Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles was pleased his players were able to provide those struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton with “a chance to smile” after a 51-27 win at the New Orleans Saints yesterday.
Fourteen people were killed by the Category 3 storm while 1.1 million Floridians are still without power after Milton hit last week.
The Bucs, who improved to 4-2, flew to New Orleans before the storm struck and clearly had added motivation, turning in a superb performance at the Superdome.
“Adversity stood us in the face. As a family, we stood up… There are a lot of people involved in that from a game balls perspective.” 🗣️
🏈 Tim Jarocki, Senior Director of Team Operations
🏈 Glazer Family
🏈 City of Tampa pic.twitter.com/WdU8BoHSMa— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 14, 2024
📰 Table Of Contents
Bowles talks about importance of family
Bowles said: “It’s a tiny break from what they’ve been dealing with. It gave them a chance to smile for a couple of hours while everybody went through what they went through. That was all worth it right there.
“I told the guys all the time – we talk about ‘family’ as a team – as long as your family is safe, all the other things are replaceable. We’re going to do everything we can to try to take care of ourselves, our team and helping the community.
“The biggest thing is a lot of them were playing with heavy hearts, just seeing what was happening in Tampa Bay.
“Our hearts pour out to the city. It’s a tough city. It’s a strong city. We don’t really know what we’re coming back to, but in our small part, this time we wanted to win one for the city and we’re going to try to help in any way we can when we get back.”
Godwin stars again
Wide receiver Chris Godwin continued his impressive season with two more touchdowns, including a brilliant 55-yard effort in the third quarter.
Godwin said: “I think we were able to just give some people a little bit of reprieve from the things that they’re facing right now.
“I think that’s a plus for us. Because there’s a lot of people going through a lot of bad stuff right now, unfortunately.
“It’s incredibly tough, but we can only control what we can control. And I think just like realizing we all have each other’s backs as teammates, we’re all going through the same things, we’re all that we really have here. So as long as we have each other’s backs and go out there and just like fight, we can win.”
