How close have you been to the NFL? (offseason time waster)

I played basketball against James Donaldson in college who went on to play quite a number of years for the Dallas Mavericks......................oh wait, wrong sport. Doh! :34853_doh:


Played TE and DT in high school but obviously excelled far more at hoops (small college ball for 4 years).

This post.

This is the closest I have got to the NFL.

I played powder puff in high school does that count? :mrgreen:

Oh yeah...I went on a blind date with a guy who used to play in the NFL though I can't recall which team. He had quit playing pro ball when his daughter was born and his wife left him for wanting to spend more time with the family instead of making the big bucks. He was a nice guy, but he was also the size of my fridge and dwarfed me.

My band Soulfish played a couple tunes with Craig Terrill at the Seahawkers banquet, probably 5 years back. Also, my Dad is good friends w/Lloyd Trufant, since way way back.

In 2011 I spent my vacations with my family in Rio de Janeiro, grandmather's house. So I went to the samba schools parade at Sapucaí. So, during the event, I saw Tom Brady And Gisele in the private place, just for 2 minutes Hahaha

Got to play catch with Largent and Zorn back in the early 80's at a friends family bbq. Work with a guy who was on the practice squad with the Cowboys in the 70's, got a call up to the roster and blew out his knee during training camp, was never the same after. Went to school with Chris Chandler in Everett, he was 4 yrs ahead of me so senior when I was a frosh. I remember he was one of the nicer jocks at the school, always had a kind word for everyone, his younger bro was pretty cool as well. I also worked with a guy in Louisianna years back in a sales job, shadowed him for training for 2 weeks. He played for Green Bay for a few years as the #3 behind Favre. Guy was nice enough, but had a terrible gambling habit that had netted him a lost house and family when it was all said and done, kinda sad.

Played in High School, played and successfully blocked Curt Marsh when he was at Snohomish, I was a WR and the block opened a hole fior a 40 yd run. Jerry McClain was also on that team and a running back named Chris Utt. Those Snohomish teams were perrenial State Champs or in the hunt back then. Curt as many know had a pretty good NFL career McClain was picked up by the Rams but never really made it from my understanding.

Oh I made the block and Marsh being only around the high 280's I'm guessing flattened me and dislocated my finger, my block was more of getting in the way of a semi truck with a Volkswagon Beetle, I got in his way to slow him down for the RB to grab the corner and go. I was 5'4' and about 120 back then, really small for my age. Got lots of Kudos in film on Monday from the game and a lot of good natured ribbing as well.

I played college football (Guard) And I coach a High School team.

Me and 2 friends took the ride from NYC to Philly for the epic Monday Night game against the Eagles in 2005. Philly fans are no joke. I remember that when the Seahawks scored a TD on the opening drive (think it was Hass to Engram), me and my friends got up and started cheering. The entire section of fans got up and started SCREAMING at us to "sit the F down!" The exact quote I'll always remember was "I don't know where you **** think you are but it definitely ain't Seattle!" That did not deter us though and by half time, with the game already out of reach, Eagles fans were coming up to us congratulating us as they headed to an early exit. We crushed their spirits that night and it was beautiful. Most fans stayed for Reggie White's induction into the Eagles Hall of Fame at halftime but by the 2nd have it was a ghost town. With all the snow falling and what not it was pretty surreal. Best quote is a drunken Eagles fan looking up at the sky and saying "sorry you had to witness this Reggie. We love you!" as his friend helps walk him down the stairs and to the exit haha

Anyway, my brush with the NFL came afterwards. On the train ride back me and my friends were riding across from Marquis Weeks' (former practice squad RB) mother and his brothers. They were talking to us about getting to meet some of the other players parents, specifically made note of the fact that Isaiah Kacyvenski's dad was a great person, and wanted my friend to make one of the t-shirts he had on (my friend made "Seahawks jerseys" out of plain white tee's. Did all the artwork and made it look almost identical to the real jerseys. They were pretty sick actually and Weeks' mom wanted one). I was so caught up in the conversation that we missed our stop. Little did we know that the next stop was deep in the hood in Philly. One of Weeks' brothers told us to watch out because some other guys that had been sitting by us on the train had a knife on them. We were about to miss our Greyhound bus back to NYC since we missed our stop, but Weeks' mother called Greyhound trying to get them to wait for just a few minutes, since we were going to take a cab.

