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Joseph Happy To Have Company For Pro Bowl

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By ANWAR S. RICHARDSON

arichardson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 7, 2009

Updated: 02/07/2009 12:13 am

TAMPA - Bucs offensive guard Davin Joseph is accustomed to pushing around defenders, but Minnie, his mom, has rarely budged.

Minnie Joseph has watched her son play football at Oklahoma and for the Bucs, but primarily from the comfort of her couch. She is afraid to fly, and she only traveled by air twice to see her son play football in college.

The supportive mom drives with her husband, Elie, from their South Florida home to Bucs home games, but hopping on a plane for a West Coast road trip was never a consideration - until now.

Joseph is making his inaugural Pro Bowl appearance as a first alternate Sunday in Hawaii, and after a lot of persuasion, his mom agreed to go. "She said, 'I'll just watch it on TV,'" Joseph said, "And I said, 'Mom, you have to go. This is the first one. If it's ever in Hawaii again, I won't make you go.'"

Joseph bought her a portable DVD player with an extended battery to ease her anxiety about the more than 10 hours she will spend in the air.

Joseph is not the only Bucs player in Hawaii this week.

Rookie kick returner Clifton Smith and cornerback Ronde Barber also are set to appear in this year's game. Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks was selected, too, but decided to rest an injured groin instead.

"It's definitely a big accomplishment for me," Smith said. "Coming from an undrafted guy and people telling me you might not ever play the game again after sustaining a major knee injury for Fresno State in 2005 to now making it to the Pro Bowl, it's just one of those dreams."

It is also a dream come true for offensive linemen Donald Penn, Arron Sears and Jeremy Trueblood.

All three, plus Joseph, made a pact that whoever made the Pro Bowl first would purchase airline tickets to Hawaii for the other friends to watch him play. The players upped the ante and convinced Joseph to wager first-class tickets if Oklahoma lost to Florida in the BCS Championship Game.

Joseph might have lost that bet, but he won the battle to get his mother on an airplane.

"You work so hard trying to get into the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl and win a championship that I guess Pro Bowl recognition is just kind of one of those things that come," Joseph said. "You play hard and work hard and you earn the respect of the guys in the locker room and we kind of end up getting those things. I'm getting to that point I guess you can say."

Reporter Anwar S. Richardson can be reached at (813) 259-8425.

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