One cool thing about former Bucs great Ronde Barber was his durability. Aside from Ronnie Lott (who like Barber, was moved to safety), Joe had never seen such a fearless tackling from a cornerback.

Lott was in another world as a physical corner, and as much as Joe loves Barber, he was not Lott’s equal. Any player who decided to go mano y mano with Lott, well, that was a concussion or a broken bone waiting to happen. Lott was a freaking headhunter of the highest order and Joe loved it.

But Eric Adelson of Yahoo! Sports believes fans should not compare Barber to his secondary peers like Deion Sanders and Darrell Green. Instead, Barber should be compared to Dick Butkus and Jack Lambert.

In other words, Barber was one of the toughest guys to play a tough game.

To many fans, Barber is known for his skill, exemplified by his signature interception return for a touchdown in the NFC championship game in 2002 against the Philadelphia Eagles. To players, however, he’s known for the kind of toughness usually reserved for end rushers and linebackers.

“That’s the toughest guy I’ve ever been around,” former Tampa Bay Bucs teammate Barrett Ruud, an eight-year NFL vet, told Yahoo! Sports in December. “Never misses a practice or a game. Every extra point attempt, he’s laying out for it.”

The toughness goes even beyond Barber’s iron man streak, which started in 1999 and ends with his retirement from the game on Thursday. Barber’s consecutive starts streak stands at 224 games, sixth all-time. The players ahead of him are all linemen, with the exception of the top man on the list, Brett Favre. Barber, now 38, is 5-10, 180 pounds – about the size of the average man walking down the street – and he never missed a game due to injury.

Adelson may be onto something. Not just was Barber a tough guy, he was durable. It’s one thing to seek out physicality, it’s quite another to be able to answer the bell the next week.

And Barber did so time after time after time.

Here’s another chance to get to know the Bucs’ 2013 fifth-round pick, defensive end Steven Means, the pride of the football powerhouse State University of New York at Buffalo.

Means and his family opened up to a Buffalo TV station after the Buccaneers drafted him. (Damn, still scant leaves on the trees in Buffalo.)

Yes, there will be debate about Ronde Barber and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There shouldn’t be, but there is.

Joe just thinks it is nonsense when people label Barber a system player. Exactly what player in the NFL is not a system player? Every NFL team runs an offensive and defensive system.

Now Joe believes Barber will eventually enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he may have to wait a while. Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune represents the Tampa Bay area among the 45 voters who select and induct players into Canton.

Kaufman explains just how tough it will be for Barber as defensive backs are a rare breed to have their busts in Canton.

There are only 23 defensive backs in the Hall, and among defensive backs who have retired in the past two decades, only four have been inducted: Darrell Green, Ronnie Lott, Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson.

That’s the kind of scrutiny Barber faces when he first becomes eligible for the Class of 2018.

Barber has thrived while facing down competition for 16 NFL seasons, but the 2018 Hall of Fame class could feature a killer group of other first-time eligibles: Ray Lewis, Randy Moss, Charles Woodson and Brian Urlacher. And don’t forget about returning candidates who fall short in 2017.

Remember, it will be Kaufman who will present — and argue for — Barber to be inducted, if Kaufman is still in the business come 2018. He’s on Barber’s side but is just being honest about the uphill climb.

Then again, it was Kaufman who did the unthinkable and got a non-player, non-coach, non-owner elected in NFL Films founder Ed Sabol, and he also convinced his fellow voters that Warren Sapp should be a first-ballot inductee, which many thought to be a dicey proposition at best.

Joe will leave it at this: If Roger Wehrli can get into Canton (granted, on his final try), so too can Barber.

Some day.

The sad saga of former Bucs defensive tackle Brian Price’s career continues.

Price, who never got fully healthy after his bizarre pelvis/hamstring issues as a Bucs rookie in 2010, was signed by Dallas right after the 2012 season, after getting cut by the Bears and training at FOX Sports analyst Jay Glazer’s fancy MMA gym.

Price, however, was waived yesterday by Dallas; the team cited a shoulder injury as the reason.

Joe supposes Price will find another team willing to see if he can recover his mad talent. Still young, Price turned 24 in April.

Joe’s good friends at Ed Morse Auto Plaza in Port Richey are at it again, offering a wonderful deal to help spoil moms on Mother’s Day.

You’re already planning to shop for a new or pre-owned vehicle, so let yourself be wowed at Ed Morse Auto Plaza. That’s where Joe bought his pre-owned Ford 27 months ago. Not a problem since! Click below or above.

Former Bucs great Ronde Barber talks with Yahoo! Sports’ Melanie Collins about whether he belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in this Yahoo! video.

