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The usual spectacle will be largely lacking but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs are about to begin the media gauntlet that leads up their clash in Super Bowl LV on Sunday.
The NFL will conduct Opening Night on Monday with a series of virtual interview sessions with players and coaches on both teams. For the Buccaneers, that includes Head Coach Bruce Arians plus 18 assistant coaches and nine core players. More players will conduct interview sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as well.
Like many operational changes that made the 2020 NFL season the most unusual one in league history, this interview format was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the Super Bowl media blitz was highlighted by Media Day, a mass gathering of both teams at a sea of podiums inside the stadium where the game was to be played. One thing remains the same, however: Many of the interviews will be conducted simultaneously, allowing member of the media
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Earl Watford spent all of 2019 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and now he s back in time to help the 2020 team prepare for Super Bowl LV.
On Wednesday, the Buccaneers re-signed Watford, a versatile veteran offensive lineman, to their practice squad. To make room on that 16-man crew, the team released rookie guard Nick Leverett.
Tampa Bay has made a series of moves along their interior offensive line since reserve center A.Q. Shipley went on injured reserve on November 28, a process that continued when starting right guard Alex Cappa suffered a fractured ankle in the Wild Card win at Washington on January 9. First the Bucs signed veteran guard Ted Larsen, who has extensive NFL starting experience including some with Bruce Arians in Chicago, to the practice squad. Larsen has since been elevated to the game day roster four times, appearing in two games.
“Football is the ultimate team sport and it takes everybody. Everybody plays a role, I’m just so proud of this whole team and again, just blessed to be a part of it.”
These were the words of Tampa Bay Buccaneers savior Tom Brady – words he’s repeated often this season to a chorus of groans and eye-rolls on the other end of muted media microphones hoping for a juicier quote. It is cliche-filler to be sure, but it’s also 100 percent accurate, and its’ embodiment has never been more evident than in this Bucs team.
Sure, if we’re dividing up credit into chunks, Brady gets the biggest without question. What he’s done on the season is incredible enough – over 4,500 passing yards, 43 total touchdowns, limited turnovers and limited sacks in a Bruce Arians’ offense that typically produces a lot of both thanks to the aggressive nature of the passing attack – but what he’s doing in the playoffs? Completely nuts.
What the Experts and the Statistics Tell Us About the Bucs totalpackers.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from totalpackers.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers elevated rookie safety Javon Hagan and veteran guard Ted Larsen from their practice squad on Saturday, making both players eligible to play in Sunday s NFC Championship Game in Green Bay. Since the Buccaneers currently have no players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, they could only elevate a maximum of two players this weekend.
Hagan could be the rare player who plays in a postseason game before ever seeing any regular-season action. He joined the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent out of Ohio University in May and has been on the practice squad all season. Hagan was also elevated from the practice squad last week when safeties Jordan Whitehead and Andrew Adams were dealing with injuries, but those two were able to play and the rookie was named a game day inactive. This week, both Whitehead and fellow starter Antoine Winfield, Jr. are on the injury report, and Winfield is considered questionable to play after sustaining an ankle injury in