Meet the McCoys | Family, Football and Business

Meet the McCoys | Gerald McCoy and his wife on family, football, fun…and business!

He’s the defensive tackle going into his 9th season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His reputation as a guy who cares and gives back to our community is no secret. It is also no secret that he has a deep commitment to his work on the field and his life at home with family.

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Gerald is married to his high school sweet heart Ebony McCoy and the two have four children, Marcellus, Nevaeh and twins, Gerald Jr. and Germany with a 5th child due in October.

We sat down with McCoys at Ebony’s baby boutique Seedlings in South Tampa to find out what life is like at the McCoy household!

TBPM: You’re a family of 6, almost 7 with one more on the way…What’s everyday like in the McCoy household? 

Ebony: “Every day is…(laughs) chaos.” 

Gerald: “mmmhmmm.” (laughs) 

Ebony: “It’s very long days because you have so many people to entertain. You want to make sure all of the kids get their time and that you and that everybody in the house is getting focus. We have a very active family. Everybody is in activities, every body is getting older, plus even though we have school and outside activities, it’s very important to us that we have family time too.

So even though you are done with school and your activities, we still need to sit down and spend time with each other, so we’re pretty much busy all of the time. Most of our time spent is with each other.” 

TBPM: What are some of your favorite things to do together as a family here in Tampa Bay? 

Gerald: “My family is a family who likes to eat. We definitely like to dance. My family loves to dance. They love to turn on music, whether we are out in public or at home we just dance non-stop. If you see videos of me at practice, I am always dancing, we post videos of the kids always dancing. We love to go to movies and a big thing we do…we love amusement parks. We love, love amusement parks and the twins, they do the painting…” 

Ebony: “Oh, we have a place by our house called ‘You do the Dishes’, it’s a place where you paint pottery and it’s nice because there’s a little coffee shop in there, so they have ice-cream, desserts. We actually go there quite a bit.

He said eating, I think one of our favorite activities is, everybody in our house likes crab legs, so on Mondays, it’s like of like a tradition for us, especially during football season because if they win, they have Monday off, but regardless, on Mondays we go to Grill 54 and they have the all you can eat crab legs on Mondays, so it’s kind of like an activity/event for us, but it’s fun because we get to enjoy, we sit there and watch the football game and hang out so we really look forward to doing that during the season.” 

TBPM: Ebony, we are in love with your boutique! What lead you to purchase Seedlings? 

Ebony: “I used to be a customer here at Seedlings and I was reaching a point in my life where I ready to venture out, maybe invest, do something of my own with my time and we found out Seedlings was for sale. I wanted to do something with children, I always wanted to own a children’s boutique, but I thought maybe after my husband retired because I know it would take a lot of work. When we found out Seedlings was for sale, we pretty much prayed about it and it all just worked out.” 

Gerald: “The store is excellent. I’m not going to lie…I do shameless plugs any chance I get. (laughs) She’s great, man. The thing about our family is, I pride myself on my work ethic and how much I prepare for what it is I do and how much work and focus I put into it. I can honestly say my wife does the same thing with the store and that’s why it’s had the success it has had. The success she has had here is not by accident.”  

TBPM: How would you describe your style and how that impacts what you end up showcasing here at Seedlings? 

Ebony: “My style is a little trendier I’m very in tune to fashion, innovative style, I like whatever is happening next , so anything that is evolving…I’m like right there trying to see what is going on.  

I work really, really hard…me the girls here really pride ourselves on keeping our customers on top of what is current. We want to bring you the fresh, the latest and we want to show you things that maybe you saw and didn’t know where or how to get it. We try to find really unique things so when you come in here, it’s going to be playful, but the ambiance you are going to get when you come into Seedlings is fun and welcoming and family. We invite children in. We always want the parents to bring the kids in and play and have a good time while they shop.

It’s all about the vibe. When the customer comes in, it’s how they feel, how we made them feel, how they’re leaving. That’s really important to us. I have probably the best team in the whole Tampa area.” 

Gerald: “She’s serious about this vibe thing. I’ve got a rule—when I come in, I can’t make a lot of noise…(laughs) I stay quiet, stay in the back. She’s very professional.” 

Ebony: “We have fun. We are not grainy, cookie cutter. We like to have a good time, so when you come in, you want to have a good time with us. That’s what we’re here for. People are having babies, that’s beautiful, that’s fun so when you come in, we want you to be excited, we want you to have a great experience whether you are having a baby, whether you already have children, we want it to be fun. We are going to embrace everything about it.” 

TBPM: What are your tips for taking kids to Bucs game? 

Ebony: “It is definitely an all day event. I would say to make sure the kids get a nap in before you go to the game. Be prepared to run. (laughs)  

I pretty much let them do whatever they want to do. If they want ice-cream, let them have ice-cream. If they just had ice-cream and want a cookie, they get a cookie. It they already had a cookie and they want a brownie, they get a brownie. 

Kids are in and out. They are going to pay attention to the game for a little bit and then they are going to want to entertain themselves. The good thing with the Bucs is if you do get there early, they a lot of times have interactive stuff. It’s nice now that they have the store downstairs.

When the music comes on, when there’s time out, we kind of like have a dance off, we’ll all as a family hang out and have fun. Pretty much on game day, we let the kids have a good time because that’s what you’re coming for… to have a good time. If you’re going to bring your kids, you have to be open to allow them to enjoy it the way they want to enjoy it.”