Bucs Gameday

Two Former Buccaneers Super Bowl Champions Feud on Social Media

It's tough to see two former teammates tearing each other down on social media, but that's exactly what happened between these two Buccaneer legends.

Collin Haalboom

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The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought Tampa Bay its first-ever Super Bowl.

The team's success will always be attributed to its historically great defense. Led by five All-Pros on that side of the ball in Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Ronde Barber, and Johny Lynch, the Buccaneers from the early 2000s have a legitimate claim to be made as the greatest defense in the history of the NFL.

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Of those players, Warren Sapp was the vocal leader. He was brash, confident, and quick to get in the ear of other players, whether they were teammates or opponents.

Although the Bucs' offense from that era wasn't nearly as dominant, they were a respectable unit, to say the least.

With Brad Johnson at quarterback -- in addition to the running game led by Mike Alstott and Michael Pittman — the team's strong cast of receivers, including Keyshawn Johnson, Keenan McCardell, and Joe Jurevicius, were able to score more than enough points to conquer their opponents on route to that Lombardi Trophy in 02'.

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On the offense — just like Sapp on defense — Keyshawn Johnson was far and away the most outspoken of the bunch.

Now, over twenty years later, the two biggest trash-talkers from that 02' Bucs squad have entered into a very public, verbal dispute with one another.

It all started when Warren Sapp made an appearance on Jason Whitlock's 'Fearless' podcast last week and decided to make the unprovoked claim that Keyshawn Johnson was a bad teammate. 

In his interview with Whitlock, Sapp stated that he ran into Keyshawn at the Pro Bowl, where Keyshawn ultimately made a pitch for how well he could lead the Bucs' offense. Sapp then claims he went on to lobby for Keyshawn to join the Buccaneers as a free agent.

According to Sapp, once Johnson joined the Buccaneers, he wasn't willing to put in the work that he had told Sapp he would.

"He didn't lead us at all. That's why we went and got Jurevicius and Kennan McCardell."

"He was special. On a whole nother level. But as a teammate? I'd never take him again."

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It didn't take long for Keyshawn Johnson to catch wind of Sapp's comments, and as you can imagine, he didn't mince words when crafting up his response on X. 

Keyshawn's words are harsh but it's easy to see why he was so offended. After all, catching stray bullets from a former teammate on a podcast, two decades after last playing together, would certainly rile up most former pro athletes.

Keyshawn made one more post, claiming it would be his last in regard to his relationship with Warren Sapp. 

As much as I loved watching a Buccaneers team with Warren Sapp and Keyshawn Johnson take the field together on Sundays, I hate to see two former teammates tear each other down on social media.

Based on how harsh these comments are, it's hard to envision a scenario where these two make amends any time soon.

You can follow Collin Haalboom on X. 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

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Collin Haalboom
COLLIN HAALBOOM

Prior to joining BucsGameday and Sports Illustrated, Collin's written content was provided through Bucs Banter, and NFL Draft Lounge. He is also the creator and host of the Bucs Banter Podcast. He is a graduate of the Communication Studies program at McMaster University, where he was also a varsity basketball player, and later an advanced scout. He lives with his wife and two children in Hamilton, ON. You can follow Collin on YouTube and Twitter.