Hawks’ Hamlin sends teammates a message
Just before Seahawks safety Ken Hamlin was released from a Seattle hospital after treatment for injuries he suffered in a brutal beating outside a nightclub, he taped a video message for his team from his hospital room.
The Seahawks were on their way out of their usual, Saturday night viewing of a highlight tape from the previous week’s victory, this one over Houston. Most were bee-lining toward the cheeseburgers stacked on a table for a post-session snack.
“As soon as the highlight film ended, there was this mad dash to the door. And then Ken came on,” coach Mike Holmgren said Monday, a day after the team decided to present Hamlin with the game ball from Seattle’s stunning, last-play victory Sunday over the Dallas Cowboys.
The players immediately stopped, the cheeseburgers trumped by the sight of their teammate with a fractured skull, a blood clot on the brain and a fractured hand staring back at them on a big screen.
“Everyone is in a really good mood and laughing and kidding … (then) it was Ken,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “There was no sound. Total silence.”
“You could tell it was from the heart,” Holmgren said of Hamlin’s message. “It was well done. It was somewhat emotional.
“I know how it affected me. My goodness, it was somethin’,” Holmgren said, his eyes reddening slightly at the recollection.
“You know, they miss him. He’s a popular guy.”
Holmgren spoke just before releasing his team for a rare, in-season vacation over the next six days of Seattle’s bye week. Holmgren said the only other time he has done that in his 14 years as an NFL coach was in 1996 with Green Bay. His Packers returned to win the Super Bowl.
Defensive back Marcus Trufant, Hamlin’s locker neighbor, said Hamlin told the team that “He’s there for us, watching for us and praying for us the whole time.”
Packers’ Green out for season
The Green Bay Packers are losing playmakers even faster than they’re losing games.
Running back Ahman Green is the latest casualty. He was lost for the season with a ruptured right thigh tendon Sunday, when the Packers blew a 17-point lead and lost to the NFL’s most beleaguered team, the Minnesota Vikings.
On Monday, coach Mike Sherman glumly announced that Green will undergo surgery this week and that wide receiver Robert Ferguson will miss up to a month with a torn lateral cruciate ligament in his left knee.
That leaves the Packers without their top two running backs and three of their top receivers heading into a brutal stretch in which they will face Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Minnesota and Philadelphia.
Martz won’t return this season
Rams coach Mike Martz will miss the rest of the season with a bacterial infection of a heart valve that has already sidelined him for two games.
“This is very difficult for me to do,” Martz said. “But I know it’s the right thing to do.”
Martz, who has one year remaining on his contract, expects to be back next season. He’s 56-37 in six seasons with the team, taking them to one Super Bowl and serving as offensive coordinator for the franchise’s only championship in the 1999 season.
Around the league
The Ravens will likely be without linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ed Reed when they face the Steelers Monday. Reed missed Sunday’s loss to the Bears with a high ankle sprain, and Lewis left in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury. … Alex Smith sprained his right knee in San Francisco’s loss to Washington, and the 49ers aren’t certain their rookie franchise quarterback will play against Tampa Bay. … Browns cornerback Gary Baxter will miss the remainder of the season after tearing a chest muscle in Sunday’s loss to Detroit. … The Cowboys waived kicker Jose Cortez, one day after he missed a 29-yard field goal in a loss to the Seahawks. … Panther defensive stars Dan Morgan (shoulder) and Julius Peppers (broken hand) expect to play this weekend against the Vikings. … Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair should start against the Raiders after sitting out a game to rest his sore back.