Prophecy of Success

Bucs rookies Tim Wansley and Jermaine Phillips have faith in their abilities, and so much more.

[Times photo: Fraser Hale] Former Georgia Bulldogs teammates Tim Wansley, left, and Jermaine Phillips prayed after each practice in Bucs training camp.

By DARRELL FRY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 4, 2002

TAMPA -- This is what an answered prayer looks like.

It's cornerback Tim Wansley -- compact and diminutive by football standards, the kind of undersized NFL long-shot that often breaks your heart. And it's safety Jermaine Phillips -- quiet and unobtrusive, far from the menacing figures who have glamorized the position.

Things easily could have gone differently for Wansley and Phillips were it not perhaps for divine intervention. But thanks to impressive preseasons and, they will tell you, help from the big guy upstairs, the rookies are very much a part of the Bucs heading into the regular season.

Stars with the Georgia Bulldogs last season, Phillips and Wansley survived the Bucs' final cuts this week, endearing themselves to the coaching staff so much the team decided to keep more defensive backs (10) than usual.

"We just thank God for it," Phillips said. "You always need to give thanks to the good Lord."

Drafted in the fifth and seventh rounds, respectively, Phillips and Wansley prayed they would make the team. Literally.

After every practice they knelt together on the field and said a prayer, adamant their faith would help them make the roster.

They had reason to seek heavenly help. Mid- and late-round picks don't always make the squad. Last season's three seventh-round picks (tight end Dauntae Finger, safety Than Merrill and defensive end Joe Tafoya) didn't stick.

Wansley, listed as 5-8 and 180 pounds, had even more reason to worry. He injured his leg and ankle in his final collegiate game and arrived at One Buc Place as damaged goods, hobbled with a pin and a plate surgically inserted to fortify the damaged areas.

He missed many of the offseason workouts as the broken fibula and dislocated ankle healed. He was on crutches for about two months and had to deal with constant swelling. Other free-agent and veteran cornerbacks were learning the defense, and Wansley could do little more than watch.

"It was tough because I knew there was a chance I wouldn't get drafted and that I might not be able to play NFL football," Wansley said. "When you're (playing) in college and you get that little cockiness in you and then something like (the injury) happens, you really don't know how to take it, because you've always been on top. People stop calling and everything. I was really worried about it. That was a real heartache.

"I just left it in the Lord's hands. That's all you can do when it's something like that, when you have no control over it. You can't rehab it, and I was on crutches for like eight weeks. It was a long haul for me. I just prayed."

Phillips, listed as 6-1 and 214 pounds, didn't exactly have it made, either. Cracking a team with a well-established defense isn't easy. Phillips had to look back only to 2000 to find a fifth-round pick (tight end James Whalen) who didn't make the squad.

"I just tried to come out here and try to show up on film and just get better," he said. "My dream was to play in the NFL, and I thought if I just go out here and work hard that somebody is going to notice it."

Defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin said he noticed Phillips right away. He liked the rookie's assertiveness in learning the defense, his aggressiveness on the field in training camp and the preseason, and his maturity.

'He put in a workman's effort," Tomlin said, "so he was no surprise."

Wansley had to grow on the Bucs. Once he was healthy, he began to show the speed and the instincts the Bucs hoped he would. Any lingering doubts were erased in the preseason finale against the Texans, when Wansley made a win-saving interception.

"It was so big," Wansley said of the pick. "I was telling Jermaine that I had to have a big game. And it happened for me."

Wansley told Phillips because, throughout all the nervousness and anxiety that rookies go through trying to make the team, Phillips has provided a calming influence, much the way Wansley had for Phillips. They were close friends in addition to teammates at Georgia, and their bond has grown stronger since they arrived in Tampa.

They were roommates in training camp at Lake Buena Vista and on preseason road trips. Now that they've made the team, they'll help each other try to get playing time.

"He looks out for me, and I look out for him," Phillips said. "It's just a friendship and a good relationship to have."

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