All quarterback Byron Leftwich is asking for is a chance, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans

His feet are slow, but he does not ask for speed. His windup is exaggerated, but he does not ask for smoothness. He has suffered injuries, but he does not ask for health.

All that Byron Leftwich, the recycled quarterback, asks for is this:

A chance.

Now that a football season has arrived, it doesn't seem like too much to ask. Does it?

Leftwich is the new starting quarterback of the Bucs, and already, it seems a lot of people aren't crazy about the idea. Perhaps there are too many scars on his body. Perhaps there are too many flaws on his resume. The trial is just beginning, and already, the jury seems to be in a restless mood.

For Leftwich, this is where it starts. With raised eyebrows and a crowd that needs convincing, facing long odds and low expectations.

Oh, and Byron?

Welcome to town.

"When I've been healthy, I've always played good football in this league," Leftwich said. "Even with the windup, with the slow feet, with all those things, my team always had a chance to win. That's what you want with your quarterback. 'Do we have a chance to win with this guy playing quarterback?' Hopefully, I can do that.

"Just give me a chance. Let's see what happens. Then you can judge me."

It is odd. Some new quarterbacks ride into town to cheering masses. Not Leftwich. Even at first sight, some seem to answer the questions and remove the doubts. Again, not Leftwich. Some win their fans over early, and some give them a reason to hope. Still, not Leftwich.

Even now, there are those who would have awarded the starting job to Luke McCown, Leftwich's competition in training camp. Even now, there are those who would throw rookie Josh Freeman into the fire.

Leftwich? He is the guy the Jaguars gave up on. He is the guy who didn't stick in Atlanta. He is the guy who was a backup last year.

Is he the guy to lead these Bucs? We'll see.

"I think we can be successful," Leftwich said. "I don't want to say this many wins or that many, because I don't think that's the way to do things. But I really do think we can be a good football team. There are not that many Kellen Winslows in the league. There aren't that many Cadillac Williamses. There aren't that many Antonio Bryants. You add in Michael Clayton and Jerramy Stevens and Derrick Ward."

And Leftwich? What about Leftwich?

"I've never lost any confidence in myself," Leftwich said. "I love this game, and I can play. I can play this game."

For a while, no one seemed to doubt it. As a rookie in Jacksonville in 2003, Leftwich threw for the fourth-most yardage and had the fourth-highest quarterback rating since 1983 (of 37 quarterbacks). In his second season, he was 8-6. In his third, he was 8-3 before getting hurt.

Then it began to unravel. Coaches don't trust quarterbacks who can't stay healthy, and quarterbacks don't trust coaches who don't trust them. The friction between Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio and Leftwich became obvious.

"I just wasn't his guy," Leftwich said. "It happens. Chad Pennington wasn't Eric Mangini's guy (with the Jets). Jay Cutler wasn't Josh McDaniels' guy (with the Broncos). It doesn't matter how good you are."

It does matter how healthy you are, however. Leftwich hurt his ankle in 2005. Looking back, he said he should have had surgery after the season. He did not, however, and he hurt the ankle again in 2006.

"As a player, you don't notice it," Leftwich said. "You're going through and you think you're always healthy. You try to tough everything out. You think 75-80 percent is good enough. Yeah, it's good enough for a game here or there, but when you're trying to play at 65-70 percent, it wears on you."

Then came the 2007 preseason. Del Rio said Leftwich was his quarterback. And in the preseason, Leftwich's numbers were virtually identical to what he put up this preseason. Here, it won him the starting job. There, it got him cut nine days before the season opened.

"I knew I had to get healthy," Leftwich said. "That's why going to Pittsburgh (as a backup) was the best thing that ever happened to me. Not because we won the Super Bowl, but because I got healthy."

Say this for Leftwich. He knows who he is. And he knows the questions about him.

For instance, there is his windup: "I have this wacky delivery," he said. "It's the way I've always thrown the ball. But I'm not holding the ball while receivers are running open downfield. I don't get sacked more than other quarterbacks. I don't throw more interceptions because of my windup. Everyone's different. I think Philip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Have you seen the way he throws the ball?"

Then, there is his lack of mobility: "I'm not the slowest quarterback in the league," Leftwich said. "I'm the slowest black quarterback. I'm faster than Chad Pennington. Out of 32 quarterbacks, I'd say I'm about 17th. I can think of five guys I'm faster than now, but I don't want to say names. I can say Chad, because we're friends, and we have this conversation all the time."

And, of course, there is durability. Leftwich's ribs have felt a lot of helmets. "Look at the plays I got hurt on," Leftwich said. "You'll say, 'It's good he only hurt his ankle.' "

So what does Leftwich bring in return? He has a big arm. He's bright. He's committed. And he has 46 starts worth of experience.

"The Bucs made the right choice," said ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer, a former Bucs quarterback. "I think the Bucs are going to have a tough year, and their best chance is manufacturing wins. You need a veteran quarterback for that."

Somewhere along the way, perhaps Leftwich can provide a spark for his teammates. Go back to Leftwich's days at Marshall. He was having a great senior season until the Akron game, when he took a hit on his left leg and fractured a tibia.

Leftwich was on his way to the ambulance, but he feared it wouldn't get him back to the game in time. So he took a van to a doctor's office, where an X-ray determined he had a broken leg. Still, he returned to the game and, with his pain numbed by adrenaline, went back into the game without telling anyone how badly he was hurt.

The images of that game, of Leftwich completing a pass, then being lifted and carried downfield by his teammates, are a part of college lore.

"It was stupid, man," Leftwich said, grinning. "It was just stupid, and if any player is in the same situation I was in, I'd tell them not to do what I did.

"But you know, if I had it to do again, I don't know that I would do it any differently."

The moment says something about Leftwich, about his toughness, about the way his team believed in him. Leftwich didn't win the game, and he didn't win the Heisman (although he still believes he would have if he had stayed healthy). But no one in the stadium will ever stop telling the story.

If Leftwich is to be a surprising success in Tampa Bay, it will take that kind of toughness, that kind of spark.

"I believe when I'm in that huddle, my teammates believe I'm going to get the job done," Leftwich said. "The same way I believe they're going to get the job done. On third and 1, I believe those guys up front are going to get us the first down. I expect great things from the other 10 people."

As for Leftwich? He has his chance.

Now the question is whether he can give one to the Bucs.

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