Almost made major mistake.
Earlier this year, Bucs icon Lavonte David decided to postpone retirement at least for one more year and play for the Bucs in 2025.
So it was interesting to hear David discuss how that almost didn’t happen, just like David winning a Super Bowl with the Bucs almost didn’t happen either.
The year was 2019. The Bucs had just finished yet another losing season, David’s seventh since he was drafted in the second round by the Bucs in 2012. But for a 9-7 record in 2016, missing out on the playoffs by a tiebreaker, David knew nothing but losing in the NFL and with the Bucs.
He was done with it. David was fully fed up with the Bucs’ losing ways. He planned to say “adios” to the Bucs and find a franchise that had both a history of and a desire to win.
Then came Bucco Bruce Arians. In a sitdown David had with Chucky for a Barstool Sports video, David explained to Chucky, the first Bucs’ coach to lead the team to a Super Bowl title, how he nearly made a move where he wouldn’t have won a Super Bowl here and would never be thought of as a franchise legend.
David credited Arians for coaxing him into setting aside his personal frustration and stay in Tampa Bay.
“My first eight years, wasn’t going so well,” David said. “Not a lot of winning going on. That was the point that I did want to leave. [The Bucs] were making another coaching change.
“But, Jason Licht called me. B.A. [Bruce Arians] called me. They said, ‘We want you to be a foundation piece of this turnaround.’ Ever since then, they did exactly that.”
And that was win. The Bucs have been in the playoffs five straight seasons, beginning with a march to a Super Bowl victory in 2020.
David added he has “much respect” for Licht, Arians and Todd Bowles for being men of their word and building and maintaining a winning franchise.
Joe found this all interesting because just this week, Bucs passing game coordinator Kefense Hynson mentioned how he noticed people who come to the Bucs want to stay with the Bucs.
Not that long ago, the opposite was true. The Bucs sure have come a long way these past five years.