Then, some guy who is with his girlfriend comes over and tells us that he's actually calling a cab service now and he'd order two cabs. As we're waiting, he notices my Seahawks gear and says "you a big Seahawks fan?" I said yeah and then he started trying to quiz me on the team. "Who was the running back before Shaun Alexander?", some pretty basic stuff. Then he asked me if I knew who that woman I was talking to was and I said yeah, Marquis Weeks' mom. He seemed impressed and then told me that he was Bill Chapin, director of marketing at the time for the Hawks. We ended up having a really good chat about the Hawks and life in general. He left the Hawks to work for the Sounders a few years ago in the same role, but now he's working in Kansas City with a pretty sick job title. VP of Operations maybe? Either way, he was a pretty cool dude and I'm glad that success has found him. He did say that if I ever needed help getting an internship with the Hawks or anything like that that he'd help me out. Guess it's too late now though. Still, it was a great experience. To make matters even better, when the first cab arrived he and his girlfriend insisted that we take the cab because we were going to be late for our bus. We still were and ended up sleeping in a crappy Philly Greyhound station over night with a bunch of methheads but hey, that's life sometimes. It was worth it getting to talk to all these people. No regrets.

I've also got a friend who I went to Wazzu with who worked in community outreach for the Hawks. Has a ton of pictures from training camp and events with a bunch of Hawks players. Really cool girl and some of the pictures are fantastic. She got hired by the Ravens prior to last season and has pictures with the Lombardi trophy, all of the Ravens, at the parade, etc. Talk about living a charmed existance! Some people just have magnetic laps. She's one of the good ones though so it's pretty cool to see.

That's it for me though. Unless someday I'm the one with the magnetic lap and get to replace Tony Ventrella when he hangs up the mic. Until then, it's .Net for life!

Played on my 9th grade team.

I did go to high school with Jason Scukanec, now a radio host here in Portland. His NFL stint was pretty short due to injuries I guess. I wouldn't say I knew him well though, we had a few classes together.

I played in high school, and was pretty good. I went to a smaller school so I didn't get much publicity. I took a golf class when I was at EWU and the instructor was the receivers coach who remembered me from high school and asked me to walk on. By that time I was already two years into college, married, with a kid ... and totally out of shape. That was as close as it got for me, but the could-shoulda part of me says I could have played in the Pac 10 if given the chance.

My closest run-in with the NFL was while I was working at Safeway in Cheney during training camp. I was walking through the aisles and I saw Mike Holmgren browsing through the magazines. I didn't have the guts to talk to him - didn't even do my job and ask if I could help him find anything. I figured he had enough people bugging him. That's my claim to fame.

played in HS for a year before realizing that the structure of my knees meant I probably would have been on crutches the rest of my life if i'd kept playing

so promptly gave it up for weed and skateboarding.

played a couple years of JC ball.. my family was very close to Michael Jacksons family, use to do BBQ's and holidays with them, this was when we were younger.... lost touch with him over the years , but it was cool to see him make it to the NFL and my beloved Seahawks...IMO one of our better linebackers over the years.. i remember a game where he got so pissed , he walked over to the bench and punched it and the bench went flying.. dude was passionate..

A good friend was signed by and played for the Oakland Invaders of the USFL in '84. When that went defunct he was picked up by the Oakland Raiders but suffered a career ending knee injury early in training camp.

