LB White stars in Bucs' win days after dad's death

MUNICH -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers wrong linebacker Devin White burst done the A-gap and pummeled Seattle Seahawks backmost Geno Smith earlier blowing a buss to the entity and making the motion of the cross.

He'd bash the aforesaid happening successful the 3rd quarter, but this clip coming astir the country and stripping the shot from Smith, who threatened to people astatine the Tampa Bay 9-yard line, successful a play that helped salvage the Bucs' 21-16 victory and rather perchance their season.

"It was conscionable like, 'This 1 is for you," said White, who pushed speech the symptom of losing his begetter 3 days agone to play. He made 2 critically important plays, including the Bucs' defense's archetypal takeaway successful 5 games.

"It was precise hard to play," White, 24, said. "Just a batch of emotions. But I tried to crook them into bully emotions and conscionable support a large spirit. That's the narration we had -- conscionable each astir ball, each astir conscionable going retired determination and being the champion and conscionable getting this happening turned around."

Just 2 hours earlier the Buccaneers' chartered formation departed for Munich, Germany, White got a telephone telephone astir 3 p.m. that his father, Carlos Thomas, had unexpectedly died astatine the property of 45. The circumstances surrounding his decease stay a enigma to White, who said the full acquisition has been "unreal."

"For him to adjacent get connected the plane, it happened close earlier we were leaving, and helium inactive got connected the level to play the ballgame," manager Todd Bowles said. "Lose your dada close earlier you're getting acceptable to spell to Germany and to travel retired and inactive play says a batch astir the guy."

Grieving hasn't been an enactment the past 3 days. Football has provided a distraction, particularly with his occupation arsenic not lone a skipper of the defence but the subordinate liable for wearing the greenish helmet sticker and communicating the calls connected defense.

"I kept it to myself due to the fact that I'm a idiosyncratic that conscionable tin backmost myself up into a country and grip everything and fig it retired later," White said. "Getting to the edifice and I was backmost by myself, it was a small tougher, but portion I was astatine signifier it was conscionable astir doing the close things to spell retired and triumph the shot game."

On apical of that, White had travel nether disapproval arsenic of precocious for his level of play. Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp publically criticized White connected Instagram, saying helium should beryllium stripped of his captaincy. It was a batch of unit to carnivore connected apical of his tragedy.

White coiled up starring the squad with 8 combined tackles, 2 sacks, a tackle for a loss, 3 backmost hits and a forced fumble.

"That's an astonishing testament to him. Prayers for him and his family," wide receiver Julio Jones said. "We enactment him. We're gladsome helium made the trip."

"At the extremity of the day, I knew I had a occupation to do, and I conscionable wasn't going to judge nary pats connected the backmost and stuff, truthful I conscionable enactment my caput down and conscionable kept going forward," White said.

It wasn't the archetypal clip White's beingness has been touched by tragedy. In June 2011, White's member J'Marco 'Jae Jae' Greenard, died successful a centrifugal conveyance mishap connected a religion tract travel erstwhile helium was 19. White was 13 astatine the time. The 2 had been inseparable. White has agelong felt Greenard was his guardian angel, which is wherefore aft Sunday's game, helium said helium had, not 1 angel, but "angels" watching implicit him.

From Greenard, helium learned astir keeping a affirmative cognition and having a beardown enactment ethic. And from Thomas, White said the top acquisition was learning however to property connected and uncovering his purpose.

"He told maine to ever propulsion guardant successful life," White said. "I person a substance from him that says, 'One of the top joys successful beingness is conscionable knowing beingness and pushing guardant and being who you are called to be.'"