The joint practice between the Bucs and the Dolphins wasn’t the only event listed on the schedule for Tampa Bay on Tuesday. There was also a press conference held to announce Ronde Barber’s  Ring Of Honor induction, which will take place Week 3 against the Giants on September 22nd.

He joins Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Mike Alstott, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, Lee Roy Selmon, John McKay, Doug Williams, Jimmie Giles, Malcolm Glazer, and Paul Gruber as the 13th member in the Bucs Ring Of Honor.

Barber spent all 16 seasons of his career with the Bucs. He played in 241 games while recording 1,231 tackles, 47 interceptions, 28 sacks, and 14 touchdowns. Along with his Super Bowl championship, five pro-bowls, two-all pros and all-decade team accolades, Barber also is tied with, or holds seven franchise records.

On Tuesday, Barber spoke in front of his family, friends, former teammates and media to talk about his induction, followed by answering some questions.

To open up his speech, he cracked a joke about how long he was waiting for this moment.

“Finally,” Barber said. “16 years seems short compared to the seven years I waited for this.”

He then started off by thanking his wife and two daughters, stating that he’s the reason why he played, and after also thanking the Glazer family, Barber mentioned how rare it is in today’s NFL to play an entire career with just one team.

After reminiscing about his earlier years in the NFL, he turned his attention to the many coaches and teammates that helped him get to this point along the way, such as Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, and John Lynch.

He highlighted just how humbled he is to even be in comparison to his Hall of Fame teammates. Even more than that though, he expressed just how much he cares for the community here in Tampa, and how he’ll always love it.

“This is important to me because it’s the community,” Barber said. “I love this community. I’m never going anywhere. Why would we leave here? Everything that I have given has been given back to me a thousand fold. I don’t think I could ever leave that behind.”

Following his speech, he fielded questions from the media in attendance about his historic career. It wasn’t always easy for him, though, as Barber played in only one game during his rookie season before coming into his own in 1998 and 1999. He discussed when there was a turning point for him.

Known for both his work ethic and great knowledge of the game, it propelled him to become one of the best corners in the game of taking the ball away. As the franchise leader in interceptions he answered whether it was his natural instinct or skill that led to so many of his turnovers.

He had some great coaches along the way, including Super Bowl winning coaches Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden. Each coach helped he become the player that he was, and Barber went into what he learned from both of them.

Of course when you think Barber, Dungy, and Gruden, that Bucs defense comes to mind as well. To wrap the press conference up, Barber relayed just how special of a unit that was with what they were able to accomplish, collectively.

“How many years in a row did we have a top ten defense?” Barber said.”That’s pretty telling. We already have two hall of famers, arguably have two more, we were a dominant unit.”