Warren Sapp
Warren Carlos Sapp is an American former professional football defensive tackle who played in the National Football League for 13 seasons, primarily with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes, winning the Lombardi Award and the Bronko Nagurski and Bill Willis trophies in 1994. Sapp was selected in the first round of 1995 NFL draft by the Buccaneers, where he spent his first nine seasons. In his final four seasons, he was a member of the Oakland Raiders. Since 2024, he has served as a graduate assistant for the Colorado Buffaloes.
With Tampa Bay, Sapp received seven Pro Bowl and four first-team All-Pro selections and was part of the team that won the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII. He compiled 96.5 career sacks by the time of his retirement, which are the third-highest career sacks for a defensive tackle and the 28th-highest overall for a defensive lineman. His career was also checkered by controversy from his hard-hitting style of play and occasional verbal outbursts. Along with Lee Roy Selmon and teammate Derrick Brooks, Sapp is one of three players to have their numbers retired by the Buccaneers. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Early life
Sapp was born in Orlando, Florida, and raised in Plymouth, Florida, by a single mother Annie Roberts. During the late 1980s, he was honored for outstanding football play at Apopka High School in Apopka, Florida, at linebacker, tight end, kicker, and punter. He holds school records for sacks, tackles for a loss, and longest field goal. A two-sport athlete in high school, he also played on the basketball team as a power forward. In high-school football, his hard tackle of Johnny Damon in a game against Dr. Phillips High School team gave the future Major League Baseball star a concussion.In 2007, Sapp was named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team comprising the top 33 players in 100 years of high-school football in his home state.
College career
Many top nationally ranked college football programs recruited Sapp, and he played at the University of Miami for the Hurricanes, where he was a defensive standout. He converted to defensive lineman, and in 1994, won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Lombardi Award, and the Bill Willis Award. As a junior at Miami in 1994, he had 84 tackles and led the Hurricanes in sacks with 10.5 sacks. He also finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting that year.Professional career
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1995 NFL draft
Ahead of the 1995 NFL draft, Sapp ran the fastest time in the 40-yard dash for a defensive tackle. Sapp was considered a potential top-five or -10 pick, but due to reports of multiple failed cocaine and marijuana tests released the night before the draft, many teams passed on him. He was ultimately selected 12th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round. The NFL released a statement strongly denying the rumors and Sapp believed an anonymous individual attempted to intentionally sabotage his draft chances.1995–1999
Sapp was almost immediately given the starting job as the right defensive tackle, which he held for his entire nine-year stay in Tampa. He flourished in the Tampa 2 defense, which included teammates Derrick Brooks and John Lynch. With his devastating combination of size and speed, he was able to disrupt opposing offenses even when double- or triple-teamed on the line.He finished his rookie season with 27 tackles and one interception, and continued to be a prolific tackler for the Buccaneers. He registered 51 tackles and nine sacks in 1996, and 58 tackles and 10.5 sacks in 1997. His Pro Bowl selection in 1997 was the first of seven straight. In 1998, he signed a contract extension paying him $36 million over six years. He was honored as NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1999.
2002
In 2002, the Bucs led the league in defense and won Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders. Sapp made five tackles and two sacks during that postseason.Week 12: Mike Sherman confrontation
On November 24, 2002, at Raymond James Stadium, Sapp was strongly criticized for a blindside hit on the Green Bay Packers' Chad Clifton. The hit occurred during a Buccaneers interception return, when Sapp hit Clifton as the latter was jogging downfield, away from the main action. The hit inflicted a severe pelvic injury and hospitalized Clifton for almost a week, after which he could not walk unaided for the next five weeks. In 2005, the NFL Competition Committee agreed on new guidelines for "unnecessary roughness", making hits such as Sapp's on Clifton illegal.In an exchange caught by television cameras following the game, Packers coach Mike Sherman approached Sapp and said to him, "That was a chickenshit play." In response, Sapp screamed at Sherman: "You talk tough? Put a jersey on!" Sapp later called Sherman "a lying, shit-eating hound.... If I was 25 years old and didn't have a kid and a conscience, I would have given him an ass kicking right there at the 30-yard line." Sherman later added, "The joviality that existed after when a guy's lying on the ground, with numbness in his legs and fingers, I just thought that wasn't appropriate for any NFL player."
