Hamdan used to long odds
As difficult as it can be for a fourth-string quarterback to make a three-deep NFL roster, the Seahawks’ Gibran Hamdan has faced, and defeated, tougher hurdles.
There’s the one where he managed to play college football despite competing for only a year at the high school level.
Also, the Washington Redskins drafted him in 2003 after he started for less than a full season at Indiana.
For Hamdan, even being in the United States with a chance to play football was a long shot.
He was born in San Diego, but moved to Kuwait when he was three after his father, a Palestinian, got a job there.
When Hamdan was nine, his family took a vacation back to San Diego, and while they were there, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Hamdan never went back.
“It’s tough because you’re still young and you’re told that you can’t go home,” Hamdan said. “You’re like, ‘What? Why can’t I?’ You don’t understand. You don’t know the primers of war and why someone would take your home away.”
As a youngster in Kuwait, Hamdan played baseball, and once he landed in the United States, he was talented enough to make the 15-and-under U.S national baseball team.
He was introduced to football watching it on television and playing it after school, and the catcher on the diamond could always throw the football.
It wasn’t until his senior year of high school at Bishop O’Connell in Arlington, Va., that Hamdan started a football game – and that was in a difficult league for Washington D.C. private schools.
“I played pretty well. It was a competitive conference, you’ve got some national powerhouses,” Hamdan said. “A lot of schools come to recruit those kids and they stumbled on me and I ended up at IU.”
While there, Hamdan played baseball and sat behind Antwaan Randle El before getting eight starts in his senior season, and drawing the eye of then-Redskins head coach Steve Spurrier, who drafted Hamdan in the seventh round (232nd overall).
After a season with Spurrier, Joe Gibbs took over in Washington and cut Hamdan in Sept. 2004. Five months later, the Seahawks signed him and sent him to NFL Europe.
Over there, Hamdan played three-and-a-half games with the Amsterdam Admirals, completing 39 of 75 passes (52 percent) for five touchdowns and two interceptions.
He also ran for a touchdown, but that cost him the rest of the season when he fractured his collarbone scoring on a quarterback sneak.
Now, Hamdan’s healthy, listed at 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, and fourth on the depth chart behind Matt Hasselbeck, Seneca Wallace and left-handed rookie David Greene, who was drafted in the third round (85th overall).
All any third- or fourth-string quarterback wants is the chance to prove they can handle the offense, and Hamdan is approaching the camp hopeful for that opportunity.
“There’s a lot of things about here that make me want to see it work,” Hamdan said about trying to catch on with the Seahawks. “More than anything, what you’re trying to do is get the play and execute the play when you get a chance.”
Chances are few and far between for Hamdan, who did get a series on Saturday during the scrimmage, completing a couple passes for five yards, but nearly every opportunity to run the team in practice goes to Hasselbeck and Wallace.
“The truth of the situation is you have got to get Matt and Seneca ready to play,” quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn said. “Then (Gibran) and David Greene and Brian Wrobel are trying to win that third spot, and it won’t be won with reps out here because they’re not getting any.”
That puts them in the unenviable position of taking the field in a preseason game with very little time spent running the actual team, with most of their work coming in drills.
“That’s a tough deal,” Zorn said. “It’s not a good situation. (Gibran) wouldn’t choose this situation for himself.”
Zorn says that this is the first time that he’s had a fourth-string quarterback who just as easily could be the third-stringer, so for now, he’s keeping the job open.
Hamdan understands there is a possibility that he won’t be wearing a Seahawks uniform past this training camp, but as a 24-year-old, he sees his nomadic lifestyle reflecting that of most people his age.
He isn’t quite ready to move on yet, though.
“There’s a lot of things up in the air,” Hamdan said. “I believe I can be a good quarterback in this league, you know, I am a good quarterback. I just feel like if I get the right opportunity at the right time, maybe things will work out for me.”
So after over two hours of practice were done Monday morning, Hamdan and Greene stuck around, working on their drops and firing passes to whomever they could grab.
“They’re very committed. Both of those guys are smart enough to play in this offense and in this league,” Zorn said, taking a look at the two after everyone has left the field.
“We have a long way to go, it’s really a long process and anything can happen. Gibran has NFL experience. He’s going to be in the league whether it’s here or somewhere else.”
Notes
Seattle cut OLB Solomon Bates, who started three games last year and appeared in 17 during his two years with the Seahawks. … TE Jerramy Stevens caught two long passes down the seam from Hasselbeck during Monday morning’s 11-on-11. Stevens has impressed early in camp. … RBs Shaun Alexander and Maurice Morris continued to work out on the side during Monday morning’s practice.