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Antonio Bryant Getting A Fresh Start

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

Antonio Bryant started his NFL career in 2002, but he has never played for a team that won more than seven games in a season.

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2008

DALLAS - The Bucs were only a couple of days into training camp when Antonio Bryant first heard the voices. After a few days, they screamed out in agony to him. Bryant's knees cried out the loudest.

"They were like, 'Hey, what are you doing, where's the couch? Where's the flat screen? Where's the remote?'" Bryant said. "My body was like, 'What's going on? What are you getting up so early for?' It was an adjustment."

Returning to football after a year off usually is. There was no way Bryant was going to listen to his body, though, no way he would give in and go back to life on that couch.

It was never his intention to be on the couch in the first place. But run-ins with two former coaches, a suspension tied to a DUI arrest and a failed drug test landed him there.

So he sat, in exile, from March 7, 2007, to March 10, 2008, flipping channels, waiting for the phone to ring, his body softening, but growing hungrier with each day.

It wasn't just a return to football Bryant craved. He wanted to prove he was more than a guy who couldn't get along with his coaches or stay out of trouble.

Today, Bryant makes a triumphant return to Dallas, where his career and subsequent troubles began, as a more mature man, not to mention the leading receiver for the division-leading Bucs.

"I feel like my time away made me better," he said, "because I'm a guy that people don't expect to see as a force; that people don't think they're going to have to reckon with. They don't see me coming. And that's the way I like it."

Bryant's 2006 run-in with former 49ers coach Mike Nolan was his second such set-to with a coach in two years. The first was in June 2004 with then-Cowboys coach Bill Parcells. That one was a beauty.

It started with Bryant complaining to his receivers coach about the number of reps he was getting during a drill and escalated into a separate argument with then-Cowboys receiver Keyshawn Johnson. When Parcells intervened, Bryant took off his helmet and shoulder pads and threw them to the ground. Parcells reportedly picked the jersey up and threw it at Bryant, who reportedly threw the jersey back in Parcells' face.

Several players had to jump in to keep Bryant and Parcells apart, according to reports, and Bryant was eventually escorted from the field by club security. Four months later, he was traded to the Browns. Four years later, he was out of the league.

It was the Bucs, of course, who got Bryant off that couch, and he has wasted no time returning the favor. He goes into today's game against Dallas as their leading receiver, a player they might not be 5-2 without.

More importantly, perhaps, he seems to be a changed man. He still doesn't agree with everything his coaches ask him to do, but he's learned to keep his opinions to himself.

"I guess you can say he's getting more mature," Bucs teammate and close friend Phillip Buchanon said. "He's smarter now in terms of taking care of his business.

"I'm not saying he wasn't mature before, but I can sense that by the way he is talking he's matured a little bit. He's also had a baby, too, so a lot of things have changed in his life."

Playing for a winner is a change. Bryant started his NFL career in 2002, but he has never played for a team that won more than seven games in a season. Dallas dispatched him to Cleveland in 2003. After two seasons with the Browns, he went to San Francisco as a free agent in 2006.

Playing for the Bucs has been a new experience, and Bryant said it has made a difference.

"Sometimes you want to be more involved, but when you're on a successful team like I am, you're happy with winning," Bryant said. "I'm happy with the situation we're in here, and I'm hoping to make it better."

No one denies his ability to do that. A player who blends speed with toughness and versatility, Bryant was referred to last week by Bucs coach Jon Gruden as "everything we need in a receiver."

"This is a guy that won the Biletnikoff Award as the top college receiver at the University of Pittsburgh," Gruden said. "He started opposite Michael Irvin as a rookie, had 1,000 yards with the Browns, led the 49ers in receiving in '06. He's got talent. That's never been questioned."

It's often gone unnoticed, though. The mistakes that have checkered Bryant's past have blotted out much of what he's done, or could do, on the field. On that topic, Bryant can't hold his tongue.

"I've never really gotten a lot of exposure for how I play, but there's a time for everything and maybe it's my turn now for people to see," he said. "You know, they always bring up the Parcells incident and say, 'You got in trouble with Mike Nolan and got run out of San Francisco.'

"But nobody has brought up the fact that the year I got drafted I was either the number one or two receiver that year, and that I had a successful college career. So let's look at some real facts and let's start with the fact that I've grown.

"I'm 27; that's another reason I was able to bounce back. A lot of people consider me to be older, but I'm 27. Age is on my side. And I want to prove something. I want to accomplish things. I'm not caught up in trying to be a Pro Bowl guy. The Super Bowl is what everybody wants, and I want that, too."

He just may get it. Only one Bucs team has ever started off 5-2 and missed the playoffs, and Bryant is one of the reasons this Bucs team is potentially playoff-bound.

In addition to leading the Bucs in receptions with 31 and receiving yards with 406, he has eased the team's dependency on speedster Joey Galloway, heretofore thought of as a must-have player.

"He's taking advantage of his opportunity," Gruden said. "I don't know what the situation was in Dallas and San Francisco, but he's been at the top of the board in terms of effort here. He's a team guy."

He's a reborn guy. That year he spent in exile, at home and watching TV, is the reason. It humbled him, he said, and started a fire burning inside him that may never go out.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979.

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