TAMPA, Fla. -- It will have been a wild 10 days for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by the time they take the field Sunday against the Chicago Bears. Their season opener at Miami was canceled due to the threat of Hurricane Irma, forcing the Bucs and Dolphins both to take a bye week.
Then as more forecasts projected the storm to make landfall on Florida's west coast, players and team personnel bolted off to other parts of the country, made a late evacuation Saturday afternoon or stayed behind to ride things out.
Wide receiver Mike Evans went home to Galveston, Texas, with his wife and two daughters.