Strong keeps pluggin’
KIRKLAND, Wash. – Another Seahawks season, another nudge toward life without Mack Strong.
Seahawks coaches have already told the two-time Pro Bowl fullback that Leonard Weaver will be getting more of his plays this season.
“I know this is the year – I’ve had conversations with my coaches – that we are going to try to integrate Leonard, or whoever the fullback is, into things a little bit more,” the 35-year-old Strong said Wednesday, after concluding yet another training camp practice at the beginning of his 15th season with Seattle.
“Those aren’t things that I’m fighting, or I feel bad about or insecure about. Those are things that will be good for the team,” he said.
So the Seahawks are preparing to replace Strong. What else is new?
Seattle signed, drafted or traded for five new fullbacks from 2001 through last season. The Seahawks have even converted college tight ends into would-be replacements: Tony Jackson, drafted from Iowa in 2005 but cut in camp, and Weaver, Strong’s heir apparent who signed as an undrafted free agent that year.
When Strong hears the list, he just laughs.
But this year, the Seahawks haven’t brought in a fullback. And – surprise! – the position is still going Strong four days into the preseason.
Moments after second-year man David Kirtman walked off the field with a trainer Wednesday morning with what a team spokesman said was a broken hand – Kirtman is out indefinitely – Strong was where he’s been since the Seahawks signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Georgia in 1993.
He slammed his shoulder into Pro Bowl linebacker Lofa Tatupu to open a running lane for Shaun Alexander. On the next play, Strong caught a short pass from Matt Hasselbeck, as he has while averaging 25 catches per season since 2002.
What does Strong see when he looks into the faces of his fellow running backs – the youngest of whom, rookie free agent A.J. Harris, was born when Strong was a teenager?
“In all honesty, this is how I feel: I wish I was 10 years younger and I could do more things. Because age is catching up with me,” Strong said. “It took a while, but it is starting to catch up with me a little bit.”
So why still do it? Why still bang helmets and knees and shoulder pads and chests with teammates and opponents for another seven months?
His $870,000 in base pay for this season is a relative pittance in the NFL, but still makes for a fine living for himself, wife Zoe and sons Isaiah and Evan.
He is signed through 2008, when he is scheduled to earn $930,000.
He’s said he’s not still here because he wants the Super Bowl ring that has eluded him.
“I’m coming back because I feel like this team is going to be successful, and I want to be a part of it,” Strong said.
“Who knows how far we can go? I’m past the point of saying, ‘Well, if we don’t make it to the Super Bowl, it’s a failure.’ I don’t believe that. I just love the game. I still love playing the game.
“The time is winding down for me to be able to do it. So I just want to leave it all out here, so to speak.”
He calls training camp a mental grind. He knows he is not as strong or fast as he used to be.
“Every year, those things diminish a little bit,” he said. “So the one thing I have to work on is mentally being sure that I’m focused each and every day I come out here.”
How much longer will Strong fend off tacklers – and the Seahawks’ plans to replace him?
“It really is very much a year-to-year thing,” he said