Hempfield grad Tim Jarocki makes everything run smoothly for Tampa Bay Bucs at Super Bowl

Credit for getting a team to the Super Bowl, as often is the case, is reserved for the coach and quarterback. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Bruce Arians calling the shots from the sideline and Tom Brady making the calls on the field, are no exception.

Behind the scenes, though, the person responsible for literally getting the Bucs to Super Bowl LV at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Sunday is Greensburg native Tim Jarocki.

Jarocki, a 1998 Hempfield graduate, is Tampa Bay’s director of team operations, a position he has held for most of his 16 seasons with the organization. His task is to get the team from Point A to Point B — and back — whether the Bucs are playing at home or on the road.

Although the NFL is in charge of most Super Bowl logistics, the 40-year-old Jarocki remains the point man for the Buccaneers’ travel Sunday. He will make sure meetings are held in the appropriate locations at the team hotel this weekend. He will ensure meals are prepared and available for players and staff. He will coordinate transportation to the stadium and oversee canine sweeps before players head to the game.

And that’s just before kickoff. Jarocki will make sure everything that happens outside the white lines runs smoothly for the Buccaneers whether they hoist the Lombardi Trophy or watch the Kansas City Chiefs have the honors.

“It’s a lot of work,” Jarocki said. “I help out with a little bit of everything.”

That included handing out commemorative hats and T-shirts after the Bucs clinched their first Super Bowl trip since 2002 with a victory at Green Bay in the NFC championship game. Jarocki also is in charge of organizing the postgame meal that — win or lose — will be awaiting the Bucs when they leave the field Sunday.

Jarocki’s job — he also coordinates travel for players involved in roster moves during the season — can be considered a thankless one since he has enjoyed few days off since the Bucs reported to training camp in July. The reward of working for an NFL organization, though, is worth it. His job was profiled in a story by CBS News in 2015.

“It’s a lot of fun, especially being able to celebrate a good win,” Jarocki said. “It’s been a whirlwind, and of course it would be a lot more fun without covid restrictions.”

Like the players and coaches, Jarocki has been subject to daily covid-19 testing, and he has to ensure proper social distancing is adhered to by members of the organization.

While the pandemic hasn’t doubled Jarocki’s workload, it has increased the amount of transportation required for road trips twofold, especially in the postseason. When the playoffs began, Jarocki had hotel contracts for six cities spanning three weekends. And each victory brought another road trip — from Washington to New Orleans to Green Bay.

“It’s getting the team from Tampa to the away city and back and everything that falls in between,” Jarocki said. “Airplanes, hotels, buses, trucking the (16,000 pounds of) equipment, the police escort, everything that falls in line in terms of per diem, meals on the plane and at the hotel.”

Extra precautions were required because of the pandemic. Instead of using one plane for road trips, the Bucs used two. Instead of five buses to transport players and staff, 10 were required.

“You have players in position groups on the plane, but now you had to split them up and socially distance it so that if one person was exposed, it wouldn’t take down the whole position group,” Jarocki said. “If the starting quarterback is on one plane, the backup is on the other. If the left guard is on one plane, the center is on the other. You also need a security guy, a video guy and a doctor on each plane. Twice as many planes means twice as many chances of mechanical failures, issues and delays.”

Jarocki experienced only one hiccup during the season. A plane headed to Charlotte for the Nov. 15 game against the Carolina Panthers was delayed for 7½ hours because of mechanical failure. Meetings were missed and itineraries changed.

“But we ended up getting out of there with a win, and nobody was happier than me,” Jarocki said.

Jarocki ran track in high school and attended Robert Morris on a scholarship as an undergraduate. His sister, Jill (Jarocki) Bokalders, a former vice president with the Arena Football League, had majored in sports management at Slippery Rock. Tim followed in her footsteps by getting his graduate degree there.

“He didn’t want to be outdone,” John Jarocki, Tim and Jill’s father, said with a laugh.

While at Slippery Rock, Jarocki got an internship working with the Tampa Sports Authority. He parlayed it into an administrative position with the Buccaneers, his employer since 2005.

Jarocki was part of the gameday operations staff in 2009 when Tampa hosted Super Bowl XLII involving the Steelers and Arizona Cardinals. Jarocki helped escort the Lombardi Trophy from its safe and onto the field for the postgame presentation.

With the Buccaneers making Super Bowl LV, Jarocki’s duties have increased exponentially.

“It’s somewhat like a home game being that is played in our town,” Jarocki said. “We still have to treat it like a road game as well.”

And, for the Buccaneers, nobody knows the road better than Jarocki.