April pledged her undying love to Tony - and to Jon, Keyshawn, Derrick, Simeon ...
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published October 21, 2003
[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
April and Tony Newport kiss next to their wedding cake, which featured a Bucs helmet poised on a field instead of a plastic bride and groom atop some white froufrou concoction.
BRANDON - It was a bittersweet day for April Medina's family.
She had been living in Tampa less than a year when she began dating Tony Newport of Lithia, and they were engaged after only a few weeks.
Their families couldn't have been happier.
But there was a problem with Saturday's wedding. When it came time to choose colors and a theme, there was only one thing both April and Tony held so dear they would plan their nuptials around it: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That was all well and good - unless you belonged to the bride's family.
"We're from Pennsylvania," said mother of the bride Rosalie Katz. "So we're Eagles fans."
Children have been disowned for less.
"We didn't tell any of our friends or family what the theme was going to be," Katz said. "Wait till they see the pictures."
The couple's football-themed wedding was red, white and black throughout, from the floral arrangement to the cake, a football field with "GO BUCS GO!!" painted in the end zone.
Newport and his family wore pewter Bucs ties and socks, the flower girl wore a cheerleading outfit, and the ring bearer wore a Brad Johnson jersey. The rings were delivered to the bride and groom in a Buccaneers helmet.
As they married under a red arch festooned with a strand of Buccaneer helmet lights, the crowd could only watch and chuckle.
"It's definitely different, man," said Richard, Tony's brother and best man.
"We were surprised, but we went along with it," said Agnes, Tony's mother. "It's their ballgame."
But for the happy couple, it was the day of their dreams.
"Anything to be just a little bit different," April said. "Just fun."
Tony Newport, 36, has been a Buccaneers fan since the team's first season. As a 10-year-old Boy Scout, he sold Cokes and hot dogs at Tampa Stadium, where he caught his first glimpses of the team.
"For a long time, you almost had to say it under your breath that you were a Buccaneers fan," said Tony, who has an entire room filled with Bucs memorabilia. "They used to have some bad times, let me tell you."
Tony met April last year, when she took a job at the laundry and dry cleaning equipment service where he worked.
There was mutual attraction, but it took 10 months before they went out for drinks last winter.
"Once we had our first date, it was like we had been together forever," April said.
April, 30, wasn't immune to sports fanaticism. Having lived in North Carolina for five years, she bled Tar Heel blue during college basketball season.
It was football she never understood. Not, at least, until moving to Tampa, where the first person she met asked her about the Bucs.
Before long, she was hooked. She and Tony watched games together each week; pretty soon their hearts were caught up in the emotional rush of January's Super Bowl run. Weeks barely passed before April fell in love with Tony, Tony fell in love with April, and they both fell in love with Jon Gruden.
One month after their first date, April walked into her living room to find Tony down on one knee. He was holding the ring of her dreams: a princess-cut solitaire diamond mounted on white gold.
She said yes. The next day, the Bucs defeated the Eagles to claim the NFC championship.
From there, they started planning for the big day.
April had been married before, and her first wedding was as straitlaced as they come, right down to the Cinderella dress.
The second time around, she was looking for something a little more relaxed.
"It's usually all based around the bride, and I just didn't want it to be that way," she said. "Let's let everybody enjoy this."
When April told Tony her favorite color was red, he said that as long as they were having a red wedding, well, they might as well go ahead and use Buccaneer decorations.
While they both insist he was kidding, after the Bucs won the Super Bowl, a football-themed wedding seemed a little less laughable. April couldn't get the idea out of her mind.
In the months that followed, April says, "It just snowballed." They crafted football-shaped centerpieces for the reception. They gave out Super Bowl key chains as favors. And they decided to enter the reception to the Fox NFL theme.
By the time the day had arrived, they had managed to win over April's Philadelphia family.
"I was surprised, but they did a good job," said Lana Katz, April's sister and maid of honor. "It worked."
After the cake was cut, Tony pulled April's garter from her leg with his teeth. It was a Philadelphia Eagles garter, a gift from an uncle who couldn't bear the thought of his niece's not wearing green.
Today, Tony and April Newport leave for a honeymoon in Hawaii. The trip was delayed so they could spend Sunday watching the Buccaneers play the San Francisco 49ers, surrounded by friends and family. After that 24-7 loss, married life can only get better.
Hawaii is nice, but five days and four nights is a long time, especially when the Bucs play the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday at 7 a.m. Maui time.
"We might have to go to the airport early and watch it," Tony said.
"We'll just have to make sure that when we get back, nobody tells us what happened," April said.
Win or lose, Tony and April will still be in Buccaneer heaven. Standing arm in arm after walking down the aisle, they agreed that nothing, not even another Super Bowl win, would ever top this.
"No comparison," Tony said as he posed for pictures with his new wife. "This is way better."
