I settled in the Tampa Bay area at the start of February 2020. Tom Brady followed me down here 48 days later.
At the time, fans here were not quite sure about Brady, having heard the chatter about him being done, not being able to throw the long ball, losing the step he never had. It was a promising sign that ownership was serious about the 2020 season, but there were questions: Will he fit in an aggressive play action offense? Will he gel with the team?
Apparently, Brady heard the chatter too. As New England fans know all too well, it doesn’t take much to get him motivated. Underdog, disrespected Brady is the most dangerous Brady.
One big difference between New England fans and Tampa fans is that the latter have earned their cynicism. The Bucs joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1976, just one year before Brady was born. The football experience here bears almost no resemblance to the dynastic whoop-ass consistently enjoyed this century by the good people of New England. It’s OK if you don’t remember Tampa’s blow-out Super Bowl win in 2003 because it was sandwiched between rings for the Patriots in 2002, 2004 and 2005. In the 20 years of the Bill Belichick era, the Bucs have had seven different head coaches and 16 different starting quarterbacks.
Still, coming on the heels of Tampa’s first Stanley Cup trophy in 16 years, the signing of the 43-year-old Brady inspired curious optimism. He arrived, smiling that twinkling smile, to more offensive weapons than he could have hoped for in New England. Unheralded but formidable receivers, a promising 208-pound running back, very large offensive linemen and quite a few proven veterans on defense.
Brady Watching became an escape for Tampa as the pandemic spun through a frightened nation in March and April. Then, a week after Easter, came Gronk, a Florida Man if there ever was one.
Tom encouraged him; Gronk’s mom lives two hours away in Fort Myers, the Red Sox spring training venue; and, the climate was warmer, literally and figuratively. “I feel like the biggest difference is just having the freedom of being yourself in this organization,” Gronkowski said recently. Yo soy fiesta, indeed.
Again, Tampa fans were cautiously intrigued. The team already had two tight ends. Gronk was a beast in his prime, but he hadn’t played since 2018.
After 40 years as a Pats fan in greater Boston, I could not believe my luck. Like you, I had seen every minute of the Brady era, from the hit on Drew Bledsoe, to Adam Vinatieri in the snow, to Malcolm Butler stepping up at the goal line and, of course, the epic Super Bowl comeback against the free-falling Falcons. I felt certain the Bucs were in for a special year.
After Brady snuck in his first touchdown on his first drive in his first game, I quote-tweeted the video replay: “Welcome to championship football, @Buccaneers! No NFL team worked harder to assemble talent in the offseason. It’s going to fun to watch it pay off.”
There no comments, reactions or retweets. The opinions of “Yankee” transplants are tolerated here only because we are an economic necessity. People who are born elsewhere face the same attitude when they try to become active in town politics in Massachusetts. You are either a townie or you’re not.
The other big difference in Tampa: Bruce Arians, the Bucs’ second-year head coach. Arians talks after a game in the kind of detail that would cause fainting spells among the beat reporters who cover Belichick. He even calls out poorly performing players, including (gasp) Brady. "I would anticipate him to have a little more grit and a little more determination for this week,” Arians said after a blowout loss to the Saints in Week 1.
We were not in Foxborough anymore. “It’s not criticism. It’s honesty,” Arians shrugged after his criticism was criticized.
With public health restrictions on team practices and no preseason at all, the Brady-led Bucs sputtered with an inconsistent offense and an inexperienced secondary. They beat losing teams but headed into their bye week at the end of November with back-to-back three-point losses to the Rams and the Chiefs.
“You don’t just throw guys out there with names,” Arian explained. “You’ve got to practice and learn to get in sync with each other and that takes time.”
And just like that, as we have seen with many Patriots’ teams over the years, everything came together when it counted. The Bucs won seven straight games in December and January, even surviving Brady’s bad second half against the Packers in the NFC Championship.
Tampa fans are now fully on board - “Can you feel the love for Buc quarterback Tom Brady?” asked Tampa Bay Times’ longtime beat writer Rick Stroud. But, will New England fans join them in cheering for Brady and Gronk this Sunday?
You can come to terms with your feelings now or this fall, when the Pats host the Bucs at Gillette. Squint hard and you can envision Pat Patriot morphing into Bucco Bruce. In your heart, you know that Brady is the GOAT in any uniform, even if it’s Tampa’s retro Creamsicle.
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