Ryan Fitzpatrick has led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to stunning victories over the New Orleans Saints on the road and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at home in their first two games of the 2018 season by tossing for eight touchdowns and passing for over 800 yards. Some are wondering when “FitzMagic” will wear off. Bucs fans are hoping that it’s sometime after February 3 of next year and continues on Monday Night Football when he makes his third start for quarterback Jameis Winston, whose three-game NFL suspension ends on Tuesday.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Fitzpatrick’s entire ride, as short-lived as it has been, is his demeanor as the media hype grows and local attention turns national. The 35-year-old is not a career clipboard holder, as he has been the starting quarterback on five of the seven teams on which he played in his 14 years in the league.
Therefore, the limelight is not completely alien to him but the white-hot spotlight, normally reserved for elite quarterbacks, is something of an outlier for Fitzpatrick and he is soaking it for all its worth. The latest had the Bucs’ quarterback greeting the media in a postgame presser adorned in a halfway zipped tracksuit top, rock star shades, and thick gold chains featuring an oversized medallion resting on a blanket of chest hair. Had Fitzpatrick’s beard been less gray and were he five inches shorter, one would swear they were looking at UFC champ Conor McGregor on the dais. The fashion swag belonged to Fitzpatrick’s teammate DeSean Jackson but the feigned swagger was all his.
Bucs QB Ryan Fitzpatrick – Photo by: Andrew Scavelli/PR
The icing on the cake was when he stated to the media, “I think we just have to stay humble,” as a smile began to crawl across his face, “We’ve got to make sure we know how to handle success and all those things. We can’t change who we are.” It was a completely clever and witty salvo to the media who are used to the standard jock-speak from athletes who seem to have lost the joy in getting paid millions to play a kid’s game. But that mental aptitude is what separates Fitzpatrick from others and makes this unlikely hero even more likable. He may not have been gifted with the same herculean talents as other professional quarterbacks but he possesses an intellectual prowess that has kept him in good standing at the highest level of the sport for well over a decade.
Not bad for a seventh-round pick out of an Ivy League school, and fortunately for the Bucs, he’s their backup quarterback playing like an All-Pro in Winston’s absence. Will it last beyond Monday night? Well, that’s anybody’s guess but right now, at this moment, there isn’t a better guy to have under center on your football team or in front of a camera speaking on behalf of them.
As Fitzpatrick and the Bucs prepare for a Monday night showdown with the Steelers, an immediate course of action is to check out one of the premier online sportsbooks in the industry, Bovada. A Bovada review can be found on the pages of Sportsbook Review where you can read what actual customers are saying and why Bovada is considered one of the most trusted and respected sports betting sites in the world.
As of this midweek writing, the oddsmakers at Bovada are dealing Pittsburgh as one-point favorites. How dare they? Indeed, the Steelers have not looked sharp in the early going and are 0-1-1 straight up and 0-2 ATS with a tie on the road at Cleveland and a loss at home to the Chiefs. On the other hand, the Bucs are hot and there’s nothing sweeter than a repeater so check out this and every other NFL line at as the week progresses.
