Behind the Buccaneers: Vita Vea

A podcast going under the helmet with your favorite Bucs players all season long. On this episode, Carmen Vitali talks with defensive tackle Vita Vea on the differences in his second year, his first sport and the Bay Area rap scene.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up, Bucks Hands? Welcome to another edition of the
Behind the Buccaneers podcast. I'm comment by Tally, your host
and staff writer for Buccaneers dot Com, and I'm taking
you under the helmet with some of your favorite players
all season one. On this episode, I got to talk
to defensive tackle Vita Via. While he's a little soft

(00:22):
spoken in the locker room, I thought that I would
get him outside and maybe onto more neutral territory on
the Bucks practice fields. So come on outside where I
caught up with Vita to talk about his second year
in the league. What sports you play growing up spoiler
alerts not just football and getting put on game in
the Bay Area, which is where he's from in northern California.

(00:46):
Is there something that has surprised you so far? Do
you think league? I feel like just a growth. I
feel like there's a bigger growth in me. So you know,
I have to just playing one season and going into
the off season and knowing what to expect now and
know what I'm working towards. I know, like the things

(01:09):
that I have to bring to the table to help
the team out. UM, just doing knowing those things and
just working at it. UM. I feel like as you
as a rookie, you just come in and you don't
really know what to expect because I felt like you
just you're going based off what you guys did in college.

(01:31):
But I feel like it has similarities, but it's it's
a lot different. Um. One main difference is like the
age difference in the team. Um. Yeah, there's some guys
that are like a lot older than you. They things,

(01:52):
so it's just like it's um, it's just I feel
like that's different. We're in college where everybody lives together
and stuff like that, and um, come here is old
different world. Everyone people older than you and stuff like that.
And we realized that this is like, I mean, this
is your job. Now, it's a job. Now college here's

(02:14):
to you got to focus on school over here. Knowing
the playbook is basically like for you going to class. Yeah,
so that's I felt that's the main difference. But you
still have that here because I feel like people don't
really understand how much you guys study and how much
time that you guys spending class. Yeah we're here, especially
um as like the year progresses, Um, you started to

(02:40):
spend more time on on football, not only like playbooks,
but also like UM working out cardio recovery. UM, recovery
is the main thing. So m you gotta find time
throughout the day and throughout the week to have those

(03:02):
like take care of you know what I'm saying, Like
get your priority straight. And that's up to you to
tell you exactly want to do that. Yeah, just like
you you have your freedom to do it, but also
it's it's it's your priority to do it. Make sure
you're on top of everything. It sounds more serious at
this level, but you're not so serious. I hear that

(03:25):
you like to play a lot of jokes and pranks.
I just like to have fun. Yeah, I like to
have fun. Um, you know, I feel like it's a
it'll be a way if you're out here and just
all serious old time and you know a lot of
times you know it's it's there's a time and place
for it. And that's something I've learned over time. Um. No,

(03:45):
I want to win, to play around and when to work.
Um times of being serious. Oh yeah, majority of the time.
I just like to have fun. And have you played
any certain pranks on certain teammates that are fun that
you can think of? What's like, what's the best prank
you pulled on someone here. We'll start here and then
we'll go and then we'll go here. I didn't do

(04:07):
too many pranks here. You got the pranks pulled on
you last year because you had you came in with
one eyebrow one day. Yeah, I don't mean so how
you do that? I haven't did any like pranks. I
just do like a small jokes or something like that.
I feel like in our in our D line group,
we we we like to make fun of each other.

(04:28):
So I guess, uh, just doing that be you fun
of you of just giving each other. Yeah, give me
to other hard time, but we all laugh. There's like
no one no hard feelings. Man, everybody knows the playing
it sounds. It's like you guys are a little bit
of a little family on the D line. Definitely. What
about your family? Um, how many brothers and sisters you have?

(04:50):
I only had one brother. We have one brother and
one sister. When did football start for you? Do they
play sports too? Football? I followed my brother in the football. Okay,
so he played football. He played football first. My mom
my mom money let him play football. I was the youngest,
so I didn't really have the freedom to do that.

(05:12):
She was just too scared to let me play. And
then when I did play, I was too big to
play in my class. So I was playing like fifth grade,
playing with the eighth graders in high school. But like, well,
I didn't play though, because every was older than me
and I was like I wasn't developed playing for a while.

(05:33):
I didn't really understand it like they did. So I
didn't really play much. Um. I did that for two
years and then middle school, middle school, I didn't. I didn't.
I stopped playing popcorner um just with the school. Uh.
I got into basketball because I was holder than everybody,
and it was just that's why I played. I didn't

(05:56):
really get big after high school, like like we put
on waiting college. Yeah, so you're always just taller though
in basketball, have a little tall See you got out
of football and you just play basketball for one play basketball.
The closest thing that that's the football was black football. Uh.
In middle school, that was that was fun. I was

(06:18):
they were let me play like tight end and running back.
Do you have any of that like in your background,
because I feel like you're so agile. I think we're like, uh,
I'll get I'll get agility from feel like part of
it is genetics. Okay, uh, and my mom's saw all
of the family like are in the sports. They all

(06:40):
play rugby, my dad plays soccer, got it, so he
was the quick peat guy. But then um uh, at
a young age, who started I started a point in tennis,
my first place tennis. I've heard that. Then everyone's like, listen,
if you really want your kid to be a good athletes,
start him in tennis. That's what it was. I started
off in tennis. Um did I play tennis for eight years? Seriously? Yeah.

