Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Simeon Rice, who led the NFL in sacks from 1998 through 2005, is one of 50 modern-era players still in consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2025. On Wednesday, the Hall of Fame announced that it's original list of 167 candidates announced in September had been trimmed to less than a third of that size.
Rice is the lone player on the list who played for the Buccaneers for an extended stint. Two offensive linemen who once wore Tampa Bay colors are also in the top 50, as both tackle Lomas Brown (2002) and guard Logan Mankins (2014-15) also made the cut. Brown is more well known for his time with the New York Giants while Mankins played nine years for the New England Patriots before coming to Tampa in a trade.
The third-overall pick in the 1996 draft, Rice played 12 seasons in the NFL, his first five for the Arizona Cardinals before he signed with the Buccaneers in free agency in 2001. The Buccaneers' legendary defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, convinced Rice that he would be the final piece of the puzzle in a dominant Tampa Bay defense, and that proved prescient. Rice joined a group that included future Hall of Famers Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Ronde Barber and immediately became the team's top pass-rush threat. Over six seasons in Tampa he recorded 69.5 sacks; in the aforementioned eight-year stretch that started in Arizona, Rice racked up an NFL-leading 101.5 sacks. He finished his career with 122.0 sacks, splitting his final season in 2007 between Denver and Indianapolis.
The Hall of Fame made some changes to their selection process in 2004, adding a Modern-Era Players Screening Committee to identify worthy candidates. Voting by the committee reduced the field to 50 players and it will be further trimmed to 25 in November.
