Classy Signing by the Bucs!

Since I am an Atlanta Falcons fan I am obligated to hate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a respectful and honorable organization. In one of the classiest moves I have seen out of an NFL franchise in years, the Bucs have signed Eric LeGrand to a free agent contract and is currently on their 90 man roster. I know what you might be thinking, what is so classy about that, teams sign players to free agent contracts all of the time. Well, for those of you who don’t know who Eric LeGrand is, he played football at Rutgers University and was a solid Defensive End with a bright future. Then in a game against Army on October 16th, 2010 he went to make a routine tackle and ended up fracturing two vertebrae and hasn’t walked since.

Here is Eric leading his Rutgers team out onto the field last winter.

His coach then at Rutgers was Greg Schiano who is now the Head Coach for the Tampa Bay Bucs and he was the driving force behind the signing. The scouting department for Tampa has reports on all players in the draft as well as most of the free agents available including one on LeGrand. The top line of the scouting report read “He never gives up!” The number 52 was free on the Tampa roster and that happens to be the number that Eric wore at Rutgers, so he will be assigned that number and will get all of the official gear including a jersey and a helmet. Obviously he won’t actually play for the team, but he has now reached one of his early goals to make an NFL roster. Again, that is a wonderful gesture by the Tampa Bay organization. Finally some good news coming out of an NFL team, I am tired of the negative stories that are currently coming out of some of the other NFL teams.

This ranks up there with the Texas Rangers drafting UGA outfielder Johnathan Taylor after he suffered a broken neck in a game against FSU.  Both Johnathan and Eric are true inspirations!