A football for Michael
ST. LOUIS – The team bus drives past the hospital, and all the hurt and pain that never is far away comes back to Joe Jurevicius quick as lightning.
He and his wife, Meagan, helplessly spent the last days of their baby son’s life here. They lived at the hospital, praying for a miracle, wondering if little Michael William Jurevicius could beat the odds.
Suffering from a rare cellular disease, sialidosis, Michael lived the last days of his precious life in St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward, after being transferred from Tampa General.
“Can I be honest with you guys?” Jurevicius asked writers gathered around his locker after the Seahawks’ 37-31 win over St. Louis on Sunday. “This is a hard place for me to play.
“All of that stuff I went through a couple years ago with my son, it happened down the street from here. And it’s not the easiest place for me to come. We drive by that place, and it’s hard. It’s not the easiest place in the world, but it is what it is.
“And, like I said, I had a little extra motivation today.”
On March 23, 2003, 15 minutes from the Edward Jones Dome, where his father had the best statistical day of his professional career, 10-week-old Michael Jurevicius died.
And in the second quarter, after he sprung open on a drag route and caught Matt Hasselbeck’s 24-yard touchdown pass, Jurevicius, with his index finger, drew the initial “M” in the artificial grass in the end zone and tossed the football into the air.
“I threw the ball up to him,” Jurevicius said.
Jurevicius still plays the game he loves for the son he loved. He still catches passes and takes hits and does all the solid, silent things a veteran receiver does in memory of Michael.
This is what he does.
Michael was born the week before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win a trip to the Super Bowl. In that game, with his son’s illness heavy on his mind, Jurevicius broke a 71-yard catch- and-run, the biggest play of the day.
Two weeks later, he helped Tampa Bay win the Super Bowl, catching four passes for 78 yards against Oakland.
“You can’t have a harder situation in your life than what his family went through,” said Seahawks general manager Tim Ruskell, who was the Bucs’ director of player personnel in the Super Bowl season. “We did everything we could, but they had to go through it. He gave us his time when he could, and when he did give us his time, he was excellent.
“He was devastated. The whole family was devastated. Obviously, all his thoughts were with his child and his wife. We told him, ‘Joe, you do what you need to do.’ We got a special plane to get to the Philadelphia game so he could be with his wife (in Tampa) as long as he could.
“I’m not even comfortable talking about it. I mean, it’s a child. It was excruciating for him. To be able to come onto the field and perform to the level he did (in the postseason), it was an absolutely amazing thing. You knew it hurt deep down, and for him to come out and play football, it’s just one of those things in life I’ll never forget.”
Against the Rams on Sunday, Jurevicius played another marvelous game under tough circumstances.
With starting receivers Bobby Engram (cracked ribs) and Darrell Jackson (arthroscopic knee surgery) out of the game, the Seahawks knew they were going to need yards and points. Jurevicius was their answer.
He caught passes at his knees. He caught passes over the middle. He tip-toed down the sideline on a 52-yard catch-and-run. He got open after Hasselbeck’s expert play-action fakes.
He finished his finest afternoon with nine catches for 137 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s tough as nails. He’s one of the toughest human beings I’ve ever been around and had the pleasure of working with,” Ruskell said. “The guy just loves football. He’s so competitive. I always feel good knowing Joe’s out there.
“When we (Bucs) had our run to the Super Bowl, when we really needed it, third down, big game, big play, it was always Joe. You can look around the league for that, but once you’ve seen it and you know it, then you feel good that if he becomes a free agent, you go get him. And that’s what we did.”
Still, in Seahawks training camp, Jurevicius sat on the bubble. He was a possession receiver, and the Hawks already had one of the best in Engram. Coach Mike Holmgren hesitated a little looking for a place to play him.
“Joe had really made his living as an inside receiver, and we had Bobby Engram,” Holmgren said. “That was the hesitation. I always liked the player.
“He has great hands. We knew that. He’s a big target. I think his speed is a little underestimated. And we really needed him to play the way he played.”
Jurevicius is a football Everyman. Teams win with players like him. Every championship team has somebody spectacularly unspectacular like Jurevicius.
“I’ve always felt confident in my ability,” Jurevicius said. “Injuries happen, and my job, I’ve always said, wasn’t about numbers. I’m adamant when I say I’m not about numbers. It was just about contributing when called upon. And I think I’ve shown that I can do that.
“I want to be kind of the quiet guy who does his job. The blue-collar guy who does his work and lets other people notice it and talk about it and go about my business the next week.”
Jurevicius got through this business trip to the most difficult city he is forced to visit. He got past the sight of the hospital where his son died. He caught a touchdown pass and tossed the ball in Michael’s direction.
He played this game like he plays all games, with great dignity and professionalism. And, not so coincidentally, his team won again.