Donovan Smith: “Terrified” In Tampa
January 20th, 2017
Donovan Smith has off-field issues.
At 6-6, 335 pounds with excellent feet, Donovan Smith routinely handles immense physical challenges.
But, per Smith, it’s the mental challenges that render him helpless.
Joe is not joking. Smith has debilitating phobias. He talked about them on the Buccaneers Radio Network just prior to the season finale.
Smith confessed to a deep fear of butterflies and moths, in addition to a strong aversion to common amphibians and reptiles.
“I’m not messing with anything that flies. Think about it like this. You can’t catch a bird,” Smith said of his fear of harmless flying insects.
“A new thing I’m terrified of now, being here in Florida, is freakin’ frogs,” Smith added. “This is why this is a problem: So I walk out of my house, and we leave at [5 a.m.] and it’s kind of dark, and all of a sudden I hear [splaattt] on the wall. And I turn around to lock my door and there’s this huge frog and his long legs just stuck on the wall. And I’m just like, ‘I’ll lock the door later.’ And I ran into my car.”
Smith went on to lament “there are poisonous frogs” and the Tampa Bay area is like the “Amazon.”
On lizards, Smith said, “There was one in my old apartment and I called one of the maintenance people.”
Ok. Joe is cool with phobias. But they can become serious. So Joe is not laughing about this.
Suppose Smith’s condition deteriorates and he doesn’t want to re-sign with the Bucs when his contract expires after the 2018 season? Perhaps the day might come when Smith dreams of feeling the dangers of Florida for the safety of a cold-weather team?
January 20th, 2017 at 9:57 am
Someone get a hypnotist in there, stat. A grown man shouldn’t be afraid of those things, especially living in Florida.
January 20th, 2017 at 9:57 am
Freaking hilarious. Never understood why people are afraid of things that cant hurt them.
Typical northerner. I-75 or I-95 north, get out.
January 20th, 2017 at 9:57 am
Haven’t seen too many 335-pound behemoth tackles being terrorized by butterflies……or frogs for that matter…..gotta watch out for those frogs, they can be really mean, an yes, those little lizards, they’re definitely a major threat, last I check they weren’t on the Man-Eater list……better keep Donovan away from the Komodo Dragons at Busch Gardens, he might pass out on the sidewalk.
Way too strange.
January 20th, 2017 at 9:57 am
Saying the guy will just up and leave because of the wildlife in Florida is a bit of a stretch lol. Im sure he will be able to deal with it for a multi million dollar contract
January 20th, 2017 at 9:59 am
I think he also said his favorite movie was the little mermaid
January 20th, 2017 at 10:00 am
Mental midget nuff said
January 20th, 2017 at 10:02 am
HA!
One day I went to put my shoes on and my foot wouldn’t fit so I kept forcing it in. Take the shoe off and shake it out. Huge frog in my shoe with a broken neck. Nice job DB.
January 20th, 2017 at 10:02 am
He’s an honest guy… not afraid to admit to his fears…, you’ve got to like that!!!
January 20th, 2017 at 10:13 am
You just wrote for everyone to read that he leaves his door unlocked. I hope he his home isn’t robbed.
C’mon, man. That’s a big leap. The unlocked door was part of a one-time story. Second, he could have been referring to a second lock not the only lock. And the unlocked door doesn’t mean there’s no alarm in place. Third, if Smith didn’t want the information out there, he’d ask the Bucs to edit/remove the podcast, which originally posted a few weeks ago.–Joe
January 20th, 2017 at 10:17 am
Haha
I love this guy. Him and Marpet have a great radio show too. They’re very charismatic and seems they’re bonding well.
January 20th, 2017 at 10:22 am
Say it ain’t so. Common case of the Elephant and the mouse. Smh
January 20th, 2017 at 10:27 am
How do you catch one of the little lizards without the tail falling off? Lol
January 20th, 2017 at 10:37 am
Another good reason to go ahead and draft his replacement asap.
January 20th, 2017 at 10:46 am
lol….@buddhaboy is right….I had a room mate in college about 6’5 290 from philly….the guy was so scared of lizards and frogs it was hilarious…in the summer I went to philly with him and almost jumped out of my skin when we were downtown and I saw the biggest rat in history….northerners can keep the rats, I rather deal with lizards and frogs LOL….GO BUCS!!!!
January 20th, 2017 at 10:55 am
1 hour and 5 minutes…
SAY HIS NAME!!!
SAY IT!!!
January 20th, 2017 at 11:01 am
Other than roaches I don’t see how any of those would frighten anyone…
January 20th, 2017 at 11:01 am
He might not want to resign because someone will be taking his place in a year or two.
January 20th, 2017 at 11:09 am
Ha! I once had a co-worker call me to the other side of our building to kill a half-dead wasp that couldn’t even fly anymore! You can’t make this stuff up!
January 20th, 2017 at 11:34 am
Aaron Sears part deux.
January 20th, 2017 at 12:02 pm
Yep – we have officially hit the lull of the Buccaneer offseason.
January 20th, 2017 at 12:10 pm
He sounds like a child.
January 20th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
Draft a left tackle licht if yes scared of moths hes scared of men
January 20th, 2017 at 12:23 pm
Donovan welcome to the jungle. A big grown man squeamish about harmless critters is strange. A bit nutty.
January 20th, 2017 at 12:53 pm
May I suggest something called an apartment? Perhaps a high rise? Look into channelside or St. Pete, Mr. Smith.
