Ryan Nece

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ryan Nece
Date of birth	February 24, 1979
Place of birth	San Bernardino, California
Position(s)	Linebacker
College	UCLA
Statistics	CBS.com
Team(s)
2002-present	Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Ryan Clint Nece (born February 24, 1979 in San Bernardino, California) is a professional American football player who plays for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as one of their starting linebackers. He is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott of the San Francisco 49ers. The Buccaneers signed him as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2002. He's considered a very intelligent, athletic and speedy linebacker.

Nece graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and was a four-year starter for the Bruins and finished his career with 281 career tackles (173 solo), with 22 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. He started out in his redshirt year as a safety but converted to linebacker afterwards. He was an honorable mention All-Pac-10 selection and Butkus Award semifinalist as a senior at UCLA.

Nece tore his ACL in his rookie year, ending his season after being a stalwart special teams tackler throughout the season. In 2003, Nece moved into the starting spot across star linebacker Derrick Brooks and finished the season with 70 tackles and one interception. He currently is the starting right outside linebacker for the Buccaneers.

In 2003, Nece was named as one of The Sporting News' "Good Guys in Sports."