The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are offering the highest team honor to one of their most legendary players.
During a halftime ceremony at Raymond James Stadium in Week 13, the Bucs will honor former linebacker Simeon Rice by inducting him into the team's Ring of Honor.
And during the press conference announcing the decision, Buccaneers owner Bryan Glazer suggested Rice should be due another honor, this time from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“From 1996 to 2005, he totaled a league-best 101.5 sacks over those eight years, more than Hall of Famers Michael Strahan and Jason Taylor,” Glazer said. “During that same stretch, his mark of eight seasons with double-digit sack totals is the seventh most in NFL history, and all six men ahead of him on that list are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Simeon’s credentials for induction into our Ring of Honor are unquestioned, but he’s equally qualified and deserving of an overdue call from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Notably, he’s the only retired player with 100 sacks over eight consecutive seasons who doesn’t own a Gold Jacket. It’s time to rectify that oversight.”
Glazer makes a great point. If we're looking at just statistics, the precedent has been set by inducting players with lesser numbers who were contemporaries of Rice's.
Rice admitted an induction to the Hall of Fame would be bittersweet at this time since his parents have passed away.
“That’s all that meant anything to me,” Rice said. “The only thing that mattered to me was playing football. I loved this game, and it’s how I celebrated my mother and father. And they’re not with me. . . . I’m just thinking about my mother and father.”
However, Rice has a three-year-old child now that he says is his world. And he should think about what his induction into the Hall of Fame will mean for his children in the future.