Yes, yesterday was a bittersweet day for Joe. He didn’t want to see Ronde Barber leave the game. Who did?

But Barber left the game in a classy way and with all his body parts intact. That was the way to do it. The Bucs still wanted him back. But Barber wasn’t sure his 38-year old body could get ready for one more year of pounding.

Most sensible people agree that someday Barber will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The real question is when? Tampa Bay electronic media czar J.P. Peterson makes a compelling case for Barber’s induction sooner rather than later on TampaBaySportsCentral.com.

The ONLY corner with 25+ sacks and 45+ interceptions meaning…he could beat 300 pound tackles or shifty backs on a blitz then on the next play cover a number one receiver lined up in the slot or outside? He finished with 28 Sacks and 48 picks, which in the days of specialization and shorter careers is a stat that may never be approached…let alone broken.

His most important and telling stat to me is his 1,423 tackles (Tackles are a very much disputed stat as official post game film study counts often can change a 5 tackle game into a 13 tackle game). But by most comparison measures Ronde’ is the top tackling corner by over 300 tackles! Consider Deion Sanders, a Hall of Fame corner only had 492…in his career! We can talk about flash and big plays all we want (and we will) but still basic tackling is the foundation of defensive football. Ronde’s superior instincts, intelligence and dogged film study not only put him in position to make game changing plays but also put him in position to make the Blue Collar plays that are the foundation of solid Tampa 2 defense. Keeping the 2 yard gains from becoming 8 or 80 yard plays.

These numbers prove his incredible versatility. But watching every one of his approximately 16,500 plays I’ve seen him take on 270 pound Brandon Jacobs in full stride. It didn’t end well but he got him down! I’ve seen him hold his own 1 on 1 with Magatron Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Marcus Colston…guys that are almost a foot taller…and compete for jump balls. He didn’t always make the play but more often than not he did. He has unselfishly played special teams over the years blocking punts and returning them for scores. The fact is…you can’t find players in this league who can do all those things or are even willing to do all those things.

Of course, as Joe wrote earlier, he believes Barber gets in. It may not be for a few years, though. There aren’t that many cornerbacks in the Hall of Fame, and if you list some of the players that will be eligible for the first year along with Barber, wow. Leading the list is Ray Lewis along with Randy Moss, Donald Driver, and perhaps Brian Urlacher and/or Charles Woodson. That’s not to mention worthy players who did not get in on their first at-bat.

Now the numbskulls out there who claim Barber was a system player thus not worthy of induction, Joe has no time for fools. Virtually every player is a system player.

Would Joe Montana have been a Hall of Fame quarterback had he been drafted by a ground-and-pound team? Would Dan Fouts have been a Hall of Fame quarterback if he played for Bill Walsh or a coach who believed in throwing the ball deep? What would have happened if Lawrence Taylor was drafted by a team that used a 43 defense? What would have ever happened to Kellen Winslow if he played for a run-oriented team that required blocking by a tight end?

Barber is a Hall of Famer. It’s really that simple.

Father Dungy weighs in on Ronde Barber from No. 20’s retirement announcement at One Buc Palace today.

“He wasn’t going to take second best,” Dungy said of Barber.

TBO.com crafted the highlight video below, which includes Barber saying he wants to be remembered as a tough guy, and more.

Newly retired Ronde Barber made the rounds today across local and national media, and that included 17 minutes with the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, of WDAE-AM 620.

Barber talked about the legacy and disrespect of the Bucs’ glory-years defense, his emotionally challenging good-bye today, his little-known mentor, Anthony Parker, the amazing story of Rich Bisaccia’s Super Bowl ring, and more. Enjoy the audio below!

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Of all the great stories circulating about Ronde Barber today, his retirement day, Joe really likes this one.

The good Dexter Jackson, the Bucs’ Super Bowl MVP, talked about how he Barber, John Lynch and Brian Kelly made a pact in 2002 to be better than the legendary secondary of the 1994 San Francisco 49ers, so Jackson explained on WDAE-AM 620 this morning. Per Jackson, that entire Niners secondary make the Pro Bowl and Barber was determined to get his unit there.

Jackson also dove into how Barber was a real hands-on leader. “He actually went out and showed guys how to do it. He didn’t tell you how to do it. He showed you how to do it,” Jackson said. (You can catch the entire interview below.)

Ronde Barber weighs in on Josh Freeman’s status and ability

Ronde Barber is preparing to launch a national media career and he’s diving right in.

The retired Bucs icon says Josh Freeman can’t be compared to elite quarterbacks yet, so he explained on CBS Sports Radio this morning.