(07:06):
It was like because our parents. It was a program
where we grew up in our neighborhood. Like our parents
were just working NonStop, so it was like after school
program and like they did tutoring. So you go over
there and they do like give you tutoring, they'll feed you,
and then you get to play tennis. And then like uh,

(07:27):
for young kids, you just go out there to teach
you the fundamentals. And as you go older, you start
competing against each other. They're like during the summertime, you
started like competing tournaments of stuff like that someonere better
than others. Um oh was all I was good. I
was good. I was good, But I never really took
it serious because I knew. I knew I wasn't gonna

(07:50):
go far in tennis. I knew it was just a
temporary thing because my parents, um had to work, so
I know I would be there, right. You weren't taking
it like this is my sport. But but then, like
now I look back at it, like it was really
helpful because like it helps. It helps a lot with
like agity, eye coordination, nocarnation, acceleration, being explosive. Um, especially

(08:13):
playing like singles doubles not as much. When you play
singles you have the whole court too, to like run around,
hit the ball and they hit the ball back and
run back and try to get it back. Stuff like that.
Do you still have to pick up a tennis packet
every now and again? I haven't picked it up in
the wall. Um, but I felt like I played it,

(08:34):
you know, playing for eight years. I feel like it's
just like riding a bike from me now, So what
else do you do then when you get away from here?
Like what's your happy place? Uh? I feel my happy
place just being on the water or just being with
friends or family. Um. Uh, these past couple of weeks.

(08:54):
Ever since we've been back, Like just I feel like
it's been really cool just hanging out with the D
line every time we have time off and just uh
we all link up. You know, you have a good time.
What do you guys do when you hang out? Do
you play video games? Uh? We do a lot of stuff.
We do a lot of stuff. We we we've picked

(09:15):
up a lot of hobbies. Like the main hobby we're
into right now is just fishing. Fishing everyone in Florida
this we just we fished, like, um, I see there
like bumps all over my arm because we went to
this I think it's called an Upper Table Bay Park
and like they have these canoes that you could run
out and we just took our fishing poles on there mosquitoes.

(09:42):
You couldn't see the mosquitoes. That was the thing. Well,
there's like that little boat told us that it's called
you can't the name of the mosa. This was botha
don't quote me, this is little boa. Okay, this is
abouts are called can't see um. We called what he said,

(10:04):
that's what they're called can't um can't see him because
you literally can't see them Okay. If you go to
the Upper Time Bay Park, there are mosquitoes out there
that are called can't seems go to the dog. I mean,
I don't want to get you that the repellent. How
different is Florida That because you grew up in California.
Different Florida. Shoot the humanity? Yeah, and the heat, that's

(10:28):
the biggest thing. I grew up in northern California, so
it was not as much not really sunny. Um. If
you go to California for weather, you go to San Diego,
l A. Everybody comes to the Bay Area to like
network everything is in the Baya. Oh yeah, well that's
where our Silicon Valley is like that. You've got a

(10:48):
couple of sports teams up there, do you like? Are
you all ya area? As far as music as here,
you are like bumping. That's how I grew up on
forty mac j who else. There's a lot of them.
You gotta rep for the day area a lot. There's
a lot of them. There's a up and club of artist,

(11:10):
there's a lot. There's a Kamaya Kamaya I've heard of Kamaya.
Keith sneak dude. I love Keith to sneake, but only
because he was on that remix to tell me when
to go. That's how I first heard about him. And
then I started listening to him and I was like,
his voice is so funny. The governor, you heard the governor?
I haven't heard the governor? You ever heard the governor?

(11:33):
Who else? Who else? We got up and coming dude
named Stunna June. Stunna June. He's telling guy he's represented
for the culture. There's a lot of them. There's Cookie Money,
Cookie Money, slp r BF. I heard of him. I
don't know. I don't know, but it's because it is.

(11:57):
It's its old like microcosm of music, like a wrap.
Like there's like Bay Area rap is its own like
little worlds. He said, the Bay Area got their own,
their own little style. We got our own little style
of music, even like it's different. I thought, that's the

(12:18):
biggest thing why people come to the Bay Area to network. Yeah,
it's just everything. People people come to the Bay Area
to get put on game, like with their business and
like whatever they're seeking, Like it says, what are they
looking forward to in the Bay Area. Whatever they're looking for,
it's in the Bay Area. They don't quote that you

(12:40):
that's that's a good quote coming from where you're coming from.
That's that's where is that you know, you know, people
don't come to the Bay Are for weather. It's it's
probably raining over there right now because the Bay Area
is kind of much much similar to Seattle. Like that's
why I went to college. So it's like they're similarities.
But it's more does a rain as much? It like sprinkles,

(13:04):
I'll just say it, but it's more it's beautiful Seattle,
you guys, and Austen were the hardest places to play
and Pullman Pullman was hard to for our guys. Top
of the line, it's a very pretty it's isn't it
on the water? The people come shell Gate, sail Gate?

(13:27):
How many? How many can you say that you went
to and were she gat? They say best setting in
college poball. It's not a bad time to be reliving
Vitas college days at the University of Washington because the
Bucks are set to take on the Seahawks in Seattle
this Sunday. It closes out a five game road trip
where the Bucks haven't seen the inside of their own

(13:49):
stadiums in September, so needless to say they're ready to
get back home, but Vito will get a little dose
of familiarity before that happens. It's almost as if I
planned it that way. Thanks so much for listening to
this episode of Behind the Buccaneers. As always, make sure
you're following the Bucks and me on social media at
CARMI V. That's c A R M I E V

(14:12):
on Twitter and Instagram. And let me tell you, I
cannot wait to be back home inside Raymond James Stadium
on November tenth when the Bucks take on the Arizona Cardinals.
So until then, Bucks fans, I'll catch you later.