The Buccaneers’ Ring of Honor celebrates many of the key figures in the franchise’s history, from its 1979 NFC Championship run through its first Super Bowl win in 2003 and up to its most recent success winning Super Bowl LV. There remain a few figures from these highlights that deserve to be inducted to the Ring of Honor, but there are other players whose contributions deserve recognition even if the teams they were on were less successful.
Here are the candidates who are most likely to join Tampa Bay’s Ring of Honor this season:
Tom Brady
If the Bucs can induct Bruce Arians to their Ring of Honor a year after he retires, why not Tom Brady? After all, next to Arians, Brady was one of the chief drivers behind the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV win. He may have only played for Tampa Bay for three seasons, but he unquestionably changed the culture of the franchise after nearly two decades of irrelevance.
It also helps that Brady can still put butts in seats, if his Netflix roast was any indication. His induction would be all but assured if the Bucs were playing the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Tampa, instead of Kansas City.
Brady’s new job as Fox’s top in-game commentator will likely afford him at least one opportunity to be on hand for a Bucs’ home game. Tampa Bay plays the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10 at home. With the game featuring a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the 49ers, it would make sense for the Bucs, Fox and the NFL to make sure a Ring of Honor induction adds even more drama to the proceedings.
James Wilder
Simply put, James Wilder is the best running back in Buccaneers history. He owns franchise records for career rush yards and single-season rush yards and touchdowns. There are few Bucs players, never mind running backs, who can match Wilder’s longevity and durability.
Wilder’s 1984 season is legendary. For goodness sakes, he ran the ball 407 times! That is the third-most rush attempts in a single season in NFL history. His 2229 yards from scrimmage was just 30 yards from setting the single-season record and was the fifth-most of any player from the last century.
Like Lee Roy Selmon, Jimmie Giles and Paul Gruber, Wilder was a rare treasure amidst the sheer calamity that was Tampa Bay in the first two decades of their existence. Unlike them though, Wilder never got to taste team success at any point of his career with the Bucs. Adding him to the Ring of Honor would set that wrong finally right.
Gerald McCoy
Most Bucs fans might like to forget the 2010s ever happened. It was a decade of futility, with just two winning seasons and no playoff appearances. Reasons to cheer were rare, but among the few bright spots was defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.
Tampa Bay’s 2010 first-round pick was often the most talented player on the roster during his tenure, but he was rewarded with inept coaching and replacement-level talent around him. As a team leader and one of the most boisterous personalities in not only Tampa Bay but the entire league, McCoy became enemy number one for many fans looking to place blame for a lost decade.
This castigation was misplaced as McCoy was not only one of the Bucs’ three All-Pros during his career, he was one of the best interior pass-rushers over that period. He recorded 54.5 sacks with Tampa Bay, third-most in the NFL in that span and fourth-most among all Bucs in franchise history.
As McCoy embarks on an almost predestined second career in broadcasting, it would be fitting for the Bucs to send him off with recognition for his contributions to the franchise, even though it failed to capitalize on his talent.
Simeon Rice
While many remember Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber as the core of the Bucs’ vaunted defense in the late ’90s and early ’00s, defensive end Simeon Rice is often forgotten, though he was likely the missing piece to a championship defense. His contribution to the NFL may not get him into the Hall of Fame, but his contribution to Tampa Bay should earn him a place in their Ring of Honor.
Rice’s 69.5 sacks in a Bucs uniform are third-most in franchise history. Rice was also Tampa Bay’s chief sack artist during their 2002 Super Bowl run, leading the team with 15.5 sacks in the regular season, his most in one season as a Buc, and four sacks in the playoffs.
Though he played next to Warren Sapp who often drew significant attention from opposing offenses, Rice was talented and productive all on his own. His 51.5 sacks with the Arizona Cardinals during his first five seasons and his 26 sacks in the two full seasons he played after Sapp’s departure from Tampa Bay affirm this.
The Bucs have honored every key piece of the Bucs’ 2003 championship defense with the exception of Rice. This could be the year Tampa Bay gives recognition to a player who has to this point gone largely unappreciated since the end of his NFL career.
Hardy Nickerson
One player who deserves recognition for his contributions to the Bucs’ 2002 Super Bowl win without actually being on the roster is linebacker Hardy Nickerson. A free agent addition in 1993, Nickerson was the catalyst of a culture change in Tampa Bay that would ultimately lead to the franchise’s first championship.
In his seven seasons with the Bucs, Nickerson was one of the best linebackers in the NFL. He was named to the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade team as well as first-team All-Pro twice and elected to five Pro Bowls. He was the model linebacker: violent, fast and smart.
Though he left the team before their Super Bowl run in 2002, Nickerson was the team leader who set the standard for future stars like Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp. He took a historically woeful squad and remade it in his own image, nurturing it until it could thrive on its own.
Nickerson’s recent nomination to the Pro Football Hall of Fame might spur the Bucs to finally put one of the best linebackers in not only franchise history, but NFL history, in their Ring of Honor. It may be a small consolation compared to missing out on their Super Bowl XXXVII win, but it is long overdue and more than deserved.