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Ex-Bucs toil for UFL's Florida Tuskers

Staff photo by BOB HANSEN

Matt Bryant is one of several former Bucs playing for the Florida Tuskers in St. Petersburg.

By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 30, 2009

Updated: 10/30/2009 07:07 am

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Your thoughts on the Bucs' 38-7 loss to the Saints?

ST. PETERSBURG - You could have been walking into the Bucs' locker room. There was Michael Pittman over here, and Matt Bryant over there, and Dexter Jackson, and Paris Warren, and Frank Murphy, and Anthony Davis and ...

Only it wasn't the Bucs' locker room.

It was a winning locker room.

Tuskers Fever - Catch It!

Far from 0-7, the 3-0 Florida Tuskers, partly owned by the baseball Rays and the pride of the new United Football League, are at Tropicana Field tonight for a game with the Las Vegas Locos. Thousands upon thousands of good seats are still available.

The Tuskers worked out at the Trop on Wednesday, then chatted with media after practice. Actually, a few of them chatted with media during practice. It's a different world, Tuskers World, but it's loaded with fun - and former Bucs. Nine Tuskers have donned the pewter.

"We're all over the place," Bryant said.

Tuskers pride shines through.

"I'm not going to say we could beat the Bucs," Pittman said. "I guarantee you we could give them a great game."

The Tuskers have a roster dotted with dreamers, but also with former NFL players who've been there, done that, and want to do it again.

Hit the Tuskers and there's Pittman, who rushed for 124 yards the night the Bucs won the Super Bowl. There's Tuskers receivers coach Ike Hilliard, who caught 178 balls for the Bucs. Or there's Jackson, the Super Bowl XXXVII MVP.

"It seems a million years ago," Jackson said. "But you have to remember that's one of the reasons guys like myself keep playing. ... You're just trying to get back to that pinnacle."

Far from the pinnacle, the four UFL teams, including Simeon Rice and the New York Sentinels, will play a six-game schedule. The Tuskers are based in Orlando's Citrus Bowl, where their first two home games drew about 26,000 fans total. Base salary for most players is $35,000, with quarterbacks making more and kickers usually making less.

Head coaches make a lot more, including media-friendly Tuskers coach Jim Haslett, who coached the NFL's Saints and Rams. Haslett says there's true star power in the UFL: "We're going to have a number of our guys get picked up (by NFL teams) when our season is over."

"You look at this team, at this league in general, and there's a story for almost every guy," said Bryant, whose Bucs kicking career ended unhappily. "Guys have gotten in trouble, suspended, or gotten hurt, or it's been a salary thing, or some guys are trying to hang on."

The former Bucs can muster sympathy for their 0-7 friends.

"I hope they get their first win real soon," Pittman said.

Haslett, no shrinking violet, was asked about a matchup with the Bucs.

"I think there's enough talent here, we could play some of the teams in (the NFL)," he said. "There are some pretty good players on this team, and there's some bad teams in the NFL right now."

Of course, if an 0-7 NFL team phoned a 3-0 Tusker and said come join us, said Tusker would be there yesterday.

"I'd love to be back in the NFL," Bryant said.

"That's the plan," Pittman said.

"I should still be in the league," Hilliard said.

Jackson, 32, still has the Cadillac Escalade that went with being Super Bowl MVP. He did two stints with the Bucs, the last of them ending in 2005. He was on injured reserve with the Bengals last season before being released. He says hello to any old Bucs friends.

"I feel for them," Jackson said. "They're the organization that gave me a chance, that drafted me out of college. You don't want to see guys put that much time into practice and training and go winless."

Then again ... Jackson smiled wide.

"Tuskers against the Bucs, there's the big story."

I like the Bucs, 17-7.

Statement game.

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