FROM TODAY'S THE ATHLETIC:
Ohio 1, Bayless 0: Making NFL debut, rookie Javon Hagan helps Bucs to Super Bowl
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Javon Hagan was on the way up to the press box at Lambeau Field, ready to watch Sunday’s Bucs-Packers NFC Championship Game from a booth with other practice squad players, when he got word: “It was time to go.”
For the second week in a row, Hagan had been elevated from the practice squad to the Bucs’ roster as an emergency backup, just in case another safety questionable with an injury was unable to go. A week earlier in New Orleans, everyone was healthy, and Hagan was inactive.
But this time, Bucs rookie Antoine Winfield had tested his injured ankle in pregame warmups and wasn’t going to play, which meant Hagan was a last-minute call-up to dress and make his NFL debut on a huge platform, helping on special teams with a Super Bowl spot on the line.
“It shocked me,” said Hagan, 23, an undrafted rookie from Ohio University who has been on the practice squad more than four months, since Sept. 6, the day after final cuts were made. “As a practice squad player, you’ve always got to be prepared for when the time comes. You never know when that time will come. I just opened my eyes and told myself I had to do the best that I can for the team. I came to Tampa to play football.”
The team didn’t have his shoulder pads and jersey ready, so they found those and he got suited up. Hagan had a minute to text his parents in Jacksonville that he was really playing in the game, so keep their eyes out for No. 34.
“It caught them off guard more than it caught me off guard,” Hagan said. “On practice squad, you’re always prepared, but from an audience standpoint, they don’t really know what that process is like.”
Hagan played 10 snaps on special teams, working as a gunner — the fast, outside-most player whose job is to get to an opposing returner first — on the kickoff coverage unit, as well as on the kickoff and punt return squads.“
I was just remembering my assignment,” he said. “Rule No. 1: You definitely want to do your job and not forget your assignment. Taking the field, the first thing I was thinking about was the rules of the game, what I can do, what I can’t do. At gunner, you have to know where to line up, whether to go outside the numbers or not, how long you can stay out of bounds. I was making sure I did everything correctly.”
Hagan was able to celebrate a conference championship on the field with his teammates. The safeties are a close group because they’re all relatively young. Winfield is a rookie like Hagan, Mike Edwards is a second-year player, Whitehead his third year, with Andrew Adams the oldest of the group at 28. He chose 34 as a nod to Mike Mitchell, another safety from Ohio U. who played 10 years in the league, but also because it fit right in numerically with Winfield (31), Edwards (32) and Whitehead (33).
As Hagan and his teammates got back to the locker room to celebrate after the game, they figured out that, of all things, Hagan had taken a shot on Twitter from Fox Sports personality Skip Bayless, who had written to his 2.9 million followers about Hagan playing just minutes before kickoff.
“Antoine Winfield Jr. has been replaced on the active roster by Javon Hagan, an undrafted rookie from Ohio off the practice squad,” Bayless tweeted. “Not from THE Ohio State. Just Ohio. Just makes me SICK.”
Hagan wasn’t sure what to make of it. “It was pretty cool that he took the time to research me,” he said, but at the same time, “it was kind of confusing why he’s bickering over me making the 53rd spot on the roster. Kind of weird.”
So in response, Hagan just tweeted a photo of himself at his locker, holding the NFC Championship trophy, with a few laughing emojis for good measure.
The response went viral, with more than 2,000 tweets and everyone from his proud Ohio football program taking exception to the shot at them. “Bobcat Nation is crazy, man,” Hagan said. “One thing about Athens, Ohio, that I can say: It’s a very small city, but they have the craziest fans. They weren’t too fond of that. They had my back. The football department, the athletic department, the actual Ohio University school (account), they all tweeted at him. What he said didn’t make any sense to anyone.”
By Monday, Hagan had switched his Twitter header photo to a pic from the game of him in his Bucs uniform, stiff-arming a Packers player who had Bayless’ head photoshopped onto his.
Hagan somehow wasn’t the only Bucs safety slighted by Bayless during Sunday’s win. When starter Jordan Whitehead injured his shoulder on a forced fumble that led to a Bucs touchdown, Bayless tweeted “Jerome Whitehead out,” somehow confusing the 23-year-old with a former Marquette and NBA center who retired in 1989. “Get my name right fam,” Whitehead tweeted in response.
Hagan was able to FaceTime his mom after the game, letting her see the celebration as the Bucs became the first NFL team to earn the right to play a Super Bowl on its home field. He won’t necessarily play in the big game, but he’s ready either way, and hoping to get enough tickets to have his parents and other friends and family in attendance. He’s been realistic about his expectations since even before training camp, remembering how he redshirted his first year at Ohio, so he could have the same learning year to start his NFL career.
“It’s one of the greatest feelings, and it’s even greater because I’m a rookie,” he said. “There are a lot of guys that have been playing 10 years plus and don’t even know what a playoff game looks like. This is my first year, and I made it to a conference championship and now a Super Bowl. Staying on the team the entire year, winning an NFC championship, making it to a Super Bowl, all three are things you have to be grateful for as a player.”