Culture
Don't count out Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers, who keep beating the odds
TAMPA, Fla. — From the very first day that Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field for training camp, few outside the organization gave them much of a chance this season.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield was on his fourth team in 19 months, trying to fill the recently retired Tom Brady’s massive shoes. The roster lacked household names from the Bucs’ 2020 Super Bowl season and instead featured unproven youngsters in some of those key spots. Oddsmakers predicted Bowles could be among the first NFL head coaches fired this season. The Bucs just never had that championship feel, at least not to outsiders.
So, it came as no surprise early last week when, despite having defied expectations by winning the NFC South, Tampa Bay was pegged by Las Vegas as a home underdog for its NFC wild-card matchup with a sagging Philadelphia Eagles team.
The Buccaneers simply shrugged off the lack of respect, then attacked the Eagles with a vengeance Monday night at Raymond James Stadium.
Riding an aggressive defensive performance and paced by a gutsy performance from Mayfield, the Buccaneers thumped Philadelphia 32-9 to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. Tampa Bay will travel to Detroit for a Sunday afternoon game against the Lions, who are riding high after beating the L.A. Rams for their first playoff victory in 32 years.
“The underdog role doesn’t bother us,” linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. “We know our capabilities in the locker room, no matter what is projected or what people would think is going to happen in the game. We always come in thinking we’ve got a great chance of winning the game. So, people saw us as the underdog tonight, and we know they’ll see us as the underdog going into Detroit, but we know we’ve got to keep doing the same stuff.”
GO DEEPER
Buccaneers finish off reeling Eagles in NFC wild-card matchup
It’s often said that teams take on the personality of their strongest leaders, and the Buccaneers are no different. Players will readily admit they are a blend of Bowles and Mayfield.
Bowles, the second-year head coach, is stoic and unflinching but also intensely competitive. The former defensive back is calculated yet highly aggressive. Mayfield, meanwhile, is so unapologetically himself. He’s brash at times, always fiery as a competitor and plays with the toughness of a middle linebacker.
Drawing inspiration from their coach and quarterback, the Buccaneers steeled themselves all season against the outside noise, particularly doing a four-game losing streak that stretched from October to November, and morphed into a 1-6 skid.
“We just stayed the course,” Barrett said. “We always knew we were a better team than we were on the losing streak that we had. … Now, everything is starting to click and that’s why we stay with the program and trust the process and just keep doing what you’re supposed to do. We knew it was going to start working.”
The confidence grew during a four-game win streak and 5-1 run by the Bucs to close out the regular season while clinching the division. And the resolve remained just as strong this week as the Buccaneers prepared to avenge a 25-11 loss to the Eagles in Week 3.
The Buccaneers wanted to turn the tables after giving up 472 total yards, including 201 on the ground, to the Eagles in that initial meeting. Mission accomplished. Monday night, it was the Buccaneers who amassed 426 total yards and 23 first downs, converting 6 of 14 third-down attempts. They held the Eagles to 276 yards (only 42 yards rushing) and 0-for-9 on third down.
Bowles and his defense delivered a signature performance while eliminating the threat of the Eagles’ rushing attack. They forced quarterback Jalen Hurts to beat them with a short-staffed wide receiving unit while also nursing a painful and slowly healing dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand.
Turning the Eagles one-dimensional enabled Bowles to dial up one blitz-heavy package after another. Hurts (sacked three times, including a safety) and his teammates and coaches never figured out how to adjust.
ONCE AGAIN, HOW Y’ALL FEELING BUCS FANS?! 😱
📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/VtoFNKaLZ5— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024
Linebacker Devin White said the Bucs defense entered the game “with a dominant mindset. We wanted to jump on them early and just beat them. I think it was the preparation. That played a big part and coming in here with a winning attitude.”
Offensive players drew fuel from those defensive heroics, as well as inspiration from Mayfield. The quarterback was so battered and bruised from rib and ankle injuries, he brought in his personal physiotherapist twice during the week in hopes that the extra treatment would give him a shot at playing.
It worked. Mayfield passed for 337 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions while also scrambling for 16 yards on two carries. Mayfield became only the second Buccaneers quarterback — Brady is the other — to pass for 300 yards or more in a playoff contest.
“He gutted it out,” Bowles said. “I mean, if you looked at him during the week, he was limping around, he wouldn’t practice and he was getting a little better each day. … He never flinched (Monday). He made play after play after play.”
He Baked. 👨🍳
📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/GjDnqU2FLh— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024
Tight end Cade Otton, who had a team-high eight catches for 89 yards, said the Bucs as a team take on Mayfield’s character.
“It’s just watching his actions. The way he plays, the way he practices, the way he leads, it’s very genuine and he is always just competing,” Otton said “He’s wanting to win, but he also wants camaraderie with us. It’s just a great person to have as the leader of our team.”
“He’s a dog,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “He’s a super tough guy and incredible competitor. He’s been doing everything he can to be out there with us. It’s just awesome to see.”
The Buccaneers listed Mayfield as questionable entering the game, but the quarterback said there was never a chance in his own mind that he wouldn’t play Monday night.
“We worked extremely hard to get a chance to be in the playoffs and we just wanted an opportunity and our guys came out and played really, really well,” said Mayfield, whose three touchdown passes went for 44, 56 and 23 yards. “Special teams, defense — once again … we’re happy, but still got more to go.”
The redemption tour continues Sunday in Detroit, where the Bucs will attempt to avenge a 20-6 Week 6 loss to the Lions. Detroit is an early 6 1/2-point favorite, but no one in Tampa cares about that. Why would they, given the odds they’ve defied thus far?
(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
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When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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