Todd Bowles seldom breaks character, but when he does, his wit is almost artful. To hear it from Buccaneers players, the juxtaposition between the 57-year-old defensive coordinator’s usually stoic demeanor and his situationally droll one-liners explains why his jokes tend to land so well.
Veteran linebacker Lavonte David is a frequent target. He once bragged to Bowles that he possessed supreme pass-catching skills, but after his second dropped interception last season Bowles began the next meeting by casually asking the former Pro Bowler: “You need to borrow my hands today?”
“Lavonte said he had ‘hands like Allstate,’ ” Bowles recalls, referencing the omnipresent ad campaign based around those ever-reliable, open palms.