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ROGER MILLSThe only thing apparently holding up the contract, worth $34-million, is league approval.
ST. LOUIS - Defensive tackle Anthony McFarland and the Bucs appear close to finalizing a six-year contract extension.
The extension is worth $34-million, with a $9.5-million signing bonus, and ends an intriguing six-month courtship between the player and the team.
"It feels good to get it done and I hope to be here a long time," McFarland said after Monday night's loss to the St. Louis Rams. "I guess the pressure and responsibility is something that's tough to talk about, because I just go out and try to play my game, because that's what got me to this point so far.
"And it will continue to take me home."
The deal is awaiting approval from the NFL office, and the Bucs could announce the signing within the next two days.
"The contract is not finished," McFarland's agent, Karl Bernard, said Monday. "It's fair to say that a deal is imminent, but it is not final."
The Bucs declined comment.
The NFL's approval of the creative contract was expected last week. But the league's headquarters are in New York, which was disrupted by a widespread power blackout.
Most important to McFarland is the disbursement of the funds. The pact incorporates the $2.25-million he was scheduled to earn this season, signifying he should play an important role in the team's future.
"The biggest thing was, I guess, the security," McFarland said of the deal. "Once you go through a couple seasons like I have - actually, just last season when I was injured - you can look at things one of two ways and say I rolled the dice and tried to hit it gigantic in free agency, or you can say a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
"I'm very happy; that's the way I look at it."
In the early stages of negotiations, the Bucs wanted to backload 40 percent of McFarland's deal in the final two years of the contract. Traditionally, such backloaded contracts place a player in jeopardy of being released or forced to renegotiate in the final year or two of the deal.
McFarland wasn't happy with that breakdown and negotiations stalled.
Tuesday, Bernard flew to Orlando to meet with general manager Rich McKay and McFarland at the team's training camp hotel in Celebration, where the final hurdles were cleared. By locking in the 25-year-old McFarland for the next six seasons, the Bucs help secure one critical component of their elite defense.
"I'll (tell) you this the easiest way: He's the best nose tackle in football, no doubt," defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin said Thursday. "You go back to Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Ronde Barber. When you get good players for a while, you can do something with them. We're a system defense and it's very, very important to get players who fit.
It's not an easy system to learn, so any time you can keep a good football player who has learned our system, it means a lot to this defense."
"Entering his fifth season since the Bucs made him the 15th overall pick in the 1999 draft, McFarland has matured into the player the team expected him to be. In his second and third years McFarland was moved into the starting lineup, recording 10 sacks and 124 tackles.
Last season, McFarland picked up where he left off, then sustained two major injuries.
On Oct. 27 at Carolina, McFarland broke his right forearm and was sidelined for the next four games. He returned and played against Atlanta on Dec. 8, but fractured his right foot the next week against Detroit and missed the last two games of the regular season and all three postseason games.
With McFarland apparently locked in, the Bucs can turn their attention to Sapp, also in the final year of his contract. Due to earn $6.6-million this season, the Bucs could name Sapp the franchise player, guaranteeing him $7.9-million next season.
Sapp, 30, wants to remain a Buc, but the ninth-year defensive tackle also said he understands the business of the game.
"It's not my team, it's not my decision," Sapp said last week. "I'm not banging on (owner) Malcolm (Glazer's) door every day. Hey, I ain't got no (new) contract, but I do (have an existing one).
"I'm a man of honor. I signed a six-year, $36-million deal. That's a lot of ham."
Sapp said his focus now in is on the team's drive to repeat as Super Bowl champion.