TAMPA — Three years after he was canned, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman has put his gated Bayshore Boulevard estate on the market for just under $2 million.
The onetime Kansas State star bought the 5,837-square-foot, three-story home in 2010, a year after he became the Bucs' first-round draft pick and youngest quarterback in the team's history. In addition to six bedrooms and six baths, the house boasts a theater room and a large game room with balcony overlooking an outdoor grilling area, heated pool and spa.
Located at the south end of Bayshore, the home fronts a stand of protected mangroves but has a view of the bay from the third floor balcony.
Freeman had a rocky career with the Bucs. He did well enough in 2010 to be twice named NFC Player of the Week only to slump in 2011, rebound in 2012 and finally fizzle in 2013. That year he failed to show up for the team photo and was released after an unsuccessful attempt to trade him.
Since then, Freeman has bounced from the Minnesota Vikings to the New York Giants to the Miami Dolphins to the Brooklyn Bolts of the Fall Experimental Football League. This spring, the Indianapolis Colts released him and he is currently a free agent.
Freeman bought the Tampa house for just over $1 million in 2010 and took out a mortgage for $705,6000. The lender began foreclosure proceedings in 2014, but Freeman paid off the mortgage a few months later.
Last summer, the IRS slapped Freeman with a lien for nearly $900,000 in taxes owed for 2010, 2011 and 2012. He paid that in October.
The 28-year-old Freeman could not be reached for comment.
"The history I got was that he was so busy he overlooked it, and then he called his financial adviser to pay it all off,'' said Ferdian Jap, the listing agent. "So the house is now free and clear.''
Freeman, whose home is listed at $1,999,999, is the third person connected to the Bucs to make real estate news in the last month.
In June, the current quarterback, Jameis Winston, paid $1.195 million for a lakefront estate in Odessa.
And former Bucs head coach Greg Schiano — who was fired the same year Freeman was released — sold his Culbreath Isles estate this month for $6.625 million, a near-record for a Hillsborough County home.
Contact Susan Taylor Martin at smartin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8642. Follow @susanskate