A sampling of news conference reaction from Bucs players and coaches after Tampa Bay's 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
(Courtesy: NFL)
Coach Bruce Arians
(On Todd Bowles and his defense) “Yeah, I can’t give him enough credit. You know, I think he got a little tired of hearing about how unstoppable they were. I thought he came up with a fantastic plan just to keep them in front of us and tackle real well. Patrick wasn’t going to beat us running, we’d let him run all day. Just keep chasing him around and see if we can make some plays.” (On his future with the Buccaneers) “Hell no, I ain’t going anywhere. I’m coming back, trying to get two and then we’ll see after that, but no this football team, I love these guys and we have a great staff, great team. Hopefully Jason and I can get together and keep most of them and try to repeat.” (On what this moment means and if he could’ve imagined it) “No, not really. I think I’d a been smoking something illegal to really imagine this. I just can’t thank Jason enough and the Glazer family for giving me this opportunity and my coaching staff. I mean they are outstanding. I don’t do anything, man, they do it all and we have great, great players. And again, Jason gets all the credit for the roster and I just try to get out of the way and not screw it up.” (On keeping this group together and going for another Super Bowl next year) “Yeah, I think the biggest thing is keeping our guys. You know, do what we can, make sure that we keep our guys here and hit a home run in free agency, just with our guys. Maybe an outside guy, just keep our guys and then Jason will hit another home run in the Draft, and we’ll continue to build this football team. And you know, we don’t have many week spots if we get the guys back that we want back and need back. We’ll just be adding great athletes in the Draft.”
Quarterback Tom Brady
(On what makes this Super Bowl victory so special) “I think they’re all special. This has been an amazing year. We got off to a good start – 7-2 – and then had a little rough stretch where we found our identity. Played a lot better football in December and January. Just really proud of all the guys. Proud of all the coaches and the effort we put in. We knew we were playing a great football team tonight and we got the job done. You want to get this far, you’ve got to get the job done and we did it.” (On the defense’s role in Tampa Bay’s last three victories) “They stepped up to the challenge. You go up against a guy like Pat [Mahomes] – incredible player – Aaron [Rodgers] – MVP – two weeks ago [and] they played incredible. Drew [Brees] they played great. They stepped up. They rose to the occasion. We needed it because we were playing extremely talented offenses. Just so happy we all came to play tonight.” (On playing in the Super Bowl after the circumstances surrounding this season) “We went through all of them. We dealt with them, tried to understand the challenges that were going to be presented. There were a lot of them, but guys just did what we were asked and tried to show up with a great attitude and work however it was. We were pretty fortunate on our team – guys were really disciplined with all the protocols in place. Ended up getting the job done.”
Tight end Ron Gronkowski
(On his offseason conversation with Tom Brady that convinced him to come out of retirement) “It was kind of a series of conversations. It wasn’t anything like, ‘Hey Rob, I want you to come back, come to Tampa with me.’ It was over a little bit of time, a couple of conversations. Then free agency hit and I was sitting there like, he told me he was going to go down to Tampa, or go to another team prior, and I was just sitting there. And then he hit me up like, ‘Would you come down?’ And I was like, ‘I was waiting for you, I was waiting for you to make a move.’ It’s just been over a series of talks, and it’s just an unbelievable story. There are a lot of other conversations that went down, but we’re just going to keep them between us. But overall, just coming down to Tampa Bay, just coming into this organization, this Buccaneers organization, they were an organization ready to win. The players here were ready to win, and to come here and be a small part of it and play my role, was just amazing. Just to come here and have a situation like this, with so many great players and be Super Bowl LV champs, it’s just surreal.” (On his journey from his Super Bowl LIII victory two years ago, to now) “I remember after that win, I was so done. Coming off of the field, I was like, I’m just glad it’s over. Just the pain I was in too. It was great to be a champ, but it just felt great to be done. But to take the year off, go through that journey, heal up, get my mind right and see the options out there and see everything play out. And then just come down here to Tampa Bay, come out of retirement. I retired from being retired, which was pretty cool. Just coming down here to this journey, I saw the opportunity. I saw that it was a great opportunity. I love Florida, it was an opportunity to be in great weather. T-shirts, shorts and sandals basically everyday going to work, that’s my style. Just unbelievable. What a journey it’s been, what a story it’s been. What a start it was to the journey, and what a finish to the journey. It was the real deal.” (On how is going to celebrate and if he is going to remain unretired) “Yeah, I’ll remain unretired. I’m a free agent. It’s the first time in my career I’m a free agent. I signed basically an eight-year contract and played it all out. I signed that when I was 22 years old, and it’s just pretty incredible to play out a contract like that, with a retirement in-between. That’s surreal. But I definitely see myself coming back. Just the guys around here, the players around here, the coaches, the people in the front office, they’re all just great people and I love working with them all year long. I’m obviously going to soak this in and see where I’m at in a couple weeks, but I don’t see why not. I don’t see why I won’t be back.”
Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles
(On what they dialed up to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense) “The biggest thing was to cover up the receivers and make him hold the ball a little bit, so our rush could get there. And I think mixing up the coverages and moving some guys around and making him think a little bit and taking away his first read allowed the guys to get off up front and covering the guys in the back.” (On holding Kansas City to no touchdowns and the pressure they put on Mahomes all night long) “That’s a credit to the guys up front getting the pressure, but mostly for the guys in the back because we kind of took away some of the underneath throws and it took too long for the guys to get deep. While the guys up front hunted, the guys in the back covered them, so we worked hand in hand tonight.”
Offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich
What does it mean to see Bruce Arians get this Super Bowl win? Does this win convince owners to look past somebody’s color and go by achievements? Probably not. We felt good, like there was no way we were losing this game. BA having the opportunity to win the Super Bowl as a head coach and knowing the assistant coaches, there was no way we were losing this football game – that is how we felt. We were fortunate enough that we found a way to pull it out. I love the way we played as a team. We have been building this thing like this for awhile and it all came together. I am happy for everybody that is involved.
Linebacker Lavonte David
(On what the moment was like when the confetti were falling after being in Tampa Bay for so long) “Great feeling. A feeling that is indescribable. It’s everything that you dream of as a kid who wanted to play this game at a high level. To be called a ‘world champ.’ I mean you go down in history as one of the best teams to play this game. Throughout this whole week, I was reminiscing. Looking back at old film of the past times. Looking at all the great guys we had come across this organization. Just reflecting. To be at this moment and realize everything that I had been through and everything that this organization has been through. To finally be here, all of that hard work paid off. I’m glad to be a world champion. You got to put that at the end of my name every time. World champion Lavonte David.”
Linebacker Shaquil Barrett
(On Bucs defense) “I think our performance speaks for itself. Hey, we got to be at the top somewhere. The Chiefs got a high-powered offense. The way we came out there and played tonight – offensively, defensively, special teams – we all did what we had to do to get the win. No touchdowns were unheard of for the Chiefs offense. If you told anyone they won’t score a touchdown in any game this year, if you would’ve bet on that you would’ve made so much money. Nobody would’ve thought the Chiefs would’ve never scored a touchdown in a Super Bowl game.”
Safety Antoine Winfield Jr.
(On his conversation with his father after the game) “He came down onto the field and we pretty much just ran up into each other, latched on to each other and started crying about the moment. It was a special moment. My dad played 14 years and never went to the Super Bowl. My first year I was able to get to the Super Bowl and win it, so it was just a proud moment that we shared. Both of my parents, they both came down and I was able to embrace both of them and share that moment. It was incredible.”
