Tough times for Lavonte David.
One of the mindblowing lines delivered during the dark side of Bucs history came in January of 2019.
Then-Bucs cornerback Brent Grimes had just finished his three year Tampa Bay tenure. Grimes explained that the Bucs having the audacity to request he cover then-Steelers receiver Antonio Brown 1-on-1 four months prior trashed his vibe for the entire 2018 season.
In Grimes’ mind, the Bucs didn’t paying him enough to shadow Brown all over a field.
Enter Lavonte David, the ultimate team player. David is filled with gratitude, in part because he no longer has to play with teammates sharing Grimes’ selfish vibe.
David talked about this phenomenon during his recent visit to Green Light with Chris Long.
Nowadays, the Bucs have an overhauled culture, David said, unlike the one that greatly challenged David during the seven years of Schiano-Lovie-Koetter nightmares.
David told Long that checked out teammates of those eras were difficult to deal with — for a player who cares.
“Every year your mindset, you feel like you can win it. But it wasn’t so good, by Week 10, you know you’re not going to make it to the playoffs. Now you got to figure out, ‘How can I keep pushing? How can I keep guys motivated to let them know they can still play relatively good football? … And that’s kind of the tough part for me,” David remembered.
“You know, by Week 10, people saying they’re packing up their house already to go back home. And people saying like they’re not going to play as hard just to try not to get hurt, and stuff like that. That’s kind of tough to deal with. I mean, we did have some guys who really did compete and had love for the game. But then you had a few here and there that kind of like knew the business part of it, like, ‘Oh, this is over so I’m going to try to protect myself to make sure I’m healthy for the next season, or to get another contract.’
“Those were tough things I kind of had to like get over.”
David added that he was confident the Bucs’ organization sensed those problems and negativity within the team.
David reflected on committed teammates from his Bucs past that he wishes could have shared in Tampa Bay’s success of the past five years. He said there were several but he singled out Gerald McCoy, Alterraun Verner, Kwon Alexander and E.J. Biggers.