{"id":861826,"date":"2026-04-08T23:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T23:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:42:13","slug":"former-bucs-lb-lavonte-david-backs-baker-mayfield-after-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861826\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bucs LB Lavonte David backs Baker Mayfield after retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 8, 2026, 5:55 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A former leader of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is once again stepping up, this time off the field. As highlighted in <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eUgDEqrc4I\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">TMZ&#8217;s<\/a> report, retired linebacker Lavonte David publicly supported his former quarterback, reinforcing the loyalty that defined his time in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">David wasn\u2019t known for being overly vocal during his career, which makes moments like this carry more weight. When he speaks, it usually comes from a place of respect and experience, especially when it comes to teammates he went to battle with. His message wasn\u2019t about headlines; it was about backing someone he believes in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This is the type of leadership that helped shape the Buccaneers during their most successful stretch in recent years. Players like David set the tone in the locker room, and that doesn\u2019t just disappear once their playing days are over. It shows up in moments like this, where accountability and support still matter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In the end, this says more about David than anything else. Even in retirement, he\u2019s still leading, still standing up for his guys, and still representing what that era of Buccaneers football was built on.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 8, 2026, 5:55 p.m. ET A former leader of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is once again stepping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[95878,211,7,6,96509,96860,95882,96861,102069,95906,95883,704,250,2597,2596,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-861826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sstssportsnflbuccaneers","13":"tag-sstsnbuccaneers","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagbaker-mayfield","16":"tag-taglavonte-david","17":"tag-tagoverall-positive","18":"tag-tagsports-news","19":"tag-tampa-bay","20":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","21":"tag-tampabay","22":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","23":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861826","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=861826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}