Chancellor’s pregame speech sparked Hawks

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Kam Chancellor has the intensity of a white-hot flame on game days. But he usually keeps that burning inside, fueling him alone.

Last weekend, for the first time, every Seahawk shared that internal heat. They used it to singe first-place Arizona.

Four days later the Super Bowl champions (7-4) prepare to kick off here against the San Francisco 49ers (7-4) with a huge chance to turn what’s been an uneven season into a roll. And the Seahawks are still feeling Chancellor’s passion.

Seattle’s defensive players had what outside linebacker K.J. Wright on Tuesday termed “an argument” on the field last week during practice. No-nonsense safety Earl Thomas berated some teammates for chewing sunflower seeds and not being focused enough during drills. High-volume bickering and bellowing followed.

The defense simmered for days. Then minutes before the Seahawks ran onto CenturyLink Field to play the Cardinals Sunday, defensive end Michael Bennett asked Chancellor to address the team in the locker room. Bennett and quarterback Russell Wilson usually do that before kickoffs. But Bennett sensed the thudding strong safety, finally healthy after 2 1/2 months of playing through pain, was the man for this job on this day after all the tumult of the week and season.

Great choice.

Chancellor didn’t just speak to his teammates. He went man to man around the room. He looked into each of their eyes. He roared at them. That fire from within came out in a torrent of motivation and demand for brotherhood.

“Yeah, my first time right before a game,” Chancellor said Tuesday. “Mike B. asked me to do it. I said everything that I’ve felt and always wanted to say. And I just said it from my heart.

“It was about trusting one another.”

Chancellor’s pregame scorcher of a speech did more than inspire his teammates to throttle formerly 9-1 Arizona to its season lows of 204 yards and three points. Chancellor did more than inspire himself to share with key middle linebacker Bobby Wagner (back after missing five games with turf toe) the team lead with eight tackles. Chancellor moved better than he had all season on bone spurs in his ankles and a sore groin. On Wednesday the NFL named him the NFC’s defensive player of the week.

His speech before he did all that transformed teammates.

“That’s probably one of the best ones I’ve ever heard in my life,” Wright said.

“I just felt it. Usually guys talk and it’s just talk. I actually felt him. He just spoke from the heart.

“We needed that. With the little thing, the little argument we had, we needed that just to get over whatever that was we were going through.

“That’s why we voted him captain.”

Team leader Doug Baldwin says Chancellor’s speech and this new sense of trust and togetherness may be turning around Seattle’s up-and-down season.

“I think so,” Baldwin said. “You have to play this game with emotion and play this game with love and trust and commitment to each other.”