The 37th edition of the AFC-NFC World Championship Game featured the Oakland Raiders, with a long history of Superbowl triumph, and the upstart Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team with a long history of futility making its first ever Superbowl appearence. The Raiders were supremely confident of victory, feeling they were owed a Superbowl after the controversial AFC divisional playoff game against the Patriots the previous season; ironically, the Raiders' coach in that game was Jon Gruden, who was now Bucs coach after a costly buyout of his contract by Tampa to Oakland after the 2001 season. Nicknamed "Chuckie" after the redheaded freckle-faced terror doll of horror movie fame, Gruden led the Bucs with a suffocating defense, while new Raiders coach Bill Callahan likewise had a potent defense and also had Raiders' history on his side.