After winning a Super Bowl in 2020 and being named a Pro Bowler the following season, injuries began to derail White’s play toward the end of his tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While he did his best to fight through his lingering ailments, hence only missing three games in 2023, he wasn’t playing up to the standard he’d set when first arriving to the league.
In 2024, he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, but never played a down before being released in October. He finished the rest of the season with the Houston Texans, appearing in seven games.
“I’ve been a guy who, my whole entire football career, I’ve never been hurt,” White said. “And so when you get hurt and you want to play through those injuries to help your team, you also can hurt yourself by doing it, and I think that’s what I did. I think it was selfish of myself, to myself, to put myself out there, and selfish to my team and to put myself out there not just being 100.
“Because at the end of the day, they need the Devin White that could just be lights out for four quarters out there on the field, and I didn’t do that.”
His mental health also took a hit with his physical.
During his last few seasons his Tampa, he had a difficult time coping with the death of his father. White said he and his father didn’t have much of a relationship growing up due to his father being incarcerated. By the time they began to get close again, he unexpectedly lost him.
“Just didn’t care [any] more, because I finally found that love,” White said. “There’s a lot of men in this room, growing up, you want to be like your dad, that’s your role model, and I didn’t have that. … So, I battled that alone.”
“For whatever reasons that it had to happen like that, it did,” he added. “I’m thankful, and I’m vulnerable, and I reach out to people, I talk to a lot of people. I went to counseling and everything, and I’m just happy to be back here. I’m back smiling, and I know I’ve got a greater purpose in life.”