Unlike former Kansas City Chiefs return man Dante Hall, no one calls second-year Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe "The Human Joystick." But maybe they should.
Briscoe told the *St. Petersburg Times* Wednesday that he learned to read defenses playing the video game NCAA Football from EA Sports.
"In this day and age, they actually scout the defenses now, and it helps you read and make reads," Briscoe said. "When I get on the field, I try to visualize things as if I was playing the video game, and it usually slows the (real) game for me."
Briscoe, who turned some heads with six catches in Tampa Bay's final two games last season, led the Bucs with four catches for 60 yards in Friday's preseason opener at Kansas City. With No. 2 receiver Arrelious Benn making a slow recovery from surgery for a torn ACL suffered last season, Briscoe has won a starting job opposite Mike Williams.
"I had to wait until my opportunity came and make sure I seize it," Briscoe said.
The Kansas product was drafted by the Bengals in the sixth round, but Cincinnati released him in September. Bucs general manager Mark Dominik, a fellow Kansas alum, gave him a second chance, signing him to Tampa Bay's practice squad at a salary of $310,000 (the NFL minimum) instead of the $5,200 a week normally paid to those players.
"I had that much belief in who he could be and who he is," Dominik told the Times. "It's unconventional. It's legal."
"This was a spot I felt was for me," Briscoe said. "A bunch of young and hungry guys who want to go out and prove we can go out and play with the elite teams in the league."
