Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano has an acronym built around the word family to describe the way he wants his team to interact with one another.
“Forget about me, I love you” is the acronym and the highest-profile new member of the Bucs thinks that the more traditional use of family is a good descriptor of life in Tampa as well. During an interview with Warren Sapp on the NFL Network, cornerback Darrelle Revis was asked about the biggest difference between playing in Tampa and playing for the Jets. He tried to answer by saying Tampa was a smaller city, but Sapp pushed for more and got it.
“It’s more of a family here. It’s more of a family here,” Revis said. “Everybody is real tight here. We all get along, everybody is fine. There’s no nitpicking. No small stories leaking out to be bigger stories. Everybody is on the same page here and we want to win.”
An advanced degree in reading between the lines isn’t needed to pick up on the dig about life with the Jets, which ended for Revis after months of stories fueled by team sources about trading him because owner Woody Johnson wasn’t going to give him a big, new contract. There are no shortage of other stories that leaked out from behind closed doors during Revis’ tenure with the team before that either, so it’s clear that Revis won’t be missing that part of playing near the Big Apple.
If the team decides to hold him out for the preseason, Revis’ first game action with his new team will come against his old team in Week One of the regular season. Should the Bucs lose that one, there may be some nitpicking in the ensuing week.