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BRADY DENNISThree Buccaneers visit a Polk County prison, bringing a message of salvation and some football talk.
POLK CITY - They transformed this dusty old prison yard into a knee-slapping, hand-clapping revival, if only for a morning.
On Tuesday, three Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Shelton Quarles, Roman Oben and Jason Whittle - drove past the citrus groves and rural pastures, past Holy Cow Road and into this forgotten patch of Florida called the Polk Correctional Institution.
They came to share their religious faith, a fried chicken lunch and a few football predictions with hundreds of prisoners who, with eyes wide and mouths gaping, cheered the Super Bowl champions as they walked through the gate of the towering barbed-wire fences.
The trio arrived about 10:30 a.m. to a rock star's welcome. In the recreation yard where baseball and football games usually take place, a gospel choir sang. A prison band played - drum set, keyboard, bongos.
A sea of prisoners in blue jumpsuits erupted with applause and shouts - "Amen!" and "Praise God!" and "Shelton, I thought you had that interception last weekend. I had big money on that!"
Tuesday's event, in part to celebrate the pending release of several prisoners who live in a faith-based prison dormitory, marked the first time Buccaneers had visited an adult prison, state officials said.
In the past, they have spoken at juvenile facilities, but never to grown men. At least half of the 1,189 inmates attended Tuesday and listened intently, clapping and cheering frequently, as the players spent about an hour on a makeshift stage professing their faith and offering advice and encouragement.
They insisted again and again that fame, wealth and success isn't what fulfills them. They said they turn to God for that, and they encouraged the prisoners to do the same.
"There are a lot of guys on the street who are incarcerated in their minds," Oben said. "But you can be in here and be free because of Christ."
Quarles said football gives him a living. But it doesn't make for a complete life.
"If God takes football away from me, I know he has something better planned," he said. "I'm not really here to tell you anything except to say, keep your faith."
The players fielded questions from the prisoners, who said they watch every Bucs game. And while some dealt with religion, the conversation turned - as it always does with Bucs fans, free or incarcerated - to football.
Among Tuesday's questions:
What happened last weekend? Is Warren Sapp going to Green Bay? Did God have a hand in the loss against Indianapolis? Will Mike Alstott be back next year? What's Jon Gruden really like? Are y'all going to cover the point spread this weekend?
Some prisoners used the chance to offer advice: "This might be tough love, but I need you guys to protect Brad (Johnson)."
But beyond religion or football, the men seemed grateful Tuesday that someone came to visit, that someone simply remembered them.
"We have very few people come in from outside," said 41-year-old Larry Zinsmayer, in prison on drug convictions. "You see guys in here younger and younger. They've got nothing to look forward to. They got no inspiration. These guys need inspiration."
Count Dana Isom among them. The 30-year-old drummer and gospel choir member has been in prison since 1991 and faces many more years for robbery, kidnapping and sexual battery convictions.
But Tuesday for him, as for the others, meant a holiday. Nothing short of a miracle in a place where each day is the same as the one before.
"We're supposed to be the gone and forgotten," Isom said. "But we all make mistakes. It's nice to know there's somebody out there that does care. It inspires me."
By noon, Isom was drumming again, the gospel singers bellowed a hymn and swayed, arms raised. Bucs minister the Rev. Doug Gilcrease preached from the stage.
Several prisoners came forward to be saved. They huddled with several ministers, including Abdul Al-Khatib, who officials said is the only Muslim prison chaplain in Florida.
And then, the miracle was over. The Super Bowl champions had to return to the world of football and freedom.
On their way out they autographed playing cards, newspapers, Bibles, scraps of paper and T-shirts. They offered blessings. They shook hands and smiled. And just like that, the prison yard was again a never-changing dusty patch of grass, surrounded by barbed wire.
The prisoners clung to the fence, clapping and whooping as the celebrities walked away. "Bring us a win on Sunday!" one man shouted. And then another, "Let Carolina know about Jesus!"