{"id":832861,"date":"2026-03-25T12:43:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/832861\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:43:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:43:33","slug":"lavonte-david-did-it-the-hard-way-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/832861\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavonte David Did It The Hard Way – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Class.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was a sad day, but damn, Joe never expected to hear a farewell speech like the one Lavonte David gave as he bid the NFL goodbye after 14 years with the Bucs.<\/p>\n

In just a couple of minutes, David explained how he really only played football because he loved it so much. That passion helped him reach dreams and goals he never thought possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 14-year career was a journey,\u201d David said. \u201cIt was a long road to get here. Starting at Liberty City Optimist, going to Miami Northwestern and then going to junior college \u2013 that\u2019s when I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get here, just because of everything I went through there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough journey, but there I learned what it takes to become accountable and I learned that a lot of people depend on you. Going to the University of Nebraska, I kept that chip, kept that same mindset. Throughout every year that I\u2019ve been here, I\u2019ve had that same mentality \u2013 have that chip on my shoulder. Every time I step on the field, I want to prove myself right and all my doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people in this building, a lot of guys I see, my family, helped me continue that dream, helped me continue that process. I want to thank everybody throughout my journey, throughout my career, for pushing me and helping me be the greatest I can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play at an organization for this long and to get all of the respect that I have from everybody and all my peers and the lives that I touched throughout my career, it\u2019s something you can [only] dream of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretty heartfelt words from David. And his words hit home shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

David broke down talking about how his parents, who didn\u2019t have much, always made sure to support his football dreams. The family only had one car, which his mom needed to get to work.\u00a0So his father would put a young Lavonte on the handlebars of a bike and ride him to practice and back. Sometimes, even the bike wasn\u2019t available and the two had to walk.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what got David emotional as he looked back at the sacrifices his parents made so David could chase his dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow, they made it work,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

They sure did. And David is walking proof that if you have a support system, lack of money doesn\u2019t matter so long as you have heart.<\/p>\n

The Bucs are going to miss this guy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Class. Yesterday was a sad day, but damn, Joe never expected to hear a farewell speech like the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-832861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116289878179945407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}