with bags on their heads because they were so ashamed of their team.

These were dire times, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally the franchise started to turn around thanks to shrewd draft picks, including drafting both Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks in the 1995 Draft.

Tony Dungy came on board in 1996, and the culture around the organization changed immediately. The team did suffer a 6-10 campaign during Dungy’s rookie season, but they played very strong down the stretch.

The Bucs would make the playoffs 4 times during Dungy’s 6 year reign. Unheard of for the previously doormat franchise.

Unfortunately, the Glazer family thought that Dungy’s influence had run its course with the team, so the team fired him following the 2001 season.

Dungy was not able to see the fruits of his labor pay off as the team went on to finally get over the hump and win the Super Bowl under Jon Gruden.

The 2002 team finished a franchise best 12-4, and had one of the best (and most underrated) defenses of all time. That 2002 team featured four potential Hall of Famers on Defense including Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber, and John Lynch.

That team would also do what no other Buccaneer team had been able to do the past 3 season, beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs.

The season would culminate with a Super Bowl matchup between the Number One rated defense (Bucs) against the Number One rated offense (Oakland Raiders), which saw the Bucs defense dominate and embarrass Rich Gannon and the Raiders.

Yes friends, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl. No franchise in pro sports had epitomized losing quite like the Bucs have during their existence.

However, the team was able to reward their struggling fan base with what seemed nearly impossible 5 years earlier; a Super Bowl.

To the New Orleans Saints fans, I hope you treasure your Super Bowl victory, because there is no feeling in the world then sticking with your team through all of the losing and finally seeing them reach the mountaintop.

Hopefully Lions and Browns fans will be able to experience that joy as well.