TAMPA, Fla. — "Touchdown Tampa Bay" will sound different next season, as the Bucs' play-by-play announcer, Gene Deckerhoff, has announced his retirement.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers said Deckerhoff informed the Bucs he will retire at the end of the 2025 NFL season.
Deckerhoff has been the voice of the Buccaneers for 37 years, the third-longest play-by-play tenure among NFL clubs (Eagles’ Merrill Reese and Cowboys' Brad Sham are the longest).
He is known for the iconic phrase “Fire them Cannons!” whenever the Bucs score. Tampa Bay 28 anchor Paul Lagrone interviewed Deckerhoff in 2025 and reflected on his career.
Watch interview with Gene Deckerhoff
“Calling Buccaneers games has been one of the greatest honors of my professional career,” said Deckerhoff.
Alongside Buccaneers games, Deckerhoff was the voice of USF football and began his career in 1971, doing play-by-play for high school football games in Bradenton.
Class action lawsuit challenges appeals process for controversial school bus camera tickets
Stanley Schultz was fined $225 for illegally passing a school bus with its stop arm deployed last year. However, video from his citation shows the bus’s warning lights never flashed before the bus stopped and the stop sign began to deploy.
