Walking through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' hotel in La Jolla on Tuesday, I nearly walked into Johnny Parker.

"Johnny," I said, grimacing as he crushed my hand, "great to see you. You look great."

He squinted and flashed a cartoonish grin.

	“	I've got room for more. ”
		— Johnny Parker, the Bucs' strength coach, about his two Super Bowl rings

"If that's the case," he said in his still-thick Greenville, S.C., drawl, "you need to go see your optometrist. Man, it must be a slow news day if you're talking to me."

And then he laughed again.

Parker is the Buccaneers' strength and conditioning coach. He is also one of the few people on earth that I allow to call me by my given name, which happens to be Angus.

Parker got his start in the NFL with the Giants as Bill Parcells' strength coach. Since we came in about the same time, we got to know each other quite well. He was with the Giants from 1984-92, then joined Parcells again in New England in 1993 before parting ways with Bill Belichick in 1999.

Parker was out of football for two years before Jon Gruden pulled him out of retirement. Gruden did his homework; Parker has an extraordinary record of strengthening players and keeping them healthy.

He also has something only one other Tampa Bay employee owns: a Super Bowl ring -- two, in fact, earned with the Giants. Keenan McCardell earned a Super Bowl ring as a rookie with the Redskins in 1991, although he missed the entire season with a knee injury.

This is Parker's fourth Super Bowl, including a trip with the Patriots. He wears his two rings on his right hand. The rings are so big he has to wear them on the fingers on either side of his middle finger. When he shakes your hand, you feel them.

It was good to see him. At 55, Parker really does look good -- and by implication, I guess I must be hanging in there, too. That's the rationale, anyway.

He smiled when I mentioned his rings.

"Angus," he said, "I've got room for more."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.