The world has changed since the last time the Buccaneers were in the playoffs

Recent times for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been nothing short of miserable. The team has lost far more than it has won, as evidenced by its seven last-place finishes in the last eight years. The Bucs haven’t won a playoff game since earning their first Lombardi Trophy back on Jan. 26, 2003. They went to the playoffs two times after that, but lost in the Wild Card Round both times.

Tampa Bay’s most recent playoff appearance came in the 2007 season, with its last playoff game happening on Jan. 6, 2008. The Bucs hosted the New York Giants on that day, jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter before giving up 24 straight points. By the end of the day, New York was moving on with a 24-14 victory. The Giants went on to win the Super Bowl in February, while the Bucs entered a period of failure.

As you can surely imagine, things were a bit different on Jan. 6, 2008. So, let’s have some light-hearted fun with the franchise’s misfortune by looking at what our world was like back then:

• The first iPhone was only about six months old.
• “Low” by Flo Rida (featuring T-Pain) was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Top 100.
• “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” was No. 1 at the box office, grossing $20,062,684.
• Barack Obama was still 10 months away from being elected to what would be his first term as president of the United States.
• Justin Bieber wasn’t introduced by Usher until a year later.
• The popular social media app Vine was launched five years later. Then, after being active for four years, it was shut down in 2017. A whole app was founded, launched and killed all since the last time Tampa Bay was in the playoffs.
• “Breaking Bad” hadn’t premiered yet.
• “The Dark Knight” hadn’t hit theaters yet.
• The Seattle SuperSonics were wrapping up their final season in Seattle. They are now playing in their 11th season as the Oklahoma City Thunder.
• The Tampa Bay Rays had zero winning seasons under their belt. Since then, they have finished above .500 seven times and made the playoffs four times.
• The Chicago Cubs were still in the midst of their World Series curse. It wasn’t until eight years later that they would snap a 108-year streak without a championship.
• LeBron James was still ringless. He didn’t win his first NBA Finals until four years later.
• I was in fifth grade. I turn 21 in two months.
• Since that last postseason game, Jon Gruden coached another year with the Buccaneers, spent eight seasons on the Monday Night Football broadcast team and coached the Raiders for a year. The Bucs are about to be on their sixth head coach since that day.
• Jameis Winston turned 14 years old on the very day that the Bucs played their last playoff game.

To borrow and alter a line from “Draft Day” (which came out six years after the team’s last playoff appearance)... “We live in a different world than we did just 30 seconds 11 years ago.” Here’s to hoping no one has to write an updated version of this article in January of 2020.