In 2001, the Buccaneers sold free agent Simeon Rice on the notion of him being the final piece to make their defense one of the best everRice agreed and then he and the Bucs actually made it happen

Scott Smith

Simeon Rice was a month away from turning 12 and living in Chicago's South Side when the Chicago Bears trounced the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX and cemented the legacy of their defense as one of the greatest in NFL history. In fact, nearly 40 decades later, Rice still considers the '85 Bears defense to be the greatest ever, but he personally helped another team get close.

In the second half of the 1990s, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers built a defense around future Hall of Famers Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Rond Barber that had a sustained run as one of the league's best for a decade. In 2001, the Buccaneers signed former Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Simeon Rice in free agency, and by his second year in the system that defense peaked. Tampa Bay's 2002 defense punished opposing offenses with takeaways and sacks, allowed a league low 12.3 points and 252.8 points per game, scored nine touchdowns with the playoffs included and held all the quarterbacks it faced to a collective passer rating of 48.4.

Rice led that swarming unit with 15.5 sacks and added four more in the playoffs, including two in a dominant win in Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders, who had the NFL's top-ranked offense that year. The Bucs' defense set still-standing Super Bowl records with five interceptions and three pick-sixes and Rice led an unstoppable front that sacked NFL MVP Rich Gannon five times.

On Monday, as he was being introduced as the next inductee into the Buccaneers' Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium, Rice was asked where that 2002 Tampa Bay defense ranks among the greatest in league history. He stayed true to his roots but boldly put the '02 Bucs second on the list.

"I answer number two, I think all time," said Rice. "Respectfully it's number two all time. That's what I think is right behind '85 Bears. I think it's the '85 Bears and then us."

Fans of the Steel Curtain defense in Pittsburgh or the 2000 Baltimore Ravens or Seattle's Legion of Boom might argue, and the undefeated Dolphins' of 1972 or the Lawrence Taylor-led Giants of 1986 might like a word as well. It's a worthy debate, but Rice's opinion is certainly an informed one. In fact, he knew before he even took the field for the first time as a Buccaneer that he and the team were destined for Super Bowl glory. Rice remembered watching Sapp and company shut down the St. Louis Rams' Greatest Show on Turf only to see the 1999 NFC Championship Game slip away at the end, and he is certain the result would have been different if he had already been on the team.

On Monday, Rice recalled speaking to former Buccaneers General Manager Rich McKay during the 2001 free agency period and making a bold prediction.

"I said, if you bring me down, you will be in the Super Bowl either this year or next year, trust me," said Rice. "Because I could tell. I watched the Bucs play the Rams in that game, and I'm like, if I would have been playing, you would have won that game."

That was exactly the scenario that late Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin was painting for Rice in an attempt to bring him to Tampa. Kiffin and Head Coach Tony Dungy the twin architects of the great Tampa Two defense and themselves both members of the Ring of Honor knew their defense needed one more piece to put it over the top, an edge rusher to create an unstoppable inside-outside combination with Sapp.

"He joined an elite defense that already featured future Hall of Famers Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Rond Barber," said Buccaneers Owner/Co-Chairman Bryan Glazer while introducing Rice. "The Tampa Two defense led by great players, devised by Tony Dungy and perfected by Monte Kiffin, led the Buccaneers to three playoff appearances from 1997 to 2000. While these defenses were dominant, they lacked an elite edge rusher, a game wrecker who would disrupt the timing of the passing game.

"After the 2000 season, Simeon became an unrestricted free agent, and Monte convinced him that he was the missing piece to make our defense one of the greatest of all time. Simeon immediately elevated our defense to new heights, eventually helping us deliver our first Super Bowl title a year later, in 2002. He had a knack for making great plays when they mattered the most."

Rice immediately turned in five straight seasons with 11 or more sacks after joining the Buccaneers, and he was a first-team Associated Press All-Pro during that peak 2002 campaign. Still, he was used to being the straw that stirs the drink in any given meeting room or locker room, and it took him a while to find a comfort zone within a group of large personalities, the largest of which belonged to Sapp. Those two had some conflicts early on, but Rice said they eventually grew to a point of great mutual respect. And Rice did eventually fit in, not only because he was another great talent added to that incredible group but because they all shared a passion for the game.

"I already knew how hard I worked, but I wasn't sure what this team was," said Rice. "You know, I knew it was a great team, but I did know the impact of what I could do playing amongst the men that played here, the Warren Sapps, the Derrick Brooks, Lynches and guys like that. And I want to be very respectful of those guys coming here, because those that know me know I have a big personality. You know, I had to take more room, but I didn't want to really do that. But when I felt likewhen I got here, I felt like it was okay to be myself. Tampa made it a place that I could be myself, and I felt like the men that I played with, they allowed me to be the best version of myself.

"I was like, these guys are just like me. You know, these guys are just like me. I mean, we, they brought [together] a collection of guys that really, truly love football."

From 1998 through 2005, Rice led the NFL with 101.5 sacks, more in that span than contemporaries of his like Hall of Famers Michael Strahan and Jason Taylor had. That included 67.5 over his first five seasons as a Buccaneer. In the three full seasons that Rice and Sapp formed their deadly combination up front, the Buccaneers were ninth in the league with 121 sacks, first with 79 interceptions and first in opponent passer rating allowed (60.9). The 740 points the Buccaneers allowed in that span were only four more than the NFL leader, Philadelphia, at 736.

"We were all aligned together to crystallize our career and be the best versions of ourselves," said Rice. "And we were young. We were inspiring. We were dangerous. It was unstoppable, all of our mindsets. And we all needed each other. We all needed each other, all of us, to do the special things that we were able to do and be capable of. And the game of football allowed me, especially playing in Tampa Bay, to do that.

"So I knew, from a personal standpoint, our front four, nobody could block us. Once they can't block your front four, everything else, it becomes a feeding frenzy. It's like a bunch of piranhas. So now we're all making plays. Now we're all playing at the highest level, and even on the backside that we would we, regardless of what we did, they stood tall no matter what. So from a collective, as a collective, we just played at the highest level."