Robinson rehabs damaged reputation
KIRKLAND, Wash. – He could no longer hide, could no longer bury his face and pretend that everything was all right.
The time had come for Koren Robinson to turn and face his demons.
The date was Jan. 3 – six weeks after the NFL handed him a four-game suspension and one day after Robinson’s unexcused absence from a walk-through practice led Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren to send him home hours before the regular-season finale. By all accounts, Robinson had run out of second chances.
And so, in a short meeting with Holmgren, the Seahawks’ 24-year-old receiver was finally given an ultimatum. Start getting help, the coach told him, or you’re on your own. The Seahawks had grown tired of his antics and were no longer going to give any pardons.
Almost four months have passed, and Robinson, now 25, is facing up to his demons. He admitted Saturday that he has undergone treatment for substance abuse, that he no longer drinks, and that he is ready to commit himself to the sport that he loves.
“I’m maturing, man,” Robinson said in his first public interview since the end of the tumultuous 2004 season. “I’m … focused on my job now, instead of everything else. I’m really thankful for the opportunity. I guess certain things had to happen last year for me to really get it and see that I’m really blessed.”
After the most difficult year of his NFL career, Robinson came to the Seahawks’ minicamp professing himself a new man.
“You either want to be in the NFL, or you don’t,” he told a small group of print reporters after an afternoon practice. “And I do. So I’ve got to do everything that I’ve got to do to stay here.
“It’s on me. I’m not stupid. I’m not going to be one of those people who they talk about: ‘He had the potential to be great, but he let this, that and the other thing be a distraction.’ That’s not going to be me.”
Robinson admits that his partying got in the way of what should have been his main focus. Rather than concentrate on football, he said he was wrapped up in living “the football life” away from the field.
“I was hurting myself,” Robinson said. “Not getting enough sleep, trying to go hard. My mind wasn’t right.”
Neither Robinson nor Holmgren is willing to get specific about his off-season commitments, but the wide receiver reportedly did a 30-day stint in an alcohol treatment center. He is also moving his mother, Suzette Sims Robinson, and his 3-year-old son, Marquis, to Seattle to help him keep his priorities straight.
While Robinson impressed the coaches by fulfilling a series of directives shortly after the season, the receiver has a lot to prove. When asked recently about Robinson’s off-season progress, Holmgren simply replied called it “OK.”
Further pressed on what he sees in Robinson’s future, Holmgren was equally non-committal.
“It’s too early,” he said. “Right now, let’s take one step at a time.”
Tubbs wants clean slate
Carrying less weight, both physically and emotionally, Marcus Tubbs showed up for the first minicamp of the off-season looking to atone for a lost rookie season.
Seattle’s first-round pick in the 2004 draft had a forgettable season that was filled with struggles on the field and heartbreak off of it.
Tubbs had just 13 tackles during an injury-plagued rookie season. But that became a footnote when his mother, Jeanette, lost her battle with cancer in December.
“I can’t say my whole mind was fully there because of my mom passing away,” Tubbs said. “That ate me alive. To know your mom’s sick the whole season, and to know that it’s going to come eventually and she’s going to pass away, it just eats at you slowly. I know that hindered me a lot from being the player the team wanted me to be.”
Tubbs has proven his dedication, coming to the current minicamp 11 pounds lighter than the 335 pounds he carried at the end of the 2004 season. He has taken part in all but one of the Seahawks’ voluntary off-season workouts.
Notes
Early indications are that Josh Brown has improved his kickoff distances. Brown has just seven touchbacks in his two-year NFL career. … Former Seattle linebacker Chad Brown is scheduled to meet with the New Orleans Saints today. He has already met with representatives in New England and Denver, but hasn’t ruled out a possible return to the Seahawks. … First-round draft pick, center Chris Spencer, continued to struggle with his snaps.