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By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 10, 2001
One of the traditions of training camp is sharing a room with a teammate. Each day, one Buccaneer is asked to describe his roommate in terms of a popular movie, television or cartoon character.
Reidel Anthony has known roommate Jacquez Green for a while and he has heard it all. Asked to describe Green in terms of a popular television character, Anthony picked Cliff Claven, self-described expert of all things on Cheers.
"That's Jacquez. He knows everything. He can tell you stats from way back when, from high school. He's always telling you about something he knows."
NAME: Leon Hires.
HT/WT: 6-4; 285.
COLLEGE: Florida.
POSITION: Center.
NFL EXPERIENCE: Rookie.
HOMETOWN: Bradenton.
BACK IN THE DAY: Hires transferred from Notre Dame ("My blood was too thin up there. I froze my butt off.") after one year and did not start at Florida until he was a senior, but the Bradenton Manatee graduate managed to bunch four years of memories into one. He was part of Florida's 2000 SEC championship and helped the Gators to a last-minute victory over Tennessee in Knoxville. "It was pretty special just hearing the whole stadium be quiet," he said. "You could hear a pin drop up in the top row, because they didn't know we could do that."
BRUSH WITH GREATNESS: Hires' uncle, Ted, owns four Sonny's Bar-B-Q restaurants, where he worked as a cook and a manager.
TO MAKE THE TEAM: Hires played guard and tackle in college but was moved to center for rookie camp. Jeff Christy and Todd Washington are entrenched in the top two spots. Hires, who never snapped a ball, enters as the No. 3 center. He'll need to learn to make line calls and read defenses quickly.
WHAT'S HIS TAKE: "I just have to take care of my business and not make mental mistakes."
-- FRANK PASTOR
"It was nice when 55 came walking across the street, but I told the defense, you know, this is how smart I am. I said I was walking out there on the field and I hear everybody cheering and going crazy, and I think they're cheering for me."
-- MONTE KIFFIN, defensive coordinator on linebacker Derrick Brooks' regal entrance at Bucs practice Wednesday night
TODAY: Practice with Dolphins, 4-6 p.m.
SATURDAY: Practice with Dolphins, 9-11 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.
SUNDAY: Practice, 10:30 a.m.-noon.
* Practices are free and open to public.