COLOMBIA – To make it clear, Ryan Succop never kicked a seven-pounder football. He understands why he asked.
A month after Succop and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated Kansas City 31-9 at the Super Bowl LV, more attention was paid to the celebration than to the dominant victory. That’s when ageless defender Tom Brady, packing the seventh Lombardi Trophy of his career and perhaps fortified by an excessive number of adult drinks, saw tight end Rob Gronkowski in a crowd of supporters.
Brady threw the trophy between 3 and 5 meters in the open sea during the boat parade party, causing several NFL purists to vomit their quail eggs. Gronkowski caught him, no problem, but when talking to Succop, a natural wonder would be if the launch of a seven-pound Lombardi to another boat ever crossed his mind.
“I don’t think it would work that well,” Succop objected. “That boat parade was incredible, however. This beats a bus parade 10 times out of 10. ”
It was a crazy but happy ending to a crazy but happy season. Succop, who will turn 35 at the beginning of next season, his 13º in the NFL, he won his first Super Bowl after he entered the year with his career almost on ice.
“This was probably the most rewarding season because of what I went through last year,” he said. “It is exciting to go back and recover and have the season that I had. When you experience adversity, you let yourself be overwhelmed or use it as a motivation. I probably had one of the best seasons of my career. “
Selected by Kansas City with the last choice of the 2009 NFL Draft, which earned him the honor of “Mr. Irrelevant, ”the South Carolina graduate had five strong years with the Chiefs before being released after the 2013 season. He signed with Tennessee, where he had five more strong years.
Succop underwent knee surgery before the 2019 season and, although he kicked in the preseason, he started the regular season as a reserve by injury and was forced out for the first eight weeks. He came back, but he never went on the right track, converting just one of six field goal attempts, which led to his release during the off-season.
Former Clemson punter Bradley Pinion (left) and former South Carolina kicker Ryan Succop were teammates in this year’s Super Bowl champion. Tampa Bay Buccaneers / Supplied
It’s a business and Succop understood that the Titans could not only reward their loyalty to them and the fact that he was struggling to return with full force, but it still hurt to know that he was gone and then having to wonder if he would ever make it. another chance.
But he continued to recover, returned to form and waited for a call, which came from Tampa Bay just before the start of the 2020 season (ironically, the Bucs cut former Gamecock member Elliott Fry to make room for Succop) . And when he trotted for that first PAT attempt against New Orleans in Game 1, he crashed and realized how normal it looked.
“A lot of that is just getting to know your body and really understanding ways to train that make you feel good, without putting too much stress on your back,” said Succop. “Working with our strength team in Tampa, they made my body feel as good as it has ever been in my entire career.”
He ended up drawing the best of his career with 28 field goals and a conversion rate of 90.3%, the best of his career. In the playoffs, he hit 8 out of 8 in the field goal and 8 out of 9 in the PATs.
He hit a 52-yard field goal in the Super Bowl. After the game, he could be seen running through the confetti looking for his wife, Paige, and their two children (a third will arrive in the spring).
“This was certainly the culmination of my career on the field,” said Succop. “Before that, I hit a 53-yard field goal in Kansas City against Tennessee. It was the coldest game in the history of Arrowhead Stadium, zero degrees, with a thermal sensation of minus -18 degrees.
“That was cute because they cut me off. I never thought I would be able to get over it. But seeing my kids playing in the confetti when we won, that was the moment. “
Succop and his wife lived in Mount Pleasant during the seasons, but are now in Nashville. They survived the snow pocalypse and he is following Dad’s duty as he prepares for the next stage.
The free agency period starts on March 17 and Succop has just closed its last year of contract. He had a magnificent season, culminating in a Super Bowl victory, so he thinks about taking a few phone calls. He is already back in training, although the fieldwork does not begin until at least May.
The Lombardi Trophy looks good in a box in Tampa after the parade. It is not like the NHL Stanley Cup, which each player can keep for 24 hours.
All right with Succop. He managed to hold the seven-pound silver soccer ball after winning it.
“That was good enough for me,” he said. “And I get a ring to agree to that.”
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.