Making peace with Ryan Nece

Contrary to how this picture looks I do not have 3 chins

Sorry I've been gone so lone, I have been busy hobnobbing with another member of Tampa Bay athletic community.

You may remember back in December when I attended my wife's Christmas party I was thrilled to be able to hang with a baseball legend, Tampa's own Crime Dog Fred McGriff. You may also recall that I was pissed because it was the first party in a decade I didn't bring a camera because my shitty old camera was on its last legs.

Last night my wife's company had another party, this time for the ad sales execs (you know, the ones that rake in all the dough for BrightHouse Nets) and luckily Santa brought me a new Canon A540 because the guest speaker was Tampa Bay Buccaneer linebacker Ryan Nece.

Ryan is a 5th-year vet out of UCLA who was better known for being the son of NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott but has made himself into an indispensable part of the Bucs formidable linebacking corps alongside Mr. Derrick Brooks.

Unfortunately, Ryan was seated behind a table signing autographs and accommodating pictures so this did not allow me to go over the intricacies of the Tampa Cover 2 defense with him, ask him for some inside stories from the Super Bowl, or discuss how much I love to watch his dad, former 49er great Ronnie Lott, tear players' heads off every Sunday throughout the 1980s.

No, Ryan was not indicating how many wins the Bucs will have next season

Still, he was very cordial and affable and he was more than willing to pose for pictures; not surprisingly, he admitted he enjoyed posing with the ladies rather than the likes of me.

I'm not sure who enjoyed this pic more, my wife & Kimmy or Ryan.

After the cocktail hour Ryan got on stage (not sure how much BrightHouse paid him for this appearance but it was worth it) and gave a heartfelt speech about the importance of teamwork, togetherness, and desire to succeed that makes for a productive team. Candidly, he admitted that last year's putrid Yucs team seemed to lack all of these traits, which is what led them to a disastrous 4-12 season.

He also got a good laugh from the audience when he talked about football players' penchant for patting each other on the ass when they make a good play. Once again with candor, he admitted that it's merely because they like to "pat each other on the tush," nothing more nothing less. Hmm.

I just want to close by thanking Brighthouse and everyone responsible for the event for providing a very pleasurable evening with excellent food, pricey drinks, decent music and the opportunity to meet an NFL player.

Plus I got to shake hands with a man who has touched the tushes of most of the players in the National Football league.

So, I got that going for me.

As a footnote to this story, I was watching Tampa Bay's annual Gasparilla Day parade and who did I spot atop the Buccaneer float?

None other than the tushie toucher himself.

This guy really gets around.