USF student to work with Bucs medical staff through diversity initiative

TAMPA, Fla. — Like most of us, David Orlando realized that he wasn’t good enough to play professional football but still wanted to work in sports.

“Once I realized that football was not going to be my career, I have this passion for football,” Orlando said. “But I have a love for medicine. Where can those two things coincide? Then I started looking into the athletic training route.”

Orlando, a Florida native from Winter Garden, is heading into his fourth year at the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine, where his specialty interest is sports medicine. Orlando earned his undergraduate degree from Southeastern University, where he focused on pre-medicine and pre-medical studies.

He will be joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their 2024 NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative medical student. The initiative, launched in 2022, was developed to encourage medical students from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in sports medicine. The program provides medical students with the opportunity to complete a month-long clinical rotation with NFL club medical staff across the league.

WFTS/Kyle Burger

“I think it’s a great initiative,” Orlando said. “Once I heard about it, this is definitely something that I want to do. It’s not every day you get to work with not only legends in the sports industry but legends in medicine.”

Students from 21 medical schools have been matched with NFL clubs across the league. He’ll bring the four-week program with the Bucs during the first week of September. The league works together with the NFL Physicians Society (NFLPS) and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS) in an effort to create a diverse pipeline of students with an interest in pursuing a career in sports medicine.

“From taking care of the patients, or the players, to making sure what they are eating is right, managing their rehab and recovery,” he said. “Really just anything that the sports med team is involved in when it comes to practices, recovery, training, even game time, I will be involved in it.”