Lavonte David Describes Altercation With Former Buccaneers Coach

Lavonte David will forever be remembered as one of the most consistent and productive players in Tampa Bay Buccaneers' history. It wasn't just David's steadily prolific performance on the field that made him special, though. From the moment he was first drafted by the Bucs back in 2012 right up until he finally decided to call it a career this March, David earned the respect of teammates, opponents, coaches, and fans for his humble and down-to-earth demeanour and engaging leadership style.

During his 14-year NFL Career, David has never gotten into any sort of trouble. His discipline, modesty and strength of character are a big reason why he was a team captain for so many years. Not only that, but it's also why the team chose to display a silhouette of him in their draft room to remind them of the type of player and person they try to target each year in the NFL Draft.

Since retiring, David has taken a bit of a media tour (or maybe it just feels like that because we didn't often hear from the soft-spoken star during his playing days). Regardless, since hanging them up for good, David has been quite open about sharing stories from his playing days.

David recently made an appearance on The Arena: Gridiron show alongside Skip Bayless and former Buccaneers Aqib Talib and Gerald McCoy. During the interview, David and McCoy brought up an interesting story that most people had never heard before regarding some 'beef' that David had with a current NFL head coach who, at the time, was an offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers.

David clashed with current Browns head coach Todd Monken in Tampa

According to David, during a competitive practice session back in 2017 or 2018, Monken took exception to David's antics. After being pressed by McCoy, David described what transpired.

"You know how training camp is. We get into competing, D-Jax over there, Mike over there, we [were] over there trash-talking each other. I'm on the offensive side, though," David said. "I'm not supposed to be over there. Monk said something. He said, 'go back over there, F*** boy'".

McCoy then chimed in with his own wrinkle to the story.

"I had to grab 'Vonte!". David summarized the rest of the incident.

"We were going back and forth. It was a good little practice or whatever. But he got outta hand calling me that... A different 'Vonte' came out and everybody grabbed me."

Water Under the Bridge

Lavonte David and Tez Johnson — Oct 12, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Lavonte David (54) and wide receiver Tez Johnson (15) react during the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images | Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images

Despite their encounter approximately eight years ago, it sounds like both David and Monken were able to move on without any lingering animosity.

"He realized. It's the heat of the moment. We didn't speak for a couple of weeks," David said. "Then, like, after that, the season went on a little bit. He went to the Ravens or whatever. We played them a couple times. We dapped each other up and stuff like that."

.@LavonteDavid54 tells a WILD story about when him and Todd Monken almost fought in training camp. 😳 pic.twitter.com/6jd56Ki4BR
— The Arena: Gridiron (@ArenaGridiron) April 3, 2026

Although it's a little birt surprising to hear about David having 'beef' with one of his coaches, it sure sounds like Monken brought it on himself. Either way, David's status remains invincible among the Buccaneers' faithful. If anything, the fact that David was getting chippy with the offense during practice speaks to his competitive nature and discipline in terms of how he was able to harness that emotion on gamedays for so many years.

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