Robinson’s Remarkable Recovery Seahawks’ Top Safety Back After Torn Achilles

According to Greek mythology, Achilles was made impervious to injury when his mother dipped him in the River Styx.

Absolutely invulnerable. Except, that is, at the heels by which she held him.

And an arrow wound to the unprotected heel landed Achilles on the Greek army’s injured-reserve list.

It appears that Mrs. Robinson made the same oversight with her little boy, Eugene, 33 years ago as Mother Achilles did in the ancient myth.

Robinson, the Seattle Seahawks’ exuberant free safety, never missed a game in his NFL career, setting a team record by playing in 120 straight.

Through 10 years, he never missed a game to injury while becoming the team’s all-time leading tackler.

Invulnerable. Until Dec. 11.

In the Astrodome against Houston, Robinson ruptured his Achilles tendon.

“No shredding, no tearing,” Robinson said. “Just sliced full in half.”

As if shot by an arrow.

At the age of 32, playing a position that requires constant planting and cutting, Robinson’s career was left in doubt.

“We’ll have to see what happens,” Seahawks coach Tom Flores said at the time. “But Eugene is our best-conditioned athlete and if anybody can come back from this, it’s Eugene.”

Flores, although he would lose his job shortly thereafter, was prescient in this case.

Robinson, in fact, has made it back, setting a world record for recovery from this type of injury.

“I think it shows what kind of athlete he is,” Hawks head coach Dennis Erickson said of Robinson’s remarkable recovery.

Robinson has dealt with a bit of ankle inflammation during training camp, but appears to be very near full speed.

Which should be close enough for a man who has been to the Pro Bowl two of the last three years, who has more interceptions (27) in the 90s than any other player in the NFL, and who has never, since he assumed a starting role in 1986, been lower than third on the team in tackles.

How did he come back so quickly? By biting off chewable chunks.

“You have to set realistic goals and benchmarks,” Robinson said. “It’s a long and tedious process and if you look at the whole thing, it will scare you to death. So you look for little marks of improvement and when you get there you think, ‘O.K., now, from here, I can get to there.’

“Maybe, that way, I was able to get back a little quicker.”

Robinson said he was never plagued by self-doubts or worries that the injury would put an end to his career, and he inched back to the field by whatever means he could.

“I couldn’t run on it because the leg couldn’t take the pounding,” he said. “So I started jogging on a trampoline. The trampoline became my close friend because it helps push that leg back up instead of pound on it.”

And by the time he came back to the last mini-camp, he “felt almost completely normal,” he said. “And man, did that feel good, it was soooo exciting.”

Of course, to Robinson, almost everything is exciting.

He has seen light duty for most of the preseason. And during his practice breaks, his absence is quickly noted since he is the one Seahawk capable of raising the intensity - and decibel - level all on his own.

Always talking, always shouting instructions to his teammates, the former undrafted free agent from Colgate is clearly the voice of the team.

And when media seek an insightful interpretation of a situation, Robinson is always the go-to player.

Concerning the highly publicized off-field woes the team has faced, Robinson suggested: “They say that adversity builds character. Well, we should have our hands full of character by now.”

Robinson thinks opponents will have their hands full with the new Seahawks defense.

“The theory is to not complicate everything with a lot of defenses - let’s play what we’ve got and play it well,” he said. “If we have to do it 55 million times, we’ll do it, but man, we’ll do it right.”

And the aggressive style now being used by the front seven defenders?

“Well, that frees myself and (strong safety) Robert Blackmon up to make the big plays,” Robinson said. “And oh, man, do I love that.”

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