Simeon Rice has been announced as the next member of the Buccaneers’ Ring of Honor, but Buccaneers co-owner Bryan Glazer is lobbying for Rice to get an even greater recognition.
Glazer called Rice “the missing piece to make our defense one of the greatest of all time” and said that the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selectors have committed an oversight by not putting Rice in Canton.
“From 1996 to 2005, he totaled a league-best 101.5 sacks over those eight years, more than Hall of Famers Michael Strahan and Jason Taylor,” Glazer said. “During that same stretch, his mark of eight seasons with double-digit sack totals is the seventh most in NFL history, and all six men ahead of him on that list are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Simeon’s credentials for induction into our Ring of Honor are unquestioned, but he’s equally qualified and deserving of an overdue call from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Notably, he’s the only retired player with 100 sacks over eight consecutive seasons who doesn’t own a Gold Jacket. It’s time to rectify that oversight.”
Rice said getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame while his parents were still alive would have meant a lot to him because of how much it would have meant to them, but that after his parents died he thought less about it.
“That’s all that meant anything to me,” Rice said. “The only thing that mattered to me was playing football. I loved this game, and it’s how I celebrated my mother and father. And they’re not with me. . . . I’m just thinking about my mother and father.”
The Cardinals drafted Rice out of Illinois with the third overall pick in 1996. After five seasons in Arizona, Rice signed with the Buccaneers in free agency in 2001 and spent six seasons with the Bucs. He then played briefly with the Broncos and Colts before retiring.
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