Buccaneers Player Facts.

Tristan Wirfs

Tristan Wirfs won Iowa’s high-school heavyweight wrestling championship in 2017, during his senior year at Mount Vernon. He then played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes before Tampa Bay selected him 13th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. His athletic background gives fans another way to appreciate the balance and body control involved in offensive-line play.

Tom Brady

Tom Brady had a possible baseball path long before his Tampa Bay championship. A three-sport high-school athlete, he was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft. He chose to play football at the University of Michigan instead. That decision put him on the college football route that eventually led to the NFL.

Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield’s path to the Heisman began without a football scholarship. After starting his college career as a walk-on at Texas Tech, he went on to Oklahoma and won the trophy in 2017. He became the first former walk-on to win it, then became the first former walk-on selected first overall in the NFL Draft in 2018.

Basketball

Brad Johnson’s college career included basketball as well as football at Florida State. He helped the Seminoles reach the 1988 NCAA tournament and led that team in free-throw percentage at 89.1 percent. His basketball days show another side of the future Buccaneers quarterback: his athletic background extended beyond throwing passes on the football field.

University of Arizona

Rob Gronkowski played college football at the University of Arizona. He grew up in the Buffalo area and finished high school in Pennsylvania before becoming a Wildcat. His Arizona playing seasons were 2007 and 2008; a back injury kept him out of the 2009 season before he entered the 2010 NFL Draft.

Mike Alstott

Mike Alstott’s powerful running style made “A-Train” one of the most recognizable nicknames in Tampa Bay football. A second-round pick out of Purdue in 1996, he earned six Pro Bowl selections and scored four postseason rushing touchdowns during the team’s run to Super Bowl XXXVII. For generations of Buccaneers fans, No. 40 meant defenders had a difficult tackle ahead.

Bucky Irving

Bucky Irving’s full name is Mar’Keise Irving. His father, Marcellus, gave him the nickname that football fans know. Irving played at Minnesota in 2021 and Oregon in 2022 and 2023 before Tampa Bay selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. His first Buccaneers season included 1,122 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns.

Rod

Chris Godwin was born Rod Christopher Godwin Jr., so his given first name is Rod. The name familiar to football fans comes from Christopher. He was born on February 27, 1996, in Philadelphia and attended Middletown High School in Delaware before playing college football at Penn State.

University of Virginia

Rondé Barber and his twin brother Tiki both attended the University of Virginia and graduated from its McIntire School of Commerce. Rondé starred at cornerback while Tiki played running back. Their paths later separated in the NFL: Rondé spent his entire playing career with Tampa Bay, while Tiki became a New York Giants running back.

Quarterback

Micheal Spurlock was a quarterback at Ole Miss, where he spent time backing up Eli Manning before earning starts of his own. He began converting to wide receiver after signing with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Tampa Bay fans later knew him as a receiver and return specialist.

Lee Roy Selmon

Tampa Bay selected Oklahoma defensive end Lee Roy Selmon with the first overall pick of the 1976 NFL Draft. He became the defensive cornerstone of the expansion team and later the first Buccaneer enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining the Class of 1995. The franchise’s first college draft selection opened a path from its earliest days to Canton.

Dave Pear

Nose tackle Dave Pear became Tampa Bay’s first Pro Bowl selection for the 1978 season. That often surprises fans who expect Lee Roy Selmon to be first. The Buccaneers’ own 1978 season history credits Pear with nine sacks and the franchise’s first invitation. Selmon’s first selection came for the 1979 season, beginning his run of six all-star selections.

Ricky Bell

Ricky Bell crossed the 1,000-yard line in 1979, finishing with 1,263 yards and seven rushing touchdowns on 283 carries. Tampa Bay had taken him first overall in the 1977 draft, and his breakout helped power its first playoff era. He then carried the ball 38 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the franchise’s first playoff victory.

Doug Williams

Doug Williams made that history with Washington in Super Bowl XXII, a 42–10 victory over Denver following the 1987 season. He threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter and earned the game’s MVP award. His NFL story began in Tampa Bay, which selected the Grambling State quarterback in the first round of the 1978 draft.

Dexter Jackson

Dexter Jackson received the MVP award after intercepting two passes in the first half of Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl XXXVII victory. His early takeaways helped put Oakland’s offense under pressure before the Buccaneers finished a 48–21 win. The 1999 fourth-round draft pick had become the starting free safety in 2001, and his championship performance delivered the biggest individual honor of his career.

Running back

Vita Vea played running back as well as defensive line at Milpitas High School in California. Washington’s biography credits his 2012 senior season with 578 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. The same player who later occupied the middle of Tampa Bay’s defensive line once spent Friday nights carrying the ball himself.

Jimmie Giles

Jimmie Giles caught four touchdown passes from Steve DeBerg during the October 20, 1985 shootout at Miami’s Orange Bowl. Even that remarkable afternoon could not secure the win: the Dolphins escaped 41–38 after Tampa Bay tied the game in the final minute. Giles’ scoring burst remains one of the signature individual performances of the Buccaneers’ creamsicle era.

Warrick Dunn

Homes for the Holidays began during Warrick Dunn’s rookie Buccaneers season in 1997, inspired by his mother, Betty Smothers. The program helps single-parent families moving into their first homes with furnishings, household supplies, and down-payment assistance. Its work adds another chapter to Dunn’s football legacy: helping a family’s newly purchased house become a comfortable, stocked home ready for everyday life.

Shaquil Barrett

Shaquil Barrett turned his first Tampa Bay season into a breakthrough. After joining the Buccaneers in 2019, he recorded nine sacks in the first four games and finished with an NFL-leading 19.5. Three sacks in the season finale helped him pass Warren Sapp’s previous Buccaneers single-season mark of 16.5. The performance also earned Barrett his first Pro Bowl selection.

Basketball

Mike Evans was a standout basketball player at Ball High School in Galveston, Texas, averaging 18.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists as a senior. He played only one high-school football season, also as a senior, before continuing in football at Texas A&M.