Week 16: First skipping incident
During pregame warmups for the December 23, 2002 Monday Night Football game at Raymond James Stadium, Sapp skipped among the Pittsburgh Steelers as they warmed up. Steelers running back Jerome Bettis shoved him, touching off a heated argument between the two teams. Sapp was not fined for the incident, but it added to his controversial image, and he felt he had been made an example by the NFL by being fined for a second Monday-night skipping incident. "That's all this is about," said Sapp. "In my nine years in this league, no one's been fined for verbally abusing officials. It's unprecedented." The Buccaneers had been earlier ridiculed by Steelers' Lee Flowers as being "paper champions".2003
In 2003, during a Monday Night Football game against the Indianapolis Colts on October 6, Sapp was scolded for skipping through and disrupting the Colts, who were spread out on the field stretching during warmups. Much anticipation and national interest going into the game had been generated by the return of former head coach Tony Dungy to Tampa. The Colts wound up erasing a 21-point deficit in the final four minutes and defeating the Buccaneers 38–35 in overtime, sending the defending champions into a downslide.The next Sunday, October 12, 2003, before the Buccaneers took on the Washington Redskins, Sapp, while running onto the field, bumped into an NFL referee and drew a $50,000 fine. His response: "It's a slave system. Make no mistake about it. Slavemaster say you can't do it, don't do it. They'll make an example out of you."
Oakland Raiders
In 2004, Sapp was reportedly interested in accepting a contract offer from the Cincinnati Bengals for four years worth $16 million, but on March 20, he announced he had agreed to terms on a seven-year, $36.6 million contract with the Oakland Raiders, the same team he had helped rout in the Super Bowl in early 2003.He started all 16 games in his first season in Oakland, splitting time at defensive end and defensive tackle, recording 30 tackles and 2.5 sacks and recovering two fumbles after having lost an estimated 20 pounds before joining the Raiders for the 2004 season.
His 2005 season got off to a great beginning back in his familiar defensive tackle position. He started the first 10 games of the season with 29 tackles, and finished second on the team to Derrick Burgess with five sacks before being sidelined for the last six games of 2005 with a shoulder injury.
He returned to his All-Pro form in 2006. He had 10 sacks to go along with 32 tackles and one forced fumble.
2007
He lost 49 lb before the 2007 season, and recorded 37 tackles, two sacks, and two forced fumbles.On December 23, 2007, Sapp got ejected after an altercation with the officials near the end of the second quarter of the Raiders' game at Jacksonville. The incident began when linesman Jerry Bergman mistakenly assumed that the Raiders would decline a 10-yard Jaguar penalty. Sapp, the defensive captain, shot back at referee Jerome Boger that the Raiders wanted to accept the penalty. The conversation became heated, with Sapp gesturing and swearing, provoking Boger to flag him for unsportsmanlike conduct, but Sapp and the rest of the Raider defense continued to mouth off at the officials, resulting in a second unsportsmanlike against Sapp and a third unsportsmanlike against teammate Derrick Burgess. Finally, the coaches ran onto the field, and along with the officials, began physically separating the disgruntled players. Boger claimed that Sapp had "bumped" him in the process, while Sapp denied any physical contact. In any event, Boger then levied a third unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Sapp and ejected him. The league eventually fined him $75,000, and Burgess $25,000.
On January 3, 2008, Sapp told Raider owner Al Davis over the phone that he would retire and confirmed this on his website, qbkilla.com, in just two words: "I'M DONE!" The retirement became official on March 4, 2008.