Rondé Barber didn’t need long to remind Jim Pyne that old college rivalries never really die.
Barber, the Virginia Cavalier who became a Tampa Bay Buccaneers icon, opened his appearance on “On the Line with Jim Pyne” by giving the former Virginia Tech Hokie a hard time. From there, the two old teammates moved through the kind of material that gives Pyne’s young podcast its appeal: the outdoor weight room at the old One Buc Place, the planes roaring over practice, and the defensive personalities who helped drag Tampa Bay out of the NFL weeds.
The exchange felt less like an interview and more like friends reminiscing about the good ol' days.
That’s the point of “On the Line.” Pyne, a former Buccaneers offensive lineman and assistant coach, draws on a lifetime of relationships to explore leadership, culture, and adversity. For Bucs fans, his guest list is becoming an oral history linking the Tony Dungy turnaround, the first Super Bowl team, and the Bruce Arians-Tom Brady title era.
And it all began with Pyne’s wife, Heather, telling him he should start a podcast.
‘On the Line’ is a show built on trust
Soon after starting PLS Aviation, the Tampa-based private aviation company he founded and leads as CEO, Pyne contacted four coaches for endorsement quotes: Dungy, Arians, Jon Gruden, and Andy Reid. He hoped one would respond. Instead, all four did, almost immediately.
Heather saw what that response revealed.
“You should have a podcast,” she told him.
“What’s a podcast?”
It sounds funny in this day and age, but Pyne was serious.
He wasn’t a regular podcast listener, yet the idea made sense. He knew coaches, players, and executives across football. More importantly, they already knew him well. When he asked John Harbaugh and Reid to become his first guests, both agreed without hesitation.
“If I start with those two guys, that’s pretty good,” Pyne recalled to FanSided.
Since then, the guest list has included four other heralded head coaches: the Chargers' Jim Harbaugh, the Commanders' Dan Quinn, the Bucs' Todd Bowles, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.
The trust Pyne built with players and coaches over decades in football has become the show’s foundation.
“I think what’s made it work is just making them feel good,” Pyne said. “I’ve been amazed at how many people want to tell their story.”
It's equally amazing how quickly the podcast has found an audience. According to figures provided by the show, “On the Line” has climbed to No. 3 on Apple Podcasts’ U.S. Sports chart since launching in July, built nearly 32,000 combined followers across Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and generated more than 23,000 downloads in the past 30 days. The show has also surpassed 2,500 YouTube subscribers.
Outside metrics reinforce that growth. Listen Notes places “On the Line” in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally in its database. Apple Podcasts lists nine episodes and a 5.0-star average from 164 ratings, with Dabo Swinney featured in the latest release. The momentum isn’t confined to audio. “On the Line” generated more than 114,000 Instagram views in the past 30 days as its social audience continued to expand.
Pyne credits his wife not only with encouraging him to start a podcast, but also with naming the show. “On the Line with Jim Pyne” works three ways at once: a guest is on the line with the host, Pyne spent his playing career on the offensive line, and “line” rhymes with “Pyne.” Once she said it, it stuck. There was little reason to keep brainstorming.
Helmets and shoulder pads in Pyne’s home office set reinforce that he’s not borrowing credibility from his guests. Tampa Bay selected him No. 200 overall in the seventh round of the 1994 NFL Draft, just 22 spots before that year’s Mr. Irrelevant, Patriots linebacker Marty Moore.
From that long-shot starting point, Pyne built a successful seven-season playing career -- an extraordinary run for an interior lineman drafted so late. When Cleveland returned to the NFL in 1999, the Browns took him first overall in the expansion draft. He later returned to Tampa as an assistant coach and spent a season with the rival New Orleans Saints. He knows football from the field, meeting rooms, coaching ranks, and the business side.
Pyne also carried a singular family legacy into the league. His grandfather, George Pyne II, played tackle for the NFL's Providence Steam Roller in 1931 and 1932, and his father, George III, played for the AFL’s Boston Patriots in 1965. When Jim reached the NFL, the Pynes became the first pro football family to span three generations, according to Youngtown, Ohio's The Vindicator.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers stories, straight from the source
The show’s Buccaneers connections already run deep. Barber’s episode spans his 16 seasons in Tampa Bay, the preparation behind a Hall of Fame career, and lessons from Dungy, Gruden, and Monte Kiffin. It also gives Pyne a chance to revisit the Bucs team he knew as a player.
