Bucs' Jerramy Stevens tries to turn life around

The passenger brings some baggage with him.

This is Jerramy Stevens, after all, that quarterback Jeff Garcia regularly picks up for the ride into work with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"We have a chance to talk every single day," Garcia said. "I have really respected how he's handled things."

Garcia drives because Stevens can't. He was convicted of DUI in Arizona last year, the most recent incident in a criminal history that is as much a part of Stevens' reputation as his football statistics.

Stevens has spent nearly a decade now having his football success contrasted against a list of transgressions. His past and his athletic potential are the two defining characteristics of his football career as a quarterback at River Ridge High School in Lacey, a tight end at Washington and then a first-round draft pick of the Seahawks.

The arrest in high school for assault. The arrest while at Washington for investigation of rape, which did not result in charges, a case detailed by The Seattle Times in January, including the revelation that Stevens and a fraternity were part of a collective settlement that paid $300,000 to resolve a civil lawsuit regarding the incident. He has been arrested on suspicion of DUI twice since he entered the NFL in 2002. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in 2003 and was found guilty last year in Arizona after his employment with Seattle had ended.

Sentenced to 30 days in jail for his latest DUI, Stevens served less than half that after the season.

He will face his former team Sunday for the second time. He may be a backup tight end with the Bucs, but he's still got a pretty high profile and not just because he's 6-foot-7.

"There has been a lot of bad blood that has come his way," Garcia said. "And he has had to handle it the way that he can only handle it ... by just pretty much keeping his mouth shut and going about his business and doing the things that he needs to do."

A request to the Buccaneers for a phone interview with Stevens was not fulfilled Wednesday. Stevens is in his second year in Tampa Bay.

He was suspended one game by the league last season and two to begin this year for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. Stevens' four touchdown receptions ranked No. 2 for Tampa Bay in 2007. In Week 3 at Chicago this year, he caught the game-tying TD with seven seconds left to force overtime in a game the Bucs won.

"He's doing a much better job becoming the complete tight end that Seattle drafted him to be," Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden said. "We think he's an outstanding tight end."

When the Buccaneers re-signed Stevens at the end of May, the team announced it with a release on Friday afternoon. The timing did not dilute the local response.

"Outrage, backlash, hostility, all of those adjectives," said Steve Duemig, an afternoon drive-time host on WDAE, a sports-radio station in Tampa, Fla.

"I'm all for second chances," Duemig said. "My reaction was to the allegations of the rape charges."

Duemig has a daughter. So does the man who started the Web site www.firejerramystevens.com. A Web site developer, he was moved by the rape allegations against Stevens and said the site was formed to let people in the area know Stevens was now living in the community.

The Bucs coach said that wasn't indicative of the range of reactions shown across the area.

"There was a public reaction by some people," Gruden said. "But there's also a lot of people that have shown tremendous compassion and support for him. They just don't get their names in the newspaper."

Stevens has caught eight passes this season, five in Chicago during his first game back from suspension in Week 3. He started that game as the Bucs began in a three-tight-end formation. Tampa Bay used that again on a crucial play at the end of the fourth quarter, with Stevens lining up at wide receiver and beating a linebacker to catch the touchdown pass that allowed Tampa Bay to tie the score.

"We all understand there's consequences for what has happened and there's going to be consequences if anything happens again," Gruden said. "But I give this guy a lot of credit, he's taken a lot of criticism and in some ways deservedly so, but I'm really proud of him."

It's a story recited before in Seattle, one from the coach who drafted Stevens into the NFL and hopes he stays on course.

"I root for him," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said Wednesday. "We went through a lot of stuff together. I hope he is doing well. I am speaking more off the field then as a football player ... Right now that is the most important thing as far as I am concerned. And it seems to be going OK."

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364