Buccaneers LT Tristan Wirfs’ son Julius reveals All-Pro honor

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers left tackle Tristan Wirfs got a special surprise this week when he learned he had been named an Associated Press first-team All-Pro, becoming the first player in of the NFL to earn the honor both on the right and on the team. tackle and left tackle position.

But what was truly memorable was how Wirfs found out about the honor. While doing an interview with AP senior writer Rob Maadi at the team facility, Wirfs’ girlfriend, Meredith Sutton, walked in holding their nine-month-old son, Julius, who was wearing a T-shirt that read: “My dad is an All -Pro.”

“No way,” Wirfs said in disbelief.

“What do you think, Bub?” she asked her baby. “That’s amazing… That’s crazy. You surprised me. I was just telling you [Meredith] About it the other night, like last night, I thought: ‘No one has done this before.’ I thought, ‘I’m trying!'”

Wirfs’ tender moment with his son was even more special given how open he has been about some of the mental struggles he endured taking on the new position last season. Wirfs had been the Bucs’ starting right tackle from 2020 to 2022. His success was the stuff of storybooks: a Super Bowl title in his rookie season, AP First-Team All-Pro in 2021 and Second-Team All- Pro in 2022, and many, including his own coaches, called him a future pro. American Football Hall of Fame.

But he was worried he wouldn’t be able to replicate the same success when he was asked to move to the left side to replace Donovan Smith in 2023, something he had never done before. Even as a star for the Iowa Hawkeyes in college, he only started four games at left tackle.

He began to experience debilitating anxiety about the move and sought help from team psychologist Dr. Joseph Carella.

“It seems so minuscule, like, oh, you’re just switching sides, but I felt like I had nervous breakdowns about it,” Wirfs said in August 2023. “I’m like, ‘I can’t sit here with these thoughts.'” Not anymore. , I’m just setting myself up for failure.” I was just thinking, “I’m going to suck” or “I’m not going to be able to do it” all day long.

“I was in a very difficult situation mentally. I was very nervous,” Wirfs said at the time. “I was replaying the season in my head over and over again, thinking, ‘Oh, what if it goes this way or this way?’ “Then I thought, ‘It’s bloody May, you’ve got to calm down.'”

Wirfs went on to have a Pro Bowl season in 2023 and continued into 2024, where he was also named a Pro Bowler for the fourth consecutive year. His 95.9% pass blocking success rate was the best in the league among left and right tackles this year, and he only allowed two sacks all year.

“That’s extraordinary,” coach Todd Bowles said Friday. “It says a lot about him: his work ethic, his character, his pride, the way he does things,” Bowles said. “He does it the right way. He plays hard. He did a great job at right tackle. [and] “I know he was skeptical at left tackle, but he jumped in with both feet and did really well, too.”