January 20th, 2017 at 1:51 pm
“A bit nutty.”
Not PC but true! So let’s follow this to the end. Donovan has an illness, not a weaknesss…anymore than a person born with MS or CF or any disease has.
I don’t want to shame us or be overly PC but I have an SIL who is bright, seems normal in every way, but she is a paranoid schizophrenic. She believes a non existent love child from a non existent affair 40 years ago is stalking she and her husband…trying to poison them…she carries her flour, coffee, sugar in her car with her when she leaves the house…the latest she believes this love child is sneaking in at night and cutting her eyelashes….and yet she doesn’t wake up…just notices it in the morning.
We do not laugh at her…we are frustrated…but as her husband said…imagine what it’s like to be inside of her head.
Thankfully I can only imagine what it’s like to be in Donovan’s head. Must truly suckkk. I’m with Ben. Let’s get him some help…not because he may bolt Florida…hey Green Bay has really scary critters…wolves…bears..but because Donavan seems like a genuinely nice human being and deserves to have that suffering eased.
January 20th, 2017 at 2:00 pm
That’s just sad. I can understand not wanting to touch things like frogs…but being terrified of them? Grow up, dude.
It;s not like they are snakes…
😉
January 20th, 2017 at 2:18 pm
My company manages “environmental” programs such as rodent abatement and organics recycling. It’s funny how many people complain about bugs and rodents. I find myself biting my tongue when I start to explain that we reside in a sub-tropical climate. What wouldn’t want to live here?! Invariably, when I explain this, it is usually to someone who didn’t grow up here.
I used to take the lizards (brown anoles) and attach them to my ear by making them bite me. Then I’d chase my sister around with them hanging from my ears. I think she still holds a grudge!!!
January 20th, 2017 at 2:35 pm
@Joe … “Suppose Smith’s condition deteriorates and he doesn’t want to re-sign with the Bucs when his contract expires after the 2018 season?” Seriously Joe? Bucs don’t have enough things to be concerned about? Now we’ve got to worry about frogs and lizards?
January 20th, 2017 at 3:06 pm
Wait until Donovan experiences the joy of a giant palmetto bug taking flight and coming right at his face. It happens to everyone in Florida sooner or later.
Dude’s gonna be scarred for life from that experience if his phobia is as bad as it sounds. LOL
January 20th, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Plenty of people suffer from phobias way more seemingly outrageous than this.
And it’s very real. Nothing to do with being from the North. Cause we have bugs here too lol, and snakes, and lizards lol.
January 20th, 2017 at 5:39 pm
The north, depending how north you consider north, does not have lizards roaming the sidewalks and climbing all over your house. Does not have poisonous snakes. We have much smaller bugs than in Florida too. I currently live in WI, and go to back to the Bay Area every now and again with my wife. She hates the bugs and lizards in Florida. Wisconsin doesn’t have anywhere near the variety and size of bugs, and certainly no lizards anywhere up here.
January 20th, 2017 at 5:53 pm
I live in Maryland and there are PLENTY of insects and amphibians to go around.
For someone who is phobic any amount will do the trick. Whether their poisonous or not is besides the point, a true phobic person is terrified regardless.
And again, there are phobic people in ALL areas of the United States lol.
Being from the north means nothing.
January 20th, 2017 at 5:54 pm
Dont confuse being scared, with truly having a debilitating “phobia”.
January 20th, 2017 at 6:35 pm
I agree PR. Having weird sort of fears is not a full on phobia. I also am not too comfortable with birds. There’s something about them that I don’t like but I’m not having a panic attack if a bird flies near me.
January 20th, 2017 at 6:57 pm
.
January 20th, 2017 at 8:04 pm
Oh I don’t understand stand it so let’s make fun of someone! Why don’t you all grow up and have compassion and respect for someone else’s fears or problems try praying for the man!
January 20th, 2017 at 8:33 pm
I’m mainly afraid of…
Actually nothing since it’s a no-retreat state.
But animal wise the only thing that bothers me are stupid huge wolf spiders, I mean the moment you realize that it’s a wolf spider no big deal, but they’re giant. Also scorpions suck. Oh and rattlesnakes, I had one get in my house somehow and didn’t realize it was a rattlesnake until I was already kicking it out the door with some flip flops on (it was fairly small for a rattle snake). I then quickly went and grabbed a shovel and killed it, then found another a few feet away and killed it, I felt like a real man.
Where I live in the woods up in north Pasco we have coyotes too, they’re not actually all that worrisome however since they’re fairly small, I’d just pick on up and punt it about 50 yards back into the woods.
BUT oh wait… nope, there is one true freakout animal, I take it all back. Stupid wild boars… they live in the woods, I’ve seen them from time to time, they’re not just pigs as they have tusks – those dumb things you’d be in real trouble dealing with since they will attack you over and over again and can do damage. That’s why if you live in the woods, or the wrong part of town, you want to be an NRA member.
January 20th, 2017 at 10:30 pm
I like Florida’s lizards even though most in the TB area are non native species. The native chameleons have retreated north into this state because the brown anole lizards are more aggressive and faster moving. I have a pet lizard that lives outside, a bigger male that I feed roaches scooped out just beneath the soil. He climbs right in the plastic glass to get the bugs. When I walk outside the door he follows me. These are some smart creatures.
January 21st, 2017 at 8:32 am
Well, he could be living in Australia.
January 21st, 2017 at 11:02 am
Lmfao well that’s a shocker