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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

A Day in the Life of Donteea Dye

A look inside the wide receiver's gameday routine.

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9:00 AM: I woke up at 9:00 and went down to the conference room area for a pregame meal. I always eat rice and ham before every game. Then I went back up to my room around 9:20 to get dressed to go to the stadium.  

10:00 AM: The bus always leaves right at 10 for the stadium and you definitely don't want to be late. The bus ride over is where I begin to lock it in and get focused. For me, that meant looking over plays and listening to music.

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10:45 AM**: After the bus pulled in, I headed straight to the locker room. I put on my uniform pants and warm up shirt and went to the field to warm up.

11:15 AM: I called my dad as I'm walked through the tunnel onto the field. He always gets my mind right. I sat on the bench on the sideline to talk to him and just looked around the stadium, soaking it all in.

11:30 AM: After I hung up with my dad it was time to start warming up. I always take a lap around the field with the ball in my hands. My warm-up routine consists of routes and hand-eye coordination drills like catching tennis balls. Then I stretch and go back to the locker room to look over my plays one more time.

12:30 PM: Before I stepped on the field, I took a knee to pray. Then we went out on the field as a team. There's no feeling like running out there with your brothers, knowing you're finally in the NFL. Then it was go time.

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2:00 PM**: We were driving down the field to start the second quarter. It was a play that we had practiced all week. I honestly didn't think we would use it in the game. I had a little wheel route and beat my defender outside and into the end zone. The ball was a perfect back-shoulder throw from Jameis. I remember looking up and being surprised that the ball was coming my way. I grabbed that ball so tight because I knew opportunities like that don't come every day.

When I landed and got up I was in shock. I never really celebrated for touchdowns in the past, I always pointed to God. Then Vincent Jackson came to pick me up and that's when I realized what had happened. I had just scored my first touchdown in the NFL. I then bent over because I was full of emotions. Mike Evans told me, "Don't cry." I ended up not crying and made it to the sideline. I was still emotional and just took a knee and prayed to thank the Lord. That's a moment I'll never forget.

4:30 PM: After the game I showered and changed in the locker room and talked to the media. Then I grabbed our postgame meal in the hallway from the famous D.C. place called Ben's Chili Bowl and headed to the bus.

5:30 PM: We flew out of Baltimore after the game so we had almost an hour-long bus ride to get to the airport. My phone was blowing up because of my first touchdown catch. I had about 60 Facebook friend requests and 100 Twitter notifications and 170 text messages. I was able to talk to my parents before we got on the plane. My dad was so excited. My mother was emotional like always. Everyone was just congratulating me and was happy for me.

6:45 PM: The plane took off for Tampa. It was about a two-hour flight.

9:00 PM: We got on the bus to take us back to One Buc. Then I drove home at about 9:30. I finished catching up with some people and went to bed.

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