<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 Lavonte David (54) pounces on a fumble while Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young scrambles for the ball during the fourth quarter. David recovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JEFFEREE WOO\/TAMPA BAY TIMES\/TNS<\/p>\n
TAMPA \u2014 His office has no door. No desk, no window, not even a faux wall.<\/p>\n
Just a leather chair, some hangars and the same view as every other cubicle in the Raymond James Stadium locker room. It is the personal space of a working man, which suits Lavonte David in ways that outsiders could never fully understand.<\/p>\n
The numbers suggest the accomplishments of a legend. Of an athlete deserving of a pedestal. One of six players in NFL history with at least 40 sacks, 30 forced fumbles and 20 fumble recoveries. The other five, by the way, are all in the Hall of Fame. His final tackle in Saturday\u2019s 16-14 win against the Carolina Panthers tied him with Derrick Brooks \u2014 another Hall of Famer \u2014 for the most stops in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history. Which is the type of company his career rubs shoulders with.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not why we\u2019re talking about him today. It\u2019s not why player af- ter player stopped at his locker to embrace David on Saturday evening. In a league of outsized personalities and self-promoters, he is the equivalent of a wallflower. Soft-spoken and unpre- tentious.<\/p>\n
He is not as corporate as Tom Brady, as audacious as Warren Sapp, as smooth as Ronde Barber, as cocky as Keyshawn Johnson. The story of Lavonte David in Tampa Bay is the story of a steady, sturdy and beloved heartbeat.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s hard to imagine that Saturday\u2019s game \u2014 the 215th of his career\u2014 could be the last time that a Bucs huddle is powered by the rhythm of that heart.<\/p>\n
Standing in a group of reporters, tight end Cade Otton called David one of the best teammates he has ever been around. Later, after he finished dressing, I asked Otton what he meant by that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sets the tone for everybody else,\u201d Otton said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t act like he\u2019s\u00a0above anyone, he\u2019s super personable, humble, confident and will literally talk with anybody in the locker room. He\u2019s an amazing player and has been for a long time, but he\u2019s an even more amazing person to be around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yaya Diaby has been in the NFL for three seasons, but was still in middle school in Georgia when David\u2019s NFL career began in 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s put his blood, sweat and tears into this organization from the highs\u00a0to the lows, from when they were losing to winning a Super Bowl. He\u2019s been through it all,\u201d Diaby said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s because he loves the game. Man, he loves the game. He loves playing with us, and we love playing with him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
End of era<\/p>\n
Weeks away from his 36th birthday, the end is approaching for David. He said after Saturday\u2019s game that he has not yet made up his mind about playing another season in 2026, but he talked like a man who understands that it\u2019s better to leave the party before someone else turns out the lights.<\/p>\n
On a day when the Bucs absolutely needed a victory, an underperforming defense played one of its best games of the season. And when the Panthers were in position to make things sticky in the final minutes, David burst through<\/p>\n
the line and recovered a fumble by Panthers running back Rico Dowdle to shut down a scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came out of nowhere to get that ball,\u201d said Jason Pierre-Paul. \u201cThat\u2019s Lavonte for you, right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were no special announcements, no orchestrated moments, no heartstrings for fans to grab onto. And, in a way, that\u2019s fitting for a player who has never sought the limelight with abandon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe but I was definitely walking through it with a smile on my face,\u201d David said of the final game of the season. \u201cMan, this kid from Miami, Florida, never thought I\u2019d be here. I was just playing football to play football and got opportunities to be able to make it to the league and I seized it. That\u2019s what I think about most. I just think about the support through that journey and people (who helped) since Day 1. I\u2019m grateful, thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing his locker at he got dressed Saturday night, David seemed to sense a presence behind him.<\/p>\n
He turned, and there was Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield waiting patiently with a Bud Lite in his hand. Mayfield gave David a gentle punch on the shoulder, and then the two embraced and whispered quietly to each other.<\/p>\n
Was it farewell? Was it thank you? Was it see ya soon?<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t tell you, but it looked heartfelt.<\/p>\n
Which, when it comes to Lavonte David, felt right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 Lavonte David (54) pounces on a fumble while Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young scrambles for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9126,57533,57531,20146,57525,47043,10365,57532,35484,57529,57524,57527,57530,57526,110,135,2964,137,136,57528],"class_list":["post-113109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-american-football","tag-american-football-competitions","tag-american-football-teams","tag-derrick-brooks","tag-gridiron-football-variants","tag-lavonte-david","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl-competitions","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nfl-teams-seasons","tag-seasons-in-american-football","tag-seasons-in-american-sport","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-team-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}