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Fennelly: For Galloway, It's Good To Be Leading King's Life

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Bucs receiver Joey Galloway hasn't played a snap this preseason.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 26, 2008

Can Joey come out and play?

There was a Joey Galloway sighting Monday.

He actually participated in a Bucs practice. He wore a helmet and went full speed and everything.

Jon Gruden has dubbed Galloway the "white tiger."

He's quick, dangerous and elusive.

Oh, is he elusive.

Galloway hasn't played a snap this preseason. He hasn't spoken to the media in months.

The white tiger.

He brings the Bucs the lightning bolt, the deep threat. He knows it, too. And so Joey does what Joey wants. Galloway, 36, is a smart man who knows his body. He apparently works like a fiend in offseason workouts - but always on his terms. It drives Gruden crazy, but he sees those 77 career receiving touchdowns. So there are team rules and there are Joey rules; too many, really.

Ah, those elusive white tigers.

"I've seen them twice at Busch Gardens," Gruden said with a smile. "Of course, I've been there a hundred times."

Bison Bones, Anyone?

At Busch Gardens, it was just another day at the office for King, a 300-pound white Bengal tiger who lives at Jungala, the park's spectacular new tiger exhibit.

King was on the grass, on his back. All four of his paws, each the size of a small frying pan, were lolling in the air. King's right ear flicked at a fly. It's good to be King.

Laura Wittish, Busch Gardens' assistant curator for zoo management, agreed.

"Tigers have a very good life here," she said. "I would say they're pampered."

King, 2, one of the six white tigers at the park, eats roughly 6 pounds of meat a day, not counting snacks, which include bison bones to help keep his teeth clean.

Tigers don't always go their own way. They can listen. They respond to their names, present their paws for inspection and sit when instructed by the park's animal-care specialists, who are always behind stainless-steel fencing. The tigers also respond to a gong, which is really only an empty 10-gallon water jug being struck by a sawed-off broom stick.

King goes deep to grab meatballs thrown down to him by the staff. He catches them in his mouth. He never drops one. Not even a bobble.

But mostly King takes it slow. He sleeps 12 to 15 hours each day.

Laura Wittish held up a tiger toy, a hard plastic orb about the size of an NBA basketball. It was covered with claw and bite marks - and a gaping fang-made hole.

"Can Joey do this?" she asked.

King was still lying around. He did not speak with media. He will talk with his caretakers, though, chiefly by "chuffing" - a tiger's way of purring.

"The tigers are pretty easy to work with," Wittish said. "You try to establish relationships. It sometimes just takes a little patience."

It Takes Patience

The other day, Joey Galloway ran 50 yards in 5.1 seconds. Jon Gruden was agog.

"When you run 50 yards in 5.1 seconds, I don't know if he's going to go after that Jamaican guy in the 100 meters or what," he said.

But if something comes up, he will wait on Joey. And wait.

It sometimes just takes a little patience.

"Not everybody gets treated the same way in pro sports these days," Gruden said. "It's a tough situation. I won't lie. But I trust this guy. He knows that I trust him and he trusts me."

Galloway left practice Monday apparently satisfied.

He did not chuff with media.

He'll be ready when he's ready.

Anybody got a water jug and a broomstick?

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