National Football League

Six-time Pro Bowl DT Gerald McCoy retires as one of Bucs' all-time greats

Published Apr. 14, 2023 3:10 p.m. ET

Gerald McCoy deserves to be remembered in his prime.

The longtime Bucs defensive tackle officially retired Friday, sending out a thank-you video to the team and its fans, having gone to six Pro Bowls in nine proud years in Tampa Bay. Before the arrival of Tom Brady and a Super Bowl and the success of the past three years, McCoy was the best part of a lot of bad Bucs teams, never making it to a playoff game in his career.

McCoy, 35, made the Pro Bowl six straight seasons from 2012 to 2017, piling up 54.5 sacks and 79 tackles for loss while in Tampa, enough to rank him in the top four in Bucs history in both categories. A captain for six years, he's an obvious choice for the team's Ring of Honor, playing long enough to bridge the generational gap as a teammate of both Ronde Barber as the last remnant of the Bucs' first Super Bowl, and Lavonte David as the veteran leader of Tampa Bay's second championship team in 2020.

Part of the charm with McCoy was that he always was — heck, is — a big kid at heart. At the start of training camp one year, he showed up in a kimono and slippers. To help his team handle the unrelenting heat of Tampa in August, he paid to have a Hawaiian shave ice truck show up outside the Bucs' locker room after a practice, giving players and coaches a welcome jolt of cold.

His kid-at-heart persona included his love of all things Batman. In 2018, he showed up for training camp with a matte black Rolls-Royce Wraithe — the sticker price is more than $300,000 — customized with the Batman logo on the hood. When "Hard Knocks" profiled the Bucs in 2017, McCoy showed off a life-size Caped Crusader in his home, revealing that he was a comic-book junkie even before the movies were everywhere. "The ultimate, ultimate goal is to get punched by a superhero," he told HBO that year. "I want to get punched by a superhero. Hard. Extremely hard."

McCoy was great in the community as well, hosting an annual "McCoy Family Christmas" event with his wife, Ebony, at the team facility to give needy local families a holiday surprise. "God blesses us so we can bless others," he would say, bringing in 20-plus families and setting them up with their own miniature tree, gift cards for shopping sprees, bikes for kids, the kind of joy nobody should take for granted.

McCoy was deservingly the team's nominee for the NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in his final season in Tampa in 2018, and the biggest knock he faced from fans was that he was too nice on the field, always one to pick up an opposing quarterback after taking him to the ground. He faced more unfair criticism for not being able to lead the Bucs to the playoffs — Tampa Bay had a winning record just twice in his nine years, narrowly missing a wild-card berth by a mere tiebreaker in 2016.

Like many a Bucs star, he deserved a better exit than he got. When Bruce Arians came in as head coach in 2019, the decision was made to release McCoy, and within days he'd been replaced by fellow 2010 draft pick Ndamukong Suh, who got his No. 93 jersey as well. McCoy's post-Bucs career never had the same success. He played the entire 2019 season for Carolina, getting 2.5 of his five sacks in a win over the Bucs in London. But he missed the entire 2020 season with the Cowboys due to a torn quad, and after signing with the Raiders in 2021, he played only nine snaps before tearing his ACL in the season opener.

"I loved my football life, but every great thing comes to an end," he said Friday in an appearance on "The Carton Show." "I had a blast. Anybody who had anything to do with my career, I say, 'Thank you. I love you. And football, thank you so much.'"

McCoy could have had resentment from his exit from the Bucs, but he remained a huge fan of the team. When Tampa hosted the Cowboys in a wild-card game in January, he was the team's "Legend of the Game," grateful to be back in the stadium he called home and cheering the Bucs on. When the 2020 team found the ultimate success he'd missed out on, he celebrated without hesitation.

"The love I have for these men is incredible and I can't think of a more deserving group!!" McCoy tweeted. "Congratulations to the entire @Buccaneers organization!! Enjoy it now and go get y'all another one!! YEAAAAAAAAAA BOYS!!"

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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