TAMPA, Fla. — There's one Buccaneers player that stands above the rest in the franchise's 50 years.
Tampa Bay's beloved NFL team named Hall-of-Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks as the top player in the team's history.
The now 52-year-old retired legend left it all on the field for the Bucs with 14 years of delivering bruising hits and clutch plays for the team between 1995 and 2008.
The Florida native was drafted 16th overall to the Bucs in 1995 after a standout tenure with the Florida State Seminoles in college football.
Brooks standing at 6-foot and 235 pounds started 221 of 224 games he played, racking up 25 interceptions (six for touchdowns), 13.5 sacks and more than 1,300 tackles. He made 11 Pro Bowls and was a selection five times for the NFL's First Team All Pro.
Brooks was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2002. And he helped the Bucs to their first-ever title in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003.
All the more reason why Brooks is the best Bucs player ever.
How journalists battle the rise of AI fake news
As News Literacy Week kicks off in partnership with Scripps News, Tampa Bay 28 reporter Michael Paluska sat down with fact-checkers at PolitiFact to learn how they combat misinformation in the age of AI.
