CB Ronde Barber is getting a little picky about the New Year
What New Year's resolutions are being made in the Bucs' locker room? Well, other than the obvious one!
What does spending the most anticipated New Year's Eve ever in Chicago mean to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Well, for one thing, it means a 12:30 curfew. With the division championship on the line on Sunday against the Chicago Bears, it also means a golden opportunity is waiting just a few days into the new year.
Obviously, the players in the Bucs' locker room are approaching that opportunity with quite a bit of resolve, but New Year's Eve is also a time for resolutions of every kind. Buccaneers.com walked the locker room on Friday, hours before the Bucs would board a flight for Chicago, and asked what resolutions Tampa Bay players had made for this special new year. Many of the answers tended towards Sunday's action, but there was a wide variety of new year concerns. Read them below, realizing that a few were offered with tongue in cheek.
Buccaneers.com: What is your New Year's Resolution?
Todd Washington: "A national championship for the (Virginia Tech) Hokies, of course."
Donnie Abraham: "I don't have a real big one. I just pray for the health of my family."
Jason Odom: "My New Year's resolution is not to be superstitious."
Ronde Barber: "Get some interceptions, man…quit dropping interceptions."
Jerry Wunsch: "I haven't even had time to think about it, I've been so caught up in what we've been doing here. Okay, my resolution is to become a better person, how about that?"
Dave Moore: "That the new century is as good as the last one was for me."
Martin Gramatica: "Stay healthy and go to the Super Bowl."
Brian Kelly: "Stay healthy, and my family stay healthy."
Karl Williams: "I haven't really given it any thought…that shows how much in the spirit I am. Right now, I'd probably repeat my Christmas wish: a trip to Atlanta."
Chidi Ahanotu: "My New Year's wish is that this isn't really the end of the world and we all have a lot more life to live."
Shevin Smith: "To become a better person, get over the stuff I did in the 20th Century and get better in the 21st Century…outside of football, that is.
John Lynch: "To win the division…there you go."
Hardy Nickerson: "I don't have one. I've thought about the New Year, but I figure that God is in control of my life. Whatever he wants it to be, that's what it will be."
Don Davis: "To reflect on '99 and be a better person in 2000 is my main one. I have a few other individual ones that I always do, like trying to read the Bible in one year, get three books read a year…I still haven't done that one yet."
Derrick Brooks: "I hadn't really thought of one until now, but one wish would be to go to the Super Bowl as a team. But, as always, to be the better person that God wants me to be, and to be a better father."
Steve White: "Abs! To get some abs!"
Tony Dungy: "Really haven't thought that far ahead. Boy, if I had to make a New Year's resolution right now…it would probably be to be home a little bit more with my family in the off-season."
Damien Robinson: "To sign a new contract with the Buccaneers."
John McLaughlin: "You know what, I hadn't thought much about it. I was thinking to myself, 'Do I need one?' I don't even know if I need a New Year's resolution. I just do everything right."