In end, a happy housewarming Hubert Mizell, The St.Petersburg Times, published 21 September 1998 What a tease. For 30 ugly minutes, the Bucs put Raymond James Stadium through a brutal shakedown cruise. Queasy seas. Patrons squirmed, even in $250 seats. Five-dollar beers began to taste like swamp water. Anybody see Bill Poe? Tampa Bay's football team was ruining its own house party. Plunging lifelessly into a 15-0 hole, the Bucs did benefit from a thimble of sweet fortune. If it'd been anybody but Chicago's bungling Bears, the deficit could've been 30-zip. "In the first half, we played like the old Bucs," said Brad Culpepper, a Tampa Bay defensive tackle with a historic eye for the franchise's well-tortured past. "In the final 30 minutes, there was a better idea how the new Bucs are supposed to look." Two quarters hadn't been worth a dime. Any time, you expected to see Good Ship Buccaneer, a unique north end-zone theme park, turn into Titanic II, sinking on its maiden voyage. "Moutho," a mechanical talking parrot affixed to the boat's stern, probably was thinking about chirping, "Ahoy, matey, our Bucs stink." I heard a man in the south end zone say something far nastier. Then came the second half. It became a Lazarus game. A bounce back from the dead of near- Biblical proportions. Bucs rot turned to hot. Suddenly, the $5.50 nachos grande in Buccaneer Cove began to taste like chateaubriand. Tampa Bay fumbles flip-flopped into touchdowns. Mike Alstott looked like Mike Alstott. Dave Moore made a touchdown catch that would've been fabulous even for Jerry Rice. Ray-J boos transformed into proud hurrahs. "As bad as the first half was, there was no panic," defensive end Chidi Ahanotu said. "Even at 15-0, we could sense a change coming. Chicago's players seemed bothered by the heat. We could see it in their eyes. After stinking up our great new stadium, we would turn it into a happy place." For each half, proper reactions. "There was a major attitude change in our halftime locker room," linebacker Hardy Nickerson said. "We deserved the boos leaving the field at 15-0. It was awful stuff. Then, we returned with much more of a winning attitude. When the second half turned good for us, the crowd became a roaring 12th man. It's a great lift, especially for the home-team defense when the noise gets deafening. This should be a really good place to play." By dusk, fancy Ray-J scoreboards told a joyous story for a Tampa Bay constituency that had felt so ill at Sunday midstream. Remarkably, a 15-0 mess in the first half had become 27-0 glory in the second. "It was like we were awed by our surroundings in the first half," defensive end Regan Upshaw said. "When everything turned good, the stadium seemed like home." Winning never feels lousy, whether in a palace or a dump. But this gorgeous redhead on Dale Mabry Highway, it'll be a stunner. Kind of funny to glance over the new facility's north wall, seeing the old Big Sombrero. Sitting there in silence, like a spurned love. In the new place, some escalators weren't working. Roofs sprang an occasional leak. Public-address system was often too loud. Parking lots were squishy with mud. But, for anybody who had seen Raymond James Stadium a week before, it was evident that an astonishing amount of work had been accomplished in the frantic hours before Sunday's opening. There's still a lot to do. Let's hope the Bucs and the Tampa Stadium Authority will properly digest both praises and complaints, reacting with efficient professionalism. When the joint gets finished and glitches smoothed, there is no reason Ray-J should not be the best stadium on Earth. Especially if the Bucs never again play a half of football like their first at Raymond James. Malcolm Glazer bubbled with excitement. As his players/employees entered their locker room following the comeback win, the Bucs owner met them at the door. Shaking hands. Patting backs. Grinning like a fan. First half all but forgotten. Please, no more old Bucs. Big Sombrero gave Tampa Bay far too much of that. Ray-J is the future, which surely will be brighter. "Our new stadium," said receiver Reidel Anthony, a Sunday touchdownmaker, "is a rocking place."