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Tom Brady has a backup quarterback and fellow avocado connoisseur behind him as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers re-signed Ryan Griffin on Tuesday.
“It’s something a lot of people like to poke fun at because I’m from California,” Griffin said about avocados on the Mission Produce’s For the Love of Avocados podcast. “But I’ve noticed that all of those people are also consuming avocados as I’m consuming them typically in the morning with breakfast on their toast.”
Brady likewise puts avocado on toast amid the numerous other ways he eats avocados as part of his TB12 diet. Griffin has his own way of consuming avocado, which he said former Bucs quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t a fan of.
“I would hollow out my bagel and then I would mash avocado inside the bagel, and then I would mash avocado inside the bagel, and then I would put eggs mashed on top of that as well, so it was a bagel avocado egg sandwich,” Griffin told the For the Love of Avocados podcast.
Griffin’s Contract Latest of Three With the Bucs
Griffin’s contract will pay him $1.075 million per The Athletic’s Greg Auman, which marked the 14th free agent re-signing with the Super Bowl champions this offseason. The veteran quarterback has spent the past six seasons in Tampa, re-signing new contracts before 2021, after beginning his career with the New Orleans Saints.
An undrafted free agent out of Tulane, Griffin spent time between the Saints practice squad and active roster from 2013 to 2014 before the team released him in 2015. The Buccaneers picked him up before the 2015 season to play behind No. 1 draft pick Jameis Winston and second-string Mike Glennon. Winston, who now plays for the Saints, played with Griffin for four seasons before the arrival of Tom Brady in 2020.
Griffin didn’t see the field until 2019 with the Bucs when he went 2-4 passing for 18 yards amid his brief game appearances. He spent his first three seasons in Tampa as the third-string quarterback but became the primary backup in 2019 due to an injury to fellow backup Blaine Gabbert. Griffin served as the team’s third-string quarterback again in 2020 behind Brady and Gabbert, who the Bucs haven’t re-signed yet.
With no preseason in 2020, Griffin hasn’t played in a game — regular season or preseason — since 2019. He will get snaps in 2021 as the NFL will play preseason games again this coming season.
Griffin looked “particularly sharp during the last two of those” preseasons per Buccaneers. com’s Scott Smith. Griffin threw for 1,262 yards and eight touchdowns in the 2018 and 2019 preseasons.
On Winning a Super Bowl
Griffin didn’t get to play a snap during the Bucs Super Bowl run but made lifelong memories from the sidelines in his sixth season with the team.
“It’s crazy. We talked about it on Monday and then Wednesday at the parade, it’s something that will always be by your name the rest of your life,” Griffin said on the For the Love of Avocados podcast. “You’ll always be a Super Bowl champion.”
“It’s really cool to be part of a team like that,” Griffin added.
Griffin described the excitement building on the sideline in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LV as the Bucs led the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9.
“We still weren’t celebrating until the very, very end because we knew how good they were on offense,” Griffin said.
Griffin added that the boat parade was a great way to celebrate with the Bucs fans, some of whom couldn’t go to the games due to limited capacity amid COVID-19.
“It was so cool looking at photos of the other boats that were out there,” Griffin said. “It was so cool because those were the people who were riding with us all year, and you got to get them all in one photo.”
Keeping Brady “Safe”
Griffin had an additional job as a third-stringer this past season that he’d never seen before in his NFL career — helping keep the starter healthy.
“This one was very anxiety-stricken,” Griffin said about the season on the For the Love of Avocados podcast. “I didn’t want to be the person to get COVID and then give it to Tom Brady obviously. Your name will go down forever for doing that, so I was doing my best to stay away from everybody except for my fiance.”
It also meant being ready for the unexpected that came with COVID-19 regulations.
“So just the whole year, I was worried about that, but then at the same time, you don’t know if he’s going to have a false positive on Sunday morning and then you’re the backup or you’re playing because Blaine (Gabbert) has one too,” Griffin added. “It was a weird year. We felt like you always had to be ready because you have no idea who’s going to get it or if there’s a false positive or something would happen, so it was a year where you always felt like you had to be ready, so a lot of anxiety.”
Griffin noted the team’s goal was to “come out as the corona-kings” in the end.
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