There Is Magic In The Bucs’ Helmet
May 15th, 2022
Rookie RB Rachaad White
You have to admit, the Bucs have a cool helmet.
Some NFL helmets are meh. The Bears helmet is ugly. The Crows helmet makes Joe want to puke. Same with the Jags. The Dixie Chicks helmet has been a joke since that fool Jerry Glanville went all black. The Dolphins helmet looks like some sad seventh-grade painting.
The Bucs helmet? The shiny pewter with the red flag looks sharp. In the sun, that helmet turns to gold.
And for the Bucs’ rookies who made their first trip to One Buc Palace last week, that helmet really caught their attention. A lot was thrown at the rookies in the past few days. But if they said they didn’t take a brief moment to realize they were actually in an NFL locker room and in an NFL team headquarters about to put on NFL gear, they’d be lying.
Bucs rookie running back Rachaad White was so impressed with the Bucs helmet, he tried to take it back to the team hotel.
He wanted to wear it while studying his playbook and watching basketball. The Bucs wouldn’t let him.
“I was trying to soak it all in,” White said of being in the Bucs’ locker room, realizing his boyhood dream was coming true. “I tried to bring the helmet to the hotel last night but they didn’t allow me to. … I was just going to watch [basketball] with the visor on. I just wanted to wear it.”
It was cool for Joe to see the rookies’ reactions when speaking to reporters while wearing Bucs gear. They looked like they won the lottery.
Cornerback Zyon McCollum was another who beamed. Looking at the practice fields at One Buc, McCollum wore an ear-to-ear smile and said, “I love life.”
But the helmet also got his attention.
“I want that helmet!” McCollum said. “That helmet is the most beautiful-looking helmet I have ever seen.”
Even a guy like Florida State and Gaither High grad DeCalon Brooks, Derrick Brooks’ son, who is no stranger to One Buc Palace, soaked in the power of the Tampa Bay helmet.
“I had the helmet right by my chair,” Brooks began. “It had ‘BROOKS’ right in the front of it. I was like, ‘Dang. This is really crazy.'”
May 15th, 2022 at 8:12 am
When I was very young, I was attracted to the LA Rams (Roman Gabriel days) because of their cool helmet. I wonder how many children cling onto the Bucs because of the swashbuckling helmet. If the Blue Angels can recruit for the future, why not the Bucs?
May 15th, 2022 at 8:23 am
BT…I was a young duffer who was attracted to the creamsicle unis and Bucco Bruce helmet…looked great on old school tvs ( the rare times they were on tv that is ). Throw in that swashbuckling team with the solid D and Williams chucking the ball all over the field…followed by a McKay quip…and I was hooked. It’s a shame Brady will likely never don the creamsicles…
May 15th, 2022 at 8:55 am
The immortal Lamar Sparkman created the Bucco Bruce helmet for the not so immortal Hugh Culverhouse. It is said that the inspiration for the persona on the helmet was the late great Errol Flynn from either the film Captain Blood or the Seahawk-take your pick. Sparkman also created a cartoon every Sunday for the old Tampa Tribune that would portray a flying bi-plane called the buc bomber with various memes against that weeks opponent. Personally I liked the old Broncos helmets with the rearing and snorting stallion , good old days for sure.
May 15th, 2022 at 8:58 am
I remember being at a game at the Big Sombrero as a kid and being down at the Bucs tunnel during introductions. Steve DeBerg was standing right in front of me. I remember thinking how fantastic that orange uniform (helmet as well) was on a beautiful Florida afternoon.
No doubt it’s been made fun of, but it was perfect to me.
May 15th, 2022 at 9:01 am
Titans helmets stink as well.
May 15th, 2022 at 9:01 am
So cool to see these young guys ready to get after it
The terminator pirate helmet is pretty dang cool. I didnt at first but like it better then the old pirate helmet before it
Not the original bucco helmet
Go bucs!
And a dang pirate ship in the actual stadium. What a
Great icing on the top of the cake !
May 15th, 2022 at 9:19 am
I absolutely agree with you, ’79 Defense! I have (and will ALWAYS HAVE) the Bucco Bruce helmet in a display case on my dresser to see every single day!!!! GO BUCS!!!!
May 15th, 2022 at 9:36 am
If he , actually the whole draft class, can play as well as they express themselves in the interviews after the 2nd day of rookie camp the front office hit a grand slam. Very impressed with the intelligence of those players.
May 15th, 2022 at 9:36 am
Awesome Dean!
May 15th, 2022 at 9:47 am
If the creamicles had been associated with even a .500 team, they’d be universally beloved. 0-26 and those consecutive double-digit loss seasons did more to tarnish the reputation of those uniforms than their actual look.
May 15th, 2022 at 11:07 am
The Rook is just going to have to buy himself his own helmet. 🙈
May 15th, 2022 at 11:25 am
I wonder how many people look forward to putting on that Cleveland helmet.😀 You’re looking at nothing.
May 15th, 2022 at 12:49 pm
Jags are soo bad. They should just redo their entire outfit. Might give them some luck like it did the Bucs switching back to the reds.
May 15th, 2022 at 12:56 pm
His running style/speed reminds me a lot of Eric Dickerson. I hope I’m at least 25% rite on this:)
May 15th, 2022 at 5:53 pm
Stone… not Dickerson at all. Very much like Marcus Allen. Smooth, good feet, never takes a clean hit, taller and a little upright, good hands. He should be good for us
May 15th, 2022 at 8:18 pm
Helmets, helmets….hat do they have to do in terms of winning?
May 15th, 2022 at 10:28 pm
Ok this goes back aways maybe too far back but in 68 when I was 10 I sent away for a mini helmet kit from an add in a magazine. You received small team colored helmets with snap on chin straps and team decals to affix to the sides. I used to play entire NFL schedules for each team on my electric football game. Always getting the two teams helmets to set by each end zone. For the younger guys who grew up on madden, electric football was any actual thing, google it.
May 16th, 2022 at 2:22 pm
Since some of reminiscing of times yonder, I remember taking my issue of Beckett Magazine when I was probably 10 or 11 (not sure) and writing to the 49ers office (they had all the team’s HO addresses in the mag and I was a HUGE Joe Montana/49ers fan). I mailed them a Montana card that I wanted signed. I got a reply, but it didn’t include my card or a signature. But, they did send me some stickers and some other stuff. I actually thought getting a reply was awesome in itself. I still remember it, so it’s the memory and nostalgia of it that counts.
May 16th, 2022 at 5:05 pm
Love his excitement. Just like a child and a new pair of shoes.