Played a couple years of high school football, and the coaches kept trying to convert me to an offensive lineman (in Wisconsin.) I was 6'2, 180 lbs at the time, and I wasn't a huge fan of going up against 300 lb farmboys or being told I needed to add weight.

Sarlacc83":8t706xw8 said:

Played a couple years of high school football, and the coaches kept trying to convert me to an offensive lineman (in Wisconsin.) I was 6'2, 180 lbs at the time, and I wasn't a huge fan of going up against 300 lb farmboys or being told I needed to add weight.

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Then perhaps you should have had some other skills, Edward Stonehands. :mrgreen: :thirishdrinkers:

My HS didn't offer football, and I grew up with no home team (from Guam). Just really got into football a few years ago, and really into it this year. Love rooting for the Hawks and learning about this game. Makes me wish my HS did offer football, I probably would have been much better at it than basketball (what I did play).

Both my little brothers were starting QB's in college. One at NAU , the other at Portland State. One was good enough to be a back up witht the Cards, Broncos and practice squad with the Titans.

Spent a month working at training camp in Cheney in 03(?) The year of the "We want the ball and we're going to score!" The most surreal moment of which (that I'll tell you about) was singing Happy Birthday next to Holmgren one morning. Then I interviewed a few years later with the team for a full time scouting internship that I obviously didn't get.

Played in high school, got recruited by Bosie St and then the coaches all changed so I was left hanging. I think the only NFL guy I played against Rien Long, who went to WSU and the Titans and was absolutely impossible to block. Dude was like 6'8" with even longer arms.

I playrf AAU basketball in middle school against Aman Gordon and Teyo Johnson, they are both still active in pro football I think. Teyo in the CFL according to Google and Aman was last with KC. THOSE were not fair fights...

Fun thread. I played in HS; started at RT my senior year; played against two future NFL'ers.

Steve Martin [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/player/stevemartin/2501891/profile[/urltargetblank] DL (drafted by Colts, played 10 years for 7 teams). He was like a steamroller with a nitrous-fueled engine in HS. He played at Jefferson City, which was one of those schools that had the same head coach for 40+ years and they were always a threat to win the state championship. In fact, the coach's name was Pete Adkins, his record was 405-60, and he won 8 championships. My junior year we went to Jeff City for the 2nd round of the state playoffs. They killed us. I was 2nd string that year and watching Martin from the sidelines made me fear for our O linemen. He was scary big, scary fast, and just plain scary. Adkins retired two years later, after two undefeated championship seasons.

Isaac Byrd [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/player/isaacbyrd/2499957/profile[/urltargetblank] WR (drafted by the Tennessee Oilers, started in SB XXXIV, played 6 seasons) In HS, he played QB like Randall Cunningham and was the Missouri HS player of the year. In the last game I ever played, 1st round of the state playoffs, he single-handedly demolished us. In a torrential downpour, on a field 3 inches deep with mud, he somehow was completely unaffected by the conditions. Everybody else was slogging around, barely able to take a few steps without falling on their asses, and he just sprinted and bounded around that quagmire of a field like he was a gazelle on the high plains. It was impressive... and demoralizing.

I had the privilege of conducting a long phone interview with Dan Devine in 1996. He was Mizzou's HC in the '60s, Notre Dame's in the '70s, and the Packers' HC for 3 years in between. While his NFL tenure wasn't much to write home about, he won a national championship with the Irish. The film "Rudy" had debuted a few years before our talk and he got a bemused chuckle out of being portrayed as "the heavy." He said that the really dramatic moments that involved him, like the players laying their jerseys on his desk, never happened or were imaginatively reworked. He was just a coach doing his job, basically, but the movie needed one last obstacle between Rudy and the playing field, so it made Devine the bad guy. lol

I also worked at the Seattle ad firm that handled the Seahawks account. We did the Eugene Levy devil commercials. I was just a computer monkey doing print layouts, but I got to enjoy many smoke-break discussions on behind-the-scenes Seahawk bidniss.