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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sibling rivalry helped push Cristian and Alex Roldan into Sounders’ starting lineup

By Geoff Baker Seattle Times

SEATTLE – Call it genetics, a support network, or sibling rivalry taken to extremes. But those brothers fortunate enough to reach the professional sports ranks say it takes a combination of factors to achieve the rare family double, or even triple.

When Alex Roldan joined his older brother, Cristian, on the field for the Sounders last Sunday, it marked the first time in recent memory that two siblings have started the same game for a Seattle pro sports team. Seattle knows all about the Trufants, the Huards, the Burlesons and the Tuiasosopos as brothers, but none started for the same team at the same time.

The closest a family in Seattle got to the Roldans came on Aug. 31, 1990, when the father-and-son combination of Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. started for the Mariners and hit back to back in the order. Both later got on the base paths at the same time and eventually scored. They also hit back-to-back home runs in a game that year.

In similar fashion, the Roldan brothers teamed for a goal last Sunday against Sporting Kansas City, with Cristian scoring and Alex assisting.

“It was pretty emotional seeing him in the lineup,” said Cristian Roldan, who played at the University of Washington. “As roommates, as brothers, we want the best for each other.”

Most of the time they do, anyway. As youngsters in Pico Rivera, Calif., they had scrapped, clawed and punched their way to get ahead of one another in backyard soccer or basketball in their driveway.

Roldan remembers a similar rivalry between him and his oldest brother, Cesar, now a trainer with the Colorado Rapids.

“I looked up to him, but I always wanted to be better than him,” he said. “I wanted to be the favorite child. And you know, I still strive for that.”

Roldan hopes he can similarly motivate Alex to want to be better than him. And his younger brother agrees that motivation was and still is there.

“Just playing sports in general was just something we always got into fights about,” said Alex Roldan, a former Seattle University standout. “Ultimately it helps you in the long run. Because it pushes you to the edges that you really don’t want to be at.”

But constantly striving to outdo his brother and rarely succeeding meant he never could rest on his laurels. He still can’t – laughingly describing a postgame phone call with his parents in which they “mostly just wanted to talk about Cristian’s goal.”

Former UW and NFL quarterback Brock Huard agrees that sibling rivalry plays as key a role, if not more, than family genetics in brothers going pro. Huard is a fan of author Malcolm Gladwell’s belief that “10,000 hours of deliberate practice” is needed to become world class in any field.

And competing in his Puyallup backyard with a future NFL quarterback in older brother Damon – not to mention a younger brother, Luke, who broke their high-school passing records and played collegiately – helped do just that.

“Look at how quickly Damon, Luke and I ramped up to 10,000 hours of competition,” said Huard, 42 and a college football analyst and a radio host on 710 ESPN Seattle. “From mini-football to Nerf basketball to Wiffle Ball to tackle football. To just everything that you can imagine. Even video games a little bit.”

The Huards in November 2000 became the first brothers to start an NFL game at quarterback on the same day – Brock for the Seahawks and Damon for the Miami Dolphins. That has been replicated since by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning, Matt and Tim Hasselbeck and Luke and Josh McCown.

Huard notes those brother combos are all roughly the same age, from a time before youth sports became hyper-specialized. They all had more time for backyard development between siblings.

“There’s just simply no debate in my mind and no question that those thousands of competitive hours – kind of nature going at it – played a role.”

The Mannings might be the NFL’s top sibling combination of all time. But for starting on the same team, Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen and his brother Phil, both defensive linemen with the Los Angeles Rams in the early 1970s, might be tough to beat.

Same with Baseball Hall of Fame brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner – known as “Big Poison” and “Little Poison” – who teamed on the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1927-40. They were unbeatable as starting MLB teammate brothers, though Hall of Fame second baseman Robbie Alomar and his All-Star catching older brother, Sandy, gave it a modern-day shot with the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.

The top NBA siblings of all time are arguably Pau Gasol of the San Antonio Spurs and younger brother Marc of the Memphis Grizzlies. But they played together only on the Spanish national team. For top NBA teammates who are brothers, Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins and younger sibling Gerald are perhaps the most notable after playing together with Orlando in 1998-99.

The best NHL brothers on the same team – and arguably topping Phil and Tony Esposito as the greatest hockey siblings of all-time – were Maurice “The Rocket” Richard and kid brother Henri “The Pocket Rocket” from the Montreal Canadiens. The Hall of Famers and team captains combined to win 19 Stanley Cups and played together for three championship seasons from 1957-58 through 1959-60.

Locally, the Tuiasosopos from Woodinville and Seattle’s Burleson brothers didn’t play the same pro sport, let alone suit up together. Marcus Tuiasosopo played for the NFL Oakland Raiders from 2001-08, and younger brother Matt played 71 games as a Mariners corner infielder from 2008-10 and later for the Tigers and Braves.

O’Dea High School product Nate Burleson was an NFL wide receiver for the Vikings, Seahawks and Lions from 2003-13, while his older brother, Kevin, was a reserve point guard for the NBA Charlotte Bobcats in 2005-06.

The Trufant brothers from Tacoma are this region’s prolific gold standard, with Marcus, 37, playing for the Seahawks from 2003-12; Isaiah, 35, for the New York Jets from 2010-13; and Desmond, 27, now at five seasons with the Atlanta Falcons.

Desmond Trufant maintains that the support from his brothers was crucial. He recalled for Sports Illustrated his oldest brother, Marcus, walking him into the Seahawks locker room at age 14 in 2004 and telling his teammates: “He’s going to be better than all of us.”

“It was a surprise, just because of the level he was at. I was just a young kid,” he told the magazine. “He was a first-round pick. When you’re in that house growing up, you don’t really hear too much of that. I already had a lot of confidence, but that was a confidence-booster.”

Alex Roldan agrees that such mutual support is critical. And why whatever happens bragging-rights wise from here between the Sounders duo will always come second as they forge a unique Seattle legacy.

“I give a lot of credit to him for having the success that I’ve had early on in the season where I’ve been able to start,” he said. “Because he’s the one who’s pushed me so far along in our lives.”