Pyne told Barber he would rather have blocked Derrick Brooks than Hardy Nickerson. It was no slight toward Brooks, an all-time great. It was a lineman’s appreciation for what made Nickerson so intimidating.
“Hardy was the heart and soul of that defense," Pyne said. "There was no debate.”
Nickerson led in the weight room, attacked practice, and never backed down. When Dungy’s first Bucs team struggled, Nickerson preached “keep sawing wood.” The wins arrived, and Tampa Bay opened 1997 at 5-0 before reaching the playoffs.
Pyne remembers those moments and credits Dungy’s consistency with settling the organization. The coach laid out the schedule and refused to panic or pivot. Bucs fans know exactly how well that turned out.
“There was no up and down with Tony,” Pyne said. “You knew what you were going to get.”
Arians is the most recent Bucs-related guest to appear. Episode 8, which aired Sept. 1, connects the podcast to Tampa Bay’s second championship. The former coach discusses his risk-taking philosophy, his affection for the Glazer family, and the 2020 Super Bowl run. He also tells a revealing Brady story: after the offense failed in its first two-minute drill at practice, Brady wanted another shot. Arians said no. Brady responded by throwing his helmet and venting his frustration.
Pyne can match that story with one of his own. He took his three children to Super Bowl 55 at Raymond James Stadium, where the Buccaneers became the first team to win a Super Bowl in its home venue. They sat in the front row behind the Tampa Bay sideline and watched Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and the defense overwhelm Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs.
For a father raising Bucs fans in Tampa, it was almost impossibly perfect.
“We drove out of the house, drove 15 minutes to your hometown stadium. Your hometown team’s in the Super Bowl -- and they won,” he told FanSided.
Pyne still keeps photos from that night around the house.
More franchise voices are on the way. At the time of this interview, Pyne said he had recorded conversations with Mike Alstott, Anthony “Booger” McFarland, and former general manager Rich McKay. McKay’s episode traces the construction of the great Tampa Bay defense, from the 1995 draft that produced Warren Sapp and Brooks to Dungy's hiring.
The Bowles interview has since taken place and is set to go live Sept. 15. Pyne said Dungy, Gruden, and Super Bowl 37 quarterback Brad Johnson had also agreed to appear or were being scheduled. That pipeline covers nearly every major chapter of modern Buccaneers history. Nickerson and Baker Mayfield remain on Pyne’s wish list, while his dream former Buc is Brady. Pyne was born and raised in New England and has long been a fan of the Hall of Fame quarterback.
Given how the show began, anything is possible.
Learning the job in public
Pyne keeps a dry-erase board beside his desk, dividing names into guests to ask and guests who have said yes. Most invitations begin with a text. Then comes fitting around a coach’s schedule, sending a recording link, and hoping the Wi-Fi cooperates.
The show generally runs a little more than 30 minutes, long enough to move beyond standard answers without turning the conversation into a marathon. Pyne watches each episode back as if he were reviewing game film. His daughter Sophia edits the videos and creates social-media clips from New York.
His children initially rolled their eyes at the idea of their father becoming a podcaster, but the show’s rapid growth changed that reaction. One of Pyne’s sons, Michael, a varsity quarterback at Alonso High School, even reported that his Alonso Ravens offensive linemen wanted to come on the show.
“I’m cool for once,” Pyne joked.
Family is woven throughout the project. Pyne has been married to Heather for more than six years, and they share a blended family of five children: Sophia, 22; Chase, 21; Brady, 18; Michael, 17; and James, 13. Decades before becoming the show’s unofficial co-creator, Heather (née Kozar) was Playboy’s 1999 Playmate of the Year and one of Barker’s Beauties on “The Price Is Right.”
That family is another reason Pyne values preserving the conversations.
“This will be out there for my kids, grandkids to see."
The show’s momentum has also changed the booking process.
“The funny thing is, my phone is ringing. People have reached out to me to be on it, which is great.”
He started with a list of famous friends and a question about whether he could pull this off. Now the invitations are coming from both directions.
For Bucs fans, the growing guest list is only part of the appeal. Pyne occupied a rare place in franchise history. He blocked for the team as it learned how to win, returned as a coach after Tampa Bay’s first championship, and watched the second Super Bowl triumph as a father in the stands. He can ask Barber about the old practice facility, Arians about Brady, McKay about building a contender, and Bowles about leading the current team -- and each conversation begins with trust already in the room.
The podcast may be new, but the stories have been waiting for years.
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