The Senior Bowl will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024 and as part of that celebration, the premier college football all-star game partnered this week with the NFL Players Association to announce the Senior Bowl’s 75th Anniversary Team. 

Two former Bucs made the team, which was decided on through online fan vote, a poll of NFL general managers and consideration from the Senior Bowl’s selection committee. The 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl is set for Saturday, Feb. 3, and the anniversary team will be honored with a ceremony at halftime of the game.

“The history of our game means everything to us here at the Senior Bowl so this is a special announcement,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said in a statement. “This 75th Anniversary Team includes many of the greatest players in NFL history and they are all legendary players for their respective franchises. We look forward to bringing these all-time greats back to where their NFL journeys started, the city of Mobile, Alabama. The Senior Bowl is grateful for our partners at the NFLPA for helping to make this celebration happen.”

Bucs Legend Makes Senior Bowl’s Anniversary Team

Bucs legend Derrick Brooks – Photo by: USA Today

The first Buc on the Senior Bowl’s 75th Anniversary Team is legendary linebacker Derrick Brooks, who is one of the 56 former Senior Bowl participants enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Brooks finished his storied 14-year career with six All-Pro selections and 11 Pro Bowls. He was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2002, the year that Tampa Bay would go on to win its first Super Bowl.

Before blossoming into a Hall of Famer and Super Bowl XXXVII champion, Brooks played his college football at Florida State. In his time with the Seminoles, he was a three-time All-American. After passing through Mobile, Alabama, and the Senior Bowl, Brooks became the No. 28 overall pick in the 1995 Draft, a draft that changed the Bucs’ organization forever.

Brooks joined the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame in 2004 and now has his place on the 75th Anniversary Team.

“I am so humbled and honored to be amongst this great group of players, especially these linebackers,” Brooks said in a statement. “Thank you to all the voters. The Senior Bowl impacted so much of my player career and set the stage for me to show the NFL personnel that I was ready for the NFL.”

Another Bucs Defender Makes It Two On The Anniversary Team

Bucs CB Richard Sherman – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The second former Buc on the Senior Bowl’s 75th Anniversary team is another former All-Pro, though his time with Tampa Bay was at the end of his career and will be remembered more as a cameo compared to the rest of his phenomenal career. That would be cornerback Richard Sherman, who spent some of the 2021 season in red, white and pewter.

Before becoming one of the best cornerbacks of all time, Sherman starred at Stanford and then played in the 2011 Senior Bowl. From there, he was a fifth-round pick by the Seahawks in the 2011 Draft.

Sherman was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro with the Seahawks and won a Super Bowl as part of the legendary “Legion of Boom” defense in Seattle. He then went on to play with San Francisco from 2018-2020 before finishing his career with the Bucs in 2021.

Signed during the season as Tampa Bay’s secondary was dealing with a plethora of injuries, Sherman ended up playing in five games with the Bucs, recording one interception and one fumble recovery. He also notably made an impact on the locker room, especially with the team’s young secondary.