Wooden: Rock Solid Hawks’ Linebacker Unsung, But Not Among Peers

How to best describe Seattle Seahawk linebacker Terry Wooden?

Underrated. No question, but that’s gotten pretty trite.

Unsung.

Not really, because his teammates frequently sing the praises of his talent on the field and his importance as a soft-spoken team leader.

Silent but deadly. That’s good, considering his demeanor and his seek-and-destroy technique, but it’s been used in other contexts.

Maybe his buddy Cortez Kennedy can best put a label on Wooden.

“T. Wooden is simply one of the very best linebackers in the National Football League,” Kennedy said Monday in the Hawks locker room. “The problem is you guys in the media don’t pump him up because he’s kind of a quiet gentleman. And because we don’t win a lot of games, the national media doesn’t hear about him.”

All Terry Wooden does, it seems, is make every tackle in his vicinity, play with unwavering excellence, and keep his mouth shut.

Five times this year, Wooden has had double-figure tackle games. His 110 tackles are 28 more than any other Seahawk.

“I haven’t been around here, but from this year and watching films of previous years, I can say he’s the most consistent player on this team year in and year out,” Hawk coach Dennis Erickson said. “He consistently makes plays and doesn’t make mistakes. He’s always where he’s supposed to be.

“I can’t say enough about him; I can look through the 13 games we’ve had, and four in preseason, and say that he hasn’t played a bad game,” Erickson said. “Not one.”

So, that makes him Pro Bowl caliber?

“In my mind, there’s no doubt,” Erickson said.

But the nation of football fans has been slow to recognize the sterling efforts of Wooden.

And Hawk defensive coordinator Greg McMackin has a theory why: because Wooden is so disciplined at fulfilling his responsibilities.

“You have to have guys who are not selfish, who want to be team players,” McMackin said. “What real stars like Terry Wooden and Cortez Kennedy are doing is meeting their responsibilities, doing their jobs rather than free-lancing around and trying to make the big plays.”

Because Wooden rarely gets to rush the passer and pick up those gaudy sack stats, and does not play in most of the Hawk passdefense packages in which he could get interceptions, he fails to grab headlines.

“When you’re a linebacker, the only way you can go to the Pro Bowl is to get sacks, but the way our defense is, I’m not in a position to get a lot of sacks,” Wooden said, speaking in his customary whisper. “People tend to overlook you when you don’t get those kinds of things.”

But it doesn’t go unnoticed by Seahawk teammates.

“It’s unfortunate that he isn’t in the situation where he can get a lot of sacks, because if he was, he would be headed to his third or fourth Pro Bowl,” defensive tackle Joe Nash said.

The only bit of ostentatiousness Wooden allows himself is a “90” ear ring in his left ear - a small, golden display of his jersey number.

Is it possible, Terry, that if you punched out goal posts like 49er Ken Norton, or spouted off like a dubious mohawked predecessor, that you’d have gained more attention?

“I don’t think that’s it; you look at Chris Warren, Cortez and Rick (Mirer), those guys aren’t finger-pointing, chest-thumping guys,” Wooden said of current noted teammates. “(Attention) comes with winning and when we win more, people will start taking notice of the Seahawks and of more of the players.”

Although it seems as if Wooden never misses a tackle or blows an assignment, his teammates admit that it happens on occasion. And when it does “he’s the first one back to the huddle to say ‘that was my fault’,” cornerback Carlton Gray said.

Gray considers Wooden to be as close as a brother. “He’s helped me so much,” Gray said. “Everybody knows that Terry is going to be there every Sunday and play consistent week after week. For me, he’s quietly brought me along by letting me know what he expects of me.

“He doesn’t get the recognition he deserves because he’s in Seattle and guys like (Bryce) Paup in Buffalo and some of those guys in Pittsburgh get more publicity because their teams are doing better,” Gray said. “All I know is he’s one of the best defensive players I’ve ever seen.”

That was expected of him, actually, when he was the 29th player taken in the Seahawks’ watershed draft of 1990. That year, the Hawks took Kennedy in the first round, Wooden and safety Robert Blackmon in the second, and Warren in the fourth.

Wooden earned a starting job immediately but went down with a knee injury in the eighth game and missed half the season. He bounced back, though, and led the team in tackles as a sophomore.

The knee went out once again halfway through his third year, and his teammates voted him the Ed Block Courage Award, which goes to the player who has overcome the most to continue his career.

More fit and stronger than ever after the injury, he’s come back to post three consecutive 100-plus tackle seasons.

And this one might be the best of all. Although you could never get Wooden to admit it.

“I haven’t really sat back and looked at how I’ve done,” Wooden said. “I’ve got three more games to go. Right now, I’m just concerned about playing Denver.”

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