Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

John Blanchette: Seattle receivers are Seahawks’ kind of players

PHOENIX – Jermaine Kearse has made it. Heroics. Respect. Validation.

And his own podium at Super Bowl Media Day.

Game-winning catches in back-to-back NFC championship games will do that. The guy hurling the football high into the stands as the bedlam showers over him can’t be ignored forever.

And yet Kearse cannot completely feel snuggly about it, watching from this regal vantage as teammate Malcolm Smith wades through the riff-raff of reporters on the floor of U.S. Airways Center during the Seattle Seahawks’ session of Super Bowl Media Day.

“We got to get that man a podium,” Kearse said. “He was Super Bowl MVP.”

If you’ve had enough of Angry Doug Baldwin, genial Jermaine Kearse may be more your speed.

Yes, he has felt the slights of NFL talent evaluators and hot-take artists. Yes, he’ll occasionally indulge in a little vindication tango, especially when egged on by his more militant teammate. But it never seems that his heart is truly in it.

He even seemed a little saddened that Media Day wasn’t sillier – at least until he was asked what advice he might give Katy Perry about dealing with halftime show nerves.

“I was really looking forward to these types of questions,” he said. “This is what I’m talking about.

“She’s a pretty big star, so I feel like she would know how to handle those types of situations. I would say enjoy the moment.”

He obviously is.

He understands completely how close the Seahawks came to not being here, having been a major part to the meltdown that had them all but buried against Green Bay in the NFC title game. Two Russell Wilson passes clanked off his hands and straight to Packers defenders. Two others chucked his way were also intercepted, in no small part because he was late to play offensive defense on the ball.

He and Baldwin were, in fact, living down to the billing to which they’ve so often taken affront.

Ordinary. Average. Appetizers, as opposed to the offense’s main course.

Pedestrian.

The descriptions can be hard to hear, and the Seattle receiving corps can’t cite statistics to make a case for themselves because their numbers are, well, ordinary due in no small part to the fact that the offense runs – runs – through Marshawn Lynch, and that quarterback Russell Wilson is a gifted runner. No Seahawks receiver is in the NFL’s top 40 in yardage; Kearse himself caught a mere 38 balls during the regular season.

No wonder Golden Tate, the consensus pick as the most-missed player who departed last offseason, cast his free-agent lot with Detroit.

But not all can be blamed on philosophy. Someone in Seahawks’ headquarters must be lukewarm, too. The club did, after all, take two receivers, Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood, in the last draft. It did gamble three draft picks and clubhouse chemistry in trading for Percy Harvin, only to drive him to the airport in midseason and send him on his way.

And, of course, Kearse and Baldwin – and current backups Ricardo Lockett and Chris Matthews – were all undrafted free agents.

“We take pride in that a little bit,” said offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. “They’re our kind of guys. You can see Doug Baldwin with a chip on his shoulder, and Jermaine and how he is and how he persevered through our game last week and made a big play for us. Those are our kind of guys.”

Survivor guys.

Kearse was a more heralded talent at Lakes High School and the University of Washington, but he had to cling to life with the Seahawks on the practice squad before being activated midway through 2012.

“I had to scratch and claw to make it,” Kearse said, “and even then you woke up every morning wondering if you were going to get cut.”

And, in fact, he still may be clinging to a spot. Kearse’s contract expires this year, and he could become a restricted free agent. Baldwin just cashed in on a $13 million extension, but the Seahawks have some salary issues – like a big raise due Wilson – that could make a guy who caught just 38 passes this season expendable.

Even a guy who made the clinching plays for both their Super Bowl trips.

“Criticism can be a motivation, but mostly my motivation comes from within,” Kearse said. “You’re going to have doubters and guys who don’t believe you, and that’s OK. That’s not going to affect how you think about yourself. It may spur you on a little, but deep down you’re going to believe.

“And knowing all the obstacles I had to deal with to get to this point, it makes it pretty special.”

He said it looking down from an elevated perch. The view is always better up there.