Sapp AP's Top Defensive Player

January 13, 2000 / 4:07 PM EST / CBS/AP

The rap on Sapp was that he didn't always come to play. This season, Warren Sapp proved otherwise in winning The Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year award, announced Thursday.

The Tampa Bay defensive tackle whose career performances have ranged from dull to dominant, was the key to the Buccaneers' stingy defense in 1999. It wasn't just his 12 1/2 sacks or his work against the run that gave Sapp the edge in balloting by a nationwide panel of 50 media members. It was the ferocity of his play.

"I looked at it that if I played like I played in '98, we'll be a .500 team, maybe win 10 games, maybe sneak into the playoffs. We almost snuck in that year," Sapp said. "But when I'm on my game, this team is damn hard to beat. And that's what I wanted to get back to.

"So far, so good. Right now, we're sitting in a pretty spot."

They are sitting at 11-5 and will play Washington at home in a playoff game Saturday. The Bucs won the NFC Central for the first time since 1981. They yielded 235 points, fewest in the NFC, and ranked third overall in yardage allowed.

Eight times this season, the Bucs allowed 10 or fewer points.

Sapp was at the middle of such frugality in becoming the first Tampa Bay player to win the award since Lee Roy Selmon the franchise's measuring stick in 1979.

"For a long time he set the standard around here about how to play defense, and how to be a leader of this ballclub," the five-year veteran said. "Maybe the torch is passed. A lot of years later, I've kind of grabbed it and I want to just keep that tradition of us playing great defense around here and being able to go out and help this team win games and championships."

Sapp reported to training camp 40 pounds lighter than the previous year, when he was out of shape and never got on track. His 12 1/2 sacks were just shy of Selmon's team record of 13 in 1977.

"I have a great appreciation for what he did for all those years," Sapp said, "because trying to catch those 13 sacks that he put up in '77 was hard, hard work. I have an even greater appreciation for what he did and how he did it, because he pretty much had to do the same thing I did, going through double- and triple-teams and people focusing in on you week in and week out."

Sapp was the fourth straight lineman to win the award Reggie White won the '98 honors before retiring and he beat out two defensive ends. Jevon Kearse of Tennessee, selected NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year earlier this week, was second with 13 votes. Kevin Carter of St. Louis, like Sapp and Kearse an All-Pro, was next with six, tying with Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, the league's No. 1 tackler.

Sapp's teammate, outside linebacker Derrick Brooks, was next with three ballots, while Jacksonville outside linebacker Kevin Hardy received two and San Diego inside linebacker Junior Seau got one.

"There's a lot of great players that do a lot of great things and change games," Sapp said. "You look at Kearse hitting this league and tearing it apart, causing nine fumbles and doing all the things that he's doing. Simeon Rice being a constant menace to quarterbacks. You look at Deion and some of these cornerbacks that do some of the stuff they're doing. It's a great, great honor."