Gerald McCoy, who was David’s teammate with the Buccaneers from 2012-2018, was one of many current and former Buccaneers players in the auditorium on Thursday. At this point of the press conference, McCoy leaned forward in his chair and nodded sympathetically, obviously sharing in David’s emotion.
“Luckily, I had friends [and] family,” said David of getting past his thoughts of abandoning his NFL career. “Gerald was one of those guys who came to my side because he went through that earlier in his football journey. He helped me get through it.”
After Lynette’s death, David began displaying a photograph of his mother prominently in his locker room. He found that, despite his original despair, that he did have a reason to keep going in order to honor his mother and keep her at the center of his thoughts.
“It was definitely a source of comfort and inspiration,” said David of the photograph. “I always look at that picture and say to myself, ‘Keep going, keep striving. Keep making her proud.’ It’s the first thing I look at every time I look at my locker, and that’s just what it brings. For me to continue playing, for me to continue to play this game at a high level, I know I’m making her proud and all her sacrifices didn’t go null and void. She’s one of those people who is always supportive, always proud. I could always hear her say, ‘That’s my baby.’ Even as a grown man, calling me her baby. We had that type of relationship; I acted like a baby when I was around her.”
Now David is on the other side of the equation, and he says being a dad to Logan is one of the main aspects of the new path he will be forging after retiring from football. He said people had always told him that having a daughter, specifically, would be a life-changing experience, but he always assumed he’d want a son.
“Being a man, I was like, ‘Man, I want to have a son,” said David. “I want to have a son so he can follow in my footsteps and I can help him be a man.’ But having a girl helped me become a man, helped me understand what’s important in life. She definitely does that daily. I’m thankful – she doesn’t understand right now but she’ll look back and see that this is an incredible journey, this is an incredible time in my life, to be able to raise her to be an incredible young woman and be the best person in the world. Be kind, be generous, be loving, be caring to people you come across. I see it in her already and I just hope that I can continue to do that.”