Would The Bucs Wait Until 2025 For Another Ring Of Honor Inductee?

This came after Bucs co-owner Joel Glazer was non-committal on whether the team will induct anyone into its Ring of Honor this season.

“Every year, it’s looked at,” Glazer said at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando. “We had a string of a lot of years in a row where we had somebody. So it’ll be year-to-year making those decisions, and this year will be no different than any other. We’ll be taking a look at it.”

Tampa Bay certainly doesn’t have any shortage of options when it comes to worthy Ring of Honor inductees. Simeon Rice, Hardy Nickerson, Gene Deckerhoff, Tom Brady and James Wilder are the leading candidates. Then there will eventually be Lavonte David and Mike Evans (and perhaps Jason Licht?) up for induction when they decide to retire.

So, it’s not as if the Bucs would run out of deserving inductees any time soon if they inducted someone in 2024. Why, then, wouldn’t the Bucs Ring of Honor inside Raymond James Stadium get a new member this year?

Here’s a theory as to why the Bucs could put the Ring of Honor on pause for another year: The 2025 season will be the franchise’s 50th, and perhaps ownership and the organization as a whole would want to make a big deal out of that 50th season. If that’s the case, how could the Bucs create something special that honors their history and treats the Tampa Bay faithful throughout the season?

Bucs Could Double Up On Ring Of Honor Inductees For 50th Season

Ring of Honor coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs first introduced this iteration of the Ring of Honor in 2009, inducting Lee Roy Selmon — the original Buccaneer — as the first member. The team then inducted a new member every season after that until 2020, but that break only came due to the pandemic that kept fans out of the stadium that year.

There were then new inductees during both the 2021 and 2022 seasons before the gap year in 2023. There wasn’t a new addition last season. Rather, the team honored new Pro Football Hall of Famer Ronde Barber at halftime of the Week 3 game against the Eagles. As it stands right now, Super Bowl LV winning head coach Bruce Arians was the most recent inductee.

If the Bucs opt to go another year without a new inductee in 2024, it could possibly be that the team wants to wait and double up in 2025 as part of a 50th season celebration. As big as the 10, 20, 30 and 40-year marks were, 50 years is a very significant milestone for the franchise, which played its first season in 1976.

Tampa Bay most recently doubled up on Ring of Honor inductees in 2017. That year, the late Malcolm Glazer and former head coach Jon Gruden were both inducted as part of a nod to the 15th anniversary of the team’s first-ever Super Bowl victory. Gruden’s name has since been removed.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

Before that, the Bucs doubled up on inductions in 2015 — their 40th season. Both Mike Alstott and Doug Williams joined the Ring of Honor that year, which was the last big milestone year… until the team hits 50 seasons in 2025.

Given Glazer’s generic answers about the Bucs Ring of Honor and future throwback games at the NFL Annual Meeting last month, maybe there’s a scenario where the Bucs wait until next season for both. Maybe the creamsicles return in 2025 for a Hardy Nickerson or James Wilder induction and then the team later inducts Simeon Rice in an effort to double up on ceremonies, bringing extra attention to a second home game on that season’s slate.

Of course, as mentioned before, there are enough deserving candidates to do an induction this year and still double up for the franchise’s 50th season. And skipping out on a creamsicle throwback game in 2024 after the beloved uniforms just returned last year would be a questionable choice, especially given the hype surrounding throwback games and the merchandise sales that such games generate.

Whatever the case may be, this year’s regular season schedule will be released next month and around then, we should find out what the Glazers have ultimately decided regarding the Ring of Honor in 2024. The team usually makes announcements in May coinciding with the release of the upcoming schedule.