Despite being a three-point underdog, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shocked everyone when they dethroned the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs with a 31-9 win in Super Bowl LV. For running back Leonard Fournette, the Buccaneers’ win had something to do with Tom Brady’s powerful pre-game speech. In an interview on “Pardon My Take podcast”, the running back said Brady's speech about honor "woke" the team up and fueled the Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl win since 2002.
"I got to keep it between the team, but it was a powerful-(expletive) message that we all needed to hear," said Fournette, who was instrumental in the Super Bowl win with 16 carries for 89 yards and a score.
Fournette said the team was inspired at how Brady delivered his message. “It just woke us up, it gave us the spark we needed,” he stressed, per a report by Wilton Jackson of Sports Illustrated. Fournette added that many of his teammates got a boost when Brady talked about “playing for the honor” and for the “last names on our back”.
Peter King also discussed Brady’s speech
Before Fournette talked about it, Peter King of NBC Sports discussed some of the contents of Brady’s speech in his column in Pro Football Talk. According to King, Brady’s message to his teammates was “seize the opportunity” and “we win today and we’re champs for life!” That was the first time all season that Brady delivered a speech in the locker room, but the veteran quarterback lived for that moments since he already had six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots before joining the Buccaneers in the offseason via a two-year deal worth $50 million.
Bucs focused on keeping six free agents
Moments after capturing his seventh Super Bowl title and fifth Super Bowl MVP, Brady declared that he would be back for his second season with the Buccaneers. However, some of their key players, like Fournette, will turn free agents could sign with other teams in the offseason. Head coach Bruce Arians declared that the team would want to sign many of their free agents as possible.
“For us right now, it’s just keeping this team together,” Arians said during an interview on WDAE radio, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
However, Arians said the team’s salary cap can be consumed by keeping just five of six players, who can keep the closeness and the accountability factor that we have in the locker room.” According to JoeBucsFan.com, the Buccaneers may look to keep linebackers Shaq Barrett and linebacker Lavonte David, wide receivers Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown, Fournette, tight end Rob Gronkowski, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, and kicker Ryan Succop. Earlier, Barrett declared that he would like to break the bank after the Buccaneers used the franchise tag on him last season.
