Mike Alstott is aware of soccer has moved on with out gamers like him.
The NFL was a a lot totally different product again within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. Quite than being pass-centric, the sport was rooted in physicality, and Alstott was the final of a dying breed. Fullbacks have been as soon as a featured a part of an offense, an extension of the operating recreation and succesful pass-catchers out of the backfield when wanted.
Now, that’s now not the case, and it has already been about 20 years for the reason that “A-Train” final suited up. Showing on the Pewter Report Podcast final week, the legendary Bucs fullback shared what he has been as much as in retirement and mirrored on his profession and the state of the trendy NFL.
Catching Up With Mike Alstott: What Has He Been Up To In Retirement?
One of many greatest highlights of the Bucs 2025 season was not the play on the sphere. Quite, it was the discharge of the Elevate The Flags docuseries on Amazon Prime that chronicled and celebrated 50 years of Tampa Bay soccer. Not solely did it supply a beneficial historical past lesson and a visit down reminiscence lane, but it surely was a approach for former gamers and their personalities to be prominently featured.
For Mike Alstott, it was one other likelihood for the group to maintain him concerned. Since saying his retirement after the 2006 season, Alstott has remained energetic in selling the workforce in addition to giving again to the Tampa Bay group by means of the Mike Alstott Household Basis.
Former Bucs FB Mike Alstott – Photograph by: IMAGN Photographs by way of Reuters Join
“I’m blessed, I really am, in a lot of ways,” Alstott stated about remaining across the workforce. “First of all, to be able to live my dream and come here in Tampa and play football. At the same time, geez, it’s what, 20 years, 19 years since I finished playing. To be able to still be a part of the team and be on the schedule release and different stuff with the current players. Again, I’m blessed. Just very appreciative of the Glazers and Brian Ford and how they still keep me relevant within the team.”
Though he now not dons the shoulder pads, Alstott stays bodily energetic — which incorporates doing his own residence renovating.
“It seems like I’m always busy doing something,” Alstott stated. “Loads of basis stuff… I journey slightly bit extra. I used to be teaching three years in the past, head coach for 12 years. I used to be actually clearly consumed in that each day. I prefer to construct; I prefer to tear issues aside and construct — actually.
“I’m not lying, go in the bathroom, tear shit apart, and then try to put it back together [with] my own thoughts and ideas, stuff like that… I’ve always been like that, even growing up. A kid that loved the tools, loved putting stuff together, and be creative in different ways like that. I just built a sauna and a longevity bathroom with the cold plunge and shower, a protein station.”
Mike Alstott Discusses Scoring First Bucs SB TD, Lack Of Fashionable Physicality
Few gamers have been extra instrumental to the Bucs’ Tremendous Bowl run than Alstott, who scored the primary landing in every of the membership’s three playoff victories. That included Tremendous Bowl XXXVII towards the Raiders, when his second-quarter landing made it a 13-3 recreation, giving the workforce cushion en path to a dominant 48-21 win.
Former Bucs FB Mike Alstott – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
To him, it was greater than punching it in from two yards out. It was a end result of a life’s work reaching the head of soccer excellence.
“I guess I don’t think about it as much as I should,” Alstott stated about scoring the primary Bucs Tremendous Bowl landing. “It was all the things. Every part that I labored for till that time was coming right down to that one play. From six years previous once I began enjoying soccer to what was I then, [29] years previous? To have the ability to rating the primary landing or get a landing or put my workforce forward within the greatest recreation of all of our careers and be an instrumental piece in doing that. Figuring out that they know that I’m going to get the ball.
“That was the telltale of my career, short-yardage, goal line-type of back. Catching the ball in the backfield, four-minute drill, run the clock out type of thing. Get some hard yards and stuff like that in some crucial times. I loved it, and that’s what I did. You talk about pushing the jeeps, all those moments of being by yourself or being with your teammates and there’s no cameras and we’re on the field working, we’re in the weight room working, or we’re in the classroom working. That all came to that moment of that time in that Super Bowl game.”
Whereas Alstott’s best moments stay frozen in NFL historical past, in the present day’s league barely resembles the one he dominated. What he did in trucking defenders could be frowned upon by the league, and the physicality of that point has largely disappeared.
Former Bucs FB Mike Alstott – Photograph by: IMAGN Photographs by way of Reuters Join
Fullbacks — save for a number of groups — are seldom used. Inside linebackers are now not as gargantuan, changed by slimmed down, extra athletic linebackers who can cowl. The league was already beginning to pattern towards passing, however that took on a brand new kind as offenses have been designed round effectively throwing the soccer.
“I think the whole game has changed — in a lot of ways,” Alstott stated. “The smashmouth football type of mentality you only see from probably around 10 teams in the league that still live that type of thing… It’s been more of a passing league, five-wide, and get your step backs in there, stuff like that. Guys that can play wide receiver and running back. I think it’s coming back a little bit more. I think teams are trying to pound the rock a little bit more, but I just think the physicality of the game — it is what it is. It’s changed immensely.”
Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds chimed in to say: “I don’t think for the better, Mike. I really don’t.”
Mike Alstott didn’t hesitate to agree.
“I don’t either, it is what it is. They make more and hit less so…”
Watch Legendary Bucs Fullback Mike Alstott On The Pewter Report Podcast
Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds and Bailey Adams had a really entertaining dialogue with legendary Bucs fullback Mike Alstott to kick off a star-studded lineup of visitors final week. Alstott was on for over 50 minutes reminiscing on the glory days of his time in Tampa Bay and shared his ideas on the present workforce. Haven’t watched it but? Try the complete interview under.
