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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Hawaii 5-0(000)

Martin Gramatica’s 50,000 online votes have him close to the Pro Bowl balloting lead, which many other Bucs already enjoy at their positions

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In just his second NFL year, K Martin Gramatica could be celebrating a Pro Bowl berth in February if he continues to get strong fan support

The Bucs are fighting for their playoff lives down the stretch of the 2000 season, but it appears as if a good chunk of the roster will be headed to some postseason action regardless of December's results.

The NFL released the current results of its online Pro Bowl balloting, and seven Tampa Bay players are the leading votegetters at their positions (or second at a position where two starters are selected). Those seven are center Jeff Christy, cornerback Ronde Barber (second to Washington's Champ Bailey), fullback Mike Alstott, strong safety John Lynch, guard Randall McDaniel, interior lineman Warren Sapp and outside linebacker Derrick Brooks. Sapp is the leading votegetter of any defensive player in the NFL.

Tampa Bay's six outright leaders are the most by any team in the NFL. Tennessee is second with five position leaders in the AFC voting.

In addition, K Martin Gramatica is currently running a very close second at his position and cornerback Donnie Abraham is fifth in a tight race at his spot. Gramatica, in fact, is just 2,000 votes behind Minnesota's Gary Anderson, while the third-place kicker, Green Bay's Ryan Longwell, is almost 38,000 votes behind Gramatica.

The roster for the annual AFC-NFC Pro Bowl is selected by a three-prong process that gives equal weight to one collective ballot each from fans, coaches and players. In addition to voting online, fans vote at every NFL stadium on selected game days and at certain local promotional spots. Buccaneers fans voted during Tampa Bay's home games against Green Bay and Buffalo.

In the case of ties, the fan portion of the voting is used as the tiebreaker. Online fan voting at NFL.com concludes on Friday, December 8.

Pro Bowl rosters will be revealed on NFL.com on Thursday, December 14, followed by the annual ESPN Pro Bowl Selection Show at 8:00 PM ET. The Pro Bowl takes place on Sunday, February 4 at 5:30 PM ET. It will be the 22nd consecutive NFL All-Star game played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu and will be broadcast live on ABC-TV.

Here's a look at where Buccaneers feature prominently in the online Pro Bowl balloting (numbers as of Tuesday, November 28):

**Position****Player****Team****Votes**
CenterJeff ChristyBuccaneers60,922
Mark StepnoskiCowboys41,074
Matt BirkVikings38,863
CornerbackChamp BaileyRedskins68,158
Ronde BarberBuccaneers49,788
Jason SehornGiants49,500
Deion SandersRedskins47,927
Donnie AbrahamBuccaneers42,804
FullbackMike AlstottBuccaneers113,507
Larry CentersRedskins26,397
GuardRandall McDanielBuccaneers68,237
Larry AllenCowboys54,563
Adam TimmermanRams54,550
Interior LinemanWarren SappBuccaneers129,431
John RandleVikings81,886
KickerGary AndersonVikings52,332
Martin GramaticaBuccaneers50,208
Strong SafetyJohn LynchBuccaneers72,997
Robert GriffithVikings27,277
Darren WoodsonCowboys20,166
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