Aqib Talib has been an NFL player since the Buccaneers drafted him in 2008. But he says it was four and a half years later that he really figured out what it is to be a professional.
Talib divides his pro football career into two parts: Those four and a half years in Tampa Bay, when he was playing for an organization where he wasn’t particularly happy, and then everything after November 1, 2012, the day he was traded to New England.
“I’ve been in the NFL since ’08,” Talib told the Boston Herald. “But I’ve really been in the NFL since November of 2012.”
Talib never got to the playoffs in four seasons with the Bucs, but he’s getting ready for his fourth playoff game in two years with the Patriots.
“It’s totally different here,” Talib said. “It’s big games after big games. It’s Monday nights after Sunday nights, playoffs. Tom Brady is walking around here. There are countless people and media in the locker room. This is the NFL right here.”
Talib sounds like a man who hopes to play in New England for a long time.