“He’s teetering (laughs), teetering on the edge of, you know, being really special. Josh is still very young. A lot of people don’t give him the credit he deserves because he drives some people crazy if you watch him (laughs),” Barber said of Freeman. “But he has an immeasurable amount of skill. He’s big. He’s strong. At times, he’s unbelievably accurate. And he has that confidence. You know the great players, in my mind, the one’s I’ve been around, have this like unwavering confidence about going out and doing their jobs. The ones that are elite make the good decisions all the time. And Josh still has to get there.”

“I don’t know when the time will be for him. I hope it’s this year because it seems as if he’s getting pressure from everybody to finally turn into that guy.

Barber went on to acknowledge how stunning it was to see Freeman’s incredible rise and fall during the 2012 season.

“[Freeman] spends a lot of time at his job. I’ll give him that. And I respect him for the work that he puts in every week. Is it enough? That’s for Josh to determine and for his head coach to determine,” Barber said. “But he can be that [elite] guy. I won’t say he’s that guy right now. That would be lying to him and myself. He has the potential. He could be that guy.”

Joe thinks Barber put it well. Freeman is teetering, and it could go either way.

Former Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber (boy, that feels weird for Joe to write) appeared on “The Opening Drive” this morning with co-hosts Bob Papa and Ross Tucker on SiriusXM NFL Radio to discuss his career and factors that led to his retirement.

When pressed, Barber confessed recent player acquisitions by Bucs rock star general manger Mark Dominik helped steer Barber to his decision to retire; but it was not a major factor.

“It’s been a good couple of weeks to finalize this decision. I had a great run at it, far more than I could have ever expected. Coming to the end on my own terms is pretty important for me. I had the opportunity to continue to play. Mark [Dominik] and Greg [Schiano] have been good, letting me decide. They wanted me to play and I don’t doubt that at all. It was not lip service.

“I had a chance to play in one place for the entirety of my career. I had a lot of peers that weren’t able to do that.

“A lot (weighed in the decision). Not as hard of a decision as I thought. After the [2012] season, I was content either way. I probably could have been talked back in. But I’m 38 years old and this team is building in a different direction. Could I have contributed? Absolutely. Would that have been an ideal situation? I don’t know. I would have had to figure that out in training camp.”

Joe thinks Barber was right. Go out on his own call; his decision. No need to go out playing special teams and being a second (third?) string player.

Segments of the interview can be heard by clicking the orange button below.

The fight must have been gone from Ronde Barber.

Barber often said he played with a chip on his shoulder his entire career because of what he perceived as disrespect during the 1997 NFL draft. And Barber often said he always was fighting to prove himself because media, at times, questioned his ability during his later years. Plus, Barber said he felt as healthy as ever after the 2012 season.

So given the challenge posed to Barber by the Bucs for 2013, no set role in the New Schiano Order, it seems Barber was just not up for one last round in the ring. He elaborated for USA Today.

If Barber had been asked to return as a starter, it might’ve been enough to lure him back.

“Possibly. That would’ve made it a little bit harder of a decision, obviously,” Barber said. “But that wasn’t the case. They wanted me to play, I don’t doubt that at all. I had open lines of communication with Mark the past couple of years about continuing to play.

“At the end, it was me deciding I didn’t need football as much as I once did and it was time to venture into a new thing.”

The story also includes a reference to Barber’s new broadcasting career, but no details have been announced.

Joe would have loved to see Barber slug it out in training camp with Eric Wright. The ironman and icon versus the letdown corner on the rebound.

Joe’s good friends at Ed Morse Auto Plaza in Port Richey are at it again, offering a wonderful deal to help spoil moms on Mother’s Day.

You’re already planning to shop for a new or pre-owned vehicle, so let yourself be wowed at Ed Morse Auto Plaza. That’s where Joe bought his pre-owned Ford 27 months ago. Not a problem since! Click below or above.

The retirement of Ronde Barber re-highlights the Bucs’ depth issues at cornerback.

Right now, the Bucs’ top three corners include a guy rehabilitating from major knee surgery, a rookie mid-second-round pick, and an unreliable veteran coming off an injury-plagued season. Behind them are inexperienced members of last year’s dreadful cornerbacks crew.

Fans can spin these facts however they want, but the reality doesn’t change. The Bucs are gambling that the question marks over their top-3 will be answered favorably — and quickly — and that the health gods smile upon them all season.

Barber would have provided top-flight depth, and Joe would not have wagered a nickel against Barber beating out Eric Wright during training camp.

Joe’s unsure why the Bucs are rolling the dice on cornerbacks depth (throw in linebacker and defensive end, too). But it’s still only May. Talent will hit the market in late August and in early September.