TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Antonio Bryant pondered the question about the year he spent on the couch watching the NFL on television and forced a smile.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver was a player without a team a year ago and had no one to blame but himself after a couple of run-ins with former coaches and trouble off the field derailed his career.
“It was most frustrating because it wasn’t because of my talent,” said Bryant, who clashed with Bill Parcells in Dallas and Mike Nolan in San Francisco before winding up out of football in 2007.
“Then you’re sitting there seeing guys who I really knew I could compete against and beat out for opportunities go out there and play. I’d look at the screen and shout all kinds of stuff. Guys would make a good catch, and I’d say: `That ain’t even a good catch.’ I couldn’t stand to watch football.”
er chance to prove it.
Tampa Bay is the 27-year-old’s fourth team in six seasons, and he’s emerged as the club’s leading receiver with Joey Galloway hobbled by injuries.
He had eight catches for 115 yards and a touchdown, helping the Bucs rally from a 21-point deficit to beat Kansas City 30-27 in overtime on Sunday. He has three 100-yard games this season – two in the past three weeks – and has 45 receptions for 566 yards and two TDs during the team’s 6-3 start.
“He was a superstar yesterday, let’s be honest,” coach Jon Gruden said Monday. “Two one-handed catches; an unbelievable catch on the touchdown to make it 27-25; after the catch; as a blocker – he was a great receiver on the tape I looked at this morning.”
Bryant has always had the ability.
A second-round draft pick of the Cowboys in 2002, he had 83 receptions for 1,283 yards and eight TDs in his first two seasons in Dallas. He fell out of favor when he tossed his jersey at Parcells during a confrontation in his third year.
He was traded to Cleveland in the middle of 2004 and had his most productive year as a pro in 2005 with 69 receptions for 1,009 yards and four TDs, a breakout season that helped him land a four-year, $14 million contract with the 49ers two years ago.
He was productive in San Francisco, too, but didn’t get along with Nolan.
me of the problems with all three teams if he had allowed his coaches to get to know him better.
“Most of the situations I’ve come across, it’s probably because of me not opening up to others. It’s my fault because I only allow them to see that one part. They only know what I show them. So I really can’t fault them for going off of what they see,” Bryant said.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want problems. I don’t want a lot of complications. I just want to play football. Good football.”
The receiver feels part of the problem in Dallas was Jerry Jones drafted him when Dave Campo was coach and Parcells never considered Bryant one of his guys. He thought the same thing happened in Cleveland, where Butch Davis was coach when he arrived, and Romeo Crennel followed.
Bryant felt his stay in San Francisco was doomed because of baggage from his previous stops.
He’s confident things will be different with the Bucs.
“You’ve got to go where people want you. You really can’t just fall into other people’s situations,” Bryant said, adding he and Gruden clicked from the very start, when the coach sat down and showed him a highlight reel he compiled of some of Bryant’s best plays.
“He pointed out a lot of things that I felt about myself. I was speechless because those are things I talked to people in my personal circle about,” Bryant said.
“I felt like this man actually took the time to sit down and break down my game. I felt real comfortable about that, that he took the time to understand me as a player. I knew the other part was on me to give him a chance to understand me as a person.”
With Galloway inactive for five of Tampa Bay’s nine games, Bryant has become the team’s go-to receiver.
While insists he’s the same person on and off the field, Bryant concedes his year away from the game motivated him to work even harder to realize his potential as a player.
“I won’t say it wasn’t meant for me to play, but some things have to occur in order for you to know how to capitalize,” Bryant said. “Either you’re going to fold or embrace it and get better. I’m not a folding type of guy. I’m a all-in type. All in, let’s go.”
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