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'I want a ring' Sapp wants championship, single-season sack record
TAMPA, Fla. -- Given that diet and conditioning helped Warren Sapp shed more than 35 pounds this offseason, maybe it only stands to reason that his burning hunger surfaced as a topic on the first full day of Tampa Bay's training camp. But the big man in the middle of the Bucs defense wasn't talking caloric consumption. Entering his seventh season in the NFL, Sapp is a leaner and possibly meaner presence in the Tampa Bay lineup. And he wants more. Of everything. For his team. And for himself. Some would call it a take-no-prisoners approach. But Sapp merely wants to overtake one. "Mark Gastineau," said Sapp, when asked about his goals for 2001. "I don't think a convicted felon should be the all-time [single-season] sack leader. I don't think a guy sitting at Riker's Island should have his name on top of the NFL record book, and I'm going to take it down. That's my philosophy." Gastineau, a former member of the New York Jets Sack Exchange, still holds the league record with 22 sacks in 1984. He has been in and out of legal trouble in recent times, and earlier this year was sent back to prison for violating the terms of an anger management program stemming from an earlier domestic violence conviction.
In acknowledging that Gastineau's long-ago NFL career year drives him, Sapp provided comic relief Monday while holding court in the media workroom at the University of Tampa. But it was also a vivid indication of just how high he has set the bar for himself, and for that matter, these Super Bowl contending Bucs. Even after a team-record 16.5-sack season in 2000, which represented the third highest-sack total by a defensive tackle since the league began recording the statistic. "We know what's at stake here," Sapp said. "It's our third year being the team to beat and one of the contenders and all that. [Shoot], I want a ring. That's what it all boils down to. I've watched this team become the team to beat and go through a little of this and that." Guess what? He's right. For Sapp and the Bucs, it's time to put up or shut up. And when was the last time anybody hushed the "Mouth of the South" for long? Unless you count the aftermath of the Bucs' season-ending 21-3 wild-card card loss at Philadelphia, that is. Since the beginning of 1998, Tampa Bay has been a team with a Super Bowl buzz surrounding it, but there's still no hardware on the shelf. Tampa Bay is 30-21, with one playoff win, one division title and two postseason berths in that span. The Bucs have tinkered with or dismantled portions of their team or coaching staff each year, but this time the pieces better be in working order. Or else. This is no longer a young team in the development stages, and Sapp knows it. Maybe that's why the former mound of sound reported to camp at a svelte 294 pounds, about 36 shy of his 2000 playing weight. Four consecutive Pro Bowl berths didn't mean he could afford to stand pat. "This isn't as light as I've [ever] been, but I think my maturity within the game in the last six years has really prepared me for this year….About four weeks into the 16-week conditioning program I felt [the difference], when I took about 20 [pounds] off. "We were running around doing those bags, and I looked at [fellow Bucs defensive end] Steve [White] and said, 'Dog, I don't know how the hell I made it last year at 330 [pounds].' And he said, 'I don't know either.' We were watching films the other day and I was like, 'Oooh, look how fat I was.' It just was not a pretty sight. It wasn't. But I made it through it." As strong as Sapp's season was last year -- and his 29 sacks in 1999-00 were an NFL high -- his performance cooled off toward December as the near constant double-teaming he sees appeared to wear him down. Not that Sapp has lost anything in terms of his verbal stamina. On Monday he successfully fended off repeated attempts to draw him into the issue of Derrick Brooks' holdout. The only thing Sapp would concede is that he missed his perennial training-camp roommate for his own unique reasons. "He's got the TV and the cable and the VCR," Sapp said, laughing. "That's what I miss. I don't even have a phone in my room. I'm way outside my element right now. I couldn't even watch baseball or [sports highlights] last night. Brooks has got everything. "It was the first time in about four years [of sleeping by myself]. It was always either my wife or Brooks. Now I'm there by myself. It throws me off." But Sapp quickly cut off the notion that Brooks' boycott was a selfish act that could prove a distraction to a team with such great expectations. "It's a business," he said. "It's just business. Derrick made a business decision and they're making a business decision. I'm not a business. I'm just a solider in the army, taking my orders in the morning." Both the Bucs and Sapp are back at work in the Florida heat, trying to take care of the business of winning it all. The goal remains the same. No satisfaction until there's nothing or no one standing in their way. "He knows what we need and he's been very good for us the last four years," Bucs head coach Tony Dungy said. "But we haven't won a Super Bowl. So what he's done, no matter how spectacular it's been individually, it hasn't been good enough. I think he knows that." Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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