Check the birth certificate? Bucs old man Lavonte David is at it again The youngsters were throwing up on the sidelines. Getting IVs in the locker room. Questioning every life choice that left them exhausted and roasted under an afternoon sun that turned a simple football field into a furnace on Sunday. By the second half, even fans who had paid dearly for seats were leaving in search of air conditioning or shade. Meanwhile, the oldest man in the huddle continued to roar. He blitzed, he covered, he orchestrated, he chased. By the time the final whistle had blown and the Bucs had beaten the Eagles 33-16, the linebacker in his 13th season in a Tampa Bay uniform had more tackles than anyone else. He had two sacks, a pass breakup and a critical forced fumble. Yes, Lavonte David is 34 and flirting with eternal. "I'm telling you, that dude is Superman," said outside linebacker Yaya Diaby, who was in sixth grade when the Bucs drafted David. "That's a Hall of Famer right there. Only certain people can do what he's doing at that age. It's amazing." The accumulation of stats and records are impressive - he joined Derrick Brooks on Sunday as the only Bucs with more than 1,500 career tackles, and his 30 forced fumbles are the most in team history - but it's the consistency and perseverance that stand out. He's averaged 15 starts and 123 tackles a season since 2012. He's played for five head coaches in Tampa Bay. He played alongside Ronde Barber, who is pushing 50. He was a Pro Bowl pick on a team devoid of stars. "He's the same player today that he was seven years ago when I was a rookie," said safety Jordan Whitehead. "Nothing's changed. On the field, in the locker room, putting in the work, he's the exact same every day. He leads this team, and we just follow along." Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay offense were the story of the first half, but it was David who turned in the most critical play of all. Down 24-0 halfway through the second quarter, the Eagles had crept back to 30-16 and were a pass completion away from making it a one-score game. On first down from the Bucs 19, edge rushers Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Diaby both dropped into coverage while David blitzed up the middle and knocked running back Saquon Barkley several yards backward. Jalen Hurts initially dodged David and stepped up in the pocket, but David spun back around and banged into Hurts as he set up to throw. The ball fell to the ground, and Ben Stille recovered for the Bucs. Tampa Bay kicked a field goal four minutes later, and the game was essentially finished. "A play needed to be made," David said. "I was able to blitz and got an opportunity to go one-on-one with the running back, which is a linebacker's dream. I was able to win and make a play on the football. If I didn't make that play, I never would have heard the end of it from (linebackers coach Larry Foote), so the whole time in my mind I was like, ‘I've got to win, I've got to win.'" Since the NFL began recording forced fumbles in the mid-1990s, no inside linebacker has ever recorded as many as David's 30. "He's our warrior," Todd Bowles said. "He's our captain over there. He gets things done." There was a time when Devin White looked like David's successor as the man in the middle of the Bucs defense. White had gaudy sack numbers as a 22-year-old in 2020 and had a contract worth millions more than David last season. Playing outside linebacker, Shaquil Barrett more than doubled David's $7 million salary in 2023. And, yet, White is sitting on the bench in Philadelphia now and Barrett is retired at 31. David, who evaluates whether to continue playing on a year-to-year basis, looked nothing like a guy with retirement in his near future on Sunday. "I'm still playing every snap, so it doesn't feel like I've lost a step yet," David said. "I always look at it as just a blessing to be out there. A lot of people would love to be in the same shoes that I'm in, so I don't take this opportunity for granted." Nose tackle Vita Vea, who has lined up in front of David for seven seasons now, was asked how old his teammate looked on Sunday: "Lavonte?" Vea repeated. "He's 21." John Romano, Tampa Bay Times, published 30 September 2024