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http://mmqb.si.com/2015/06/23/junior-seau-rodney-harrison-hall-of-fame-nfl-the-mmqb-100/
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
No. 64: Junior Seau
This summer, the legendary linebacker will be posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ex-teammate Rodney Harrison helps explain why Seau’s life, and his death, contain lessons that every professional athlete, across sports, must understand
By Peter King
Editor’s note: This is part of our summer series, The MMQB 100, counting down the most influential people for the 2015 season.
It’s a strange task, picking the 100 most influential people in the NFL for 2015. Highly subjective, of course. You can make a logical argument for 200 people, and you can logically argue that someone’s 92 is another’s 19. But here’s one we puzzled over: Junior Seau.
He enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, but what business does he have on a list of most influential people in pro football in 2015? A little more than three years ago Seau, 43 years old, killed himself with a gunshot to the chest. He died alone in a house by the Pacific Ocean. After a starry NFL career with San Diego, Miami and New England, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility five months ago. He’ll be enshrined on Aug. 8 in Canton.
We at The MMQB considered him important this year for a few reasons. His story will be told often in the run-up to the Hall of Fame induction, and it’s an important story for players of today to hear—because of his intense passion to be great, because of a ruinous personal streak that prevented him from having a balanced life, because personal and family pressures forced him to have an insatiable desire for money that was impossible to satisfy (a problem any NFL player with a cadre of hangers-on faces), and because he was discovered to have CTE after his death. That’s the brain disease that, posthumously, an increasing number of football players have been found to suffer from.
He’s a beacon. He’s a model, for good (mostly) and for bad. His story is vital.
* * *
Seau (left) and Harrison at the 1999 Pro Bowl. (NFL/WireImage.com)
Among his teammates, Rodney Harrison probably knew Seau best. The two were teammates for nine years in San Diego, and for three more in New England as both of their careers wound down. I’ve known Harrison—both as a player and now as we share work on NBC’s Football Night in America—for almost 20 years. I would bet that, unprompted, he has brought up Seau’s name 50 times over the years, for so many reasons.
Why, I asked Harrison recently, should players and fans, and the architects of the game, think Seau’s legacy is influential in 2015?
“Because,” Harrison began, “he is the benchmark for what every player should aspire to be. And because his life, and the problems he had, is a lesson that every player should learn.”
Here are Harrison’s thoughts on his former teammate…
Seau the player: “Best teammate I ever had, and that’s saying something, because I played with Tom Brady and so many unselfish guys on the Patriots. But ex-players who played with Junior, when we talk about him, we talk about how he impacted all of our lives so much. There is no question that in all my years of football he was the biggest influence on me, on and off the field.
“He instilled work ethic, real work ethic, in me. Junior would party till 2 a.m., then be the first one at the facility at 5 a.m. Never failed. As hard as Tom Brady prepares, he couldn’t touch Junior. No one I have seen could. He was the hardest practice player I’ve ever seen. He’d be diving around, sprinting every play in practice. I’d say to him, ‘Man, save some of that for Sunday. What are you doing?’
He’d just say, ‘I get paid to practice. I play the games for free.’ He just thought practice was so important to how you played every week, and so that’s what I did. One of the greatest things anyone has ever said about me is when I left the Patriots and Bill Belichick was quoted as saying, ‘He’s the hardest practice player I’ve had in all my years of coaching.’ That’s from Junior.”
Seau the warning sign: “Read Ecclesiastes in your Bible. Read how Solomon, a rich man, felt like he was always chasing the wind. He could never be happy. Junior talked about that. No matter what he achieved, no matter how great he played, he always felt empty. He needed to find that balance in his life, and he never did. And he had hangers-on who always wanted things from him. They were always pulling at him. Pull, pull, pull.”
Seau and his legacy: “I heard after he died that he owed Vegas all this money. He had problems with his investments, especially his restaurant in San Diego. What Junior needed to know, and what players today need to know, is it’s gonna end one day. No matter what you achieve, no matter how much fame you achieve and greatness you achieve, those owners aren’t gonna come to you after you’ve retired and are in trouble … those owners aren’t gonna come to you and write you a $10-million check. Junior never could be normal and live a normal life, because he was Junior Seau.
“But with Junior, you have to remember it all. I have to tell you what he told me one time, something that’s been really important to me. He told me, ‘Rodney, it doesn’t matter what you do as a football player. It’s how you impact somebody else’s life.’ And that’s been important to me both before and after I retired.
“How can I not be indebted to Junior Seau, as a football player and as a man? His biggest trait was unselfishness, and how he impacted so many lives.”
* * *
What I’ll never forget about the hours and days after Seau’s death is the tears. How many people in San Diego wept openly? Grown men. His mom just falling to pieces in front of the cameras. A community, grieving for someone who was more than just a great football player, after a shocking suicide.
Did the money do it? In part.
Did the inability to find happiness in all parts of life do it? In part.
Did the massive debt do it? In part.
Did CTE do it? In part.
Did football, and all its great and powerful and starry elements, do it? In part.
Junior Seau, football hero. In death, he is an inspiration and a cautionary tale, and his story needs to be heard by every rising-star athlete in every sport. His meaning, on an off the field, should never go away.
John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated
No. 64: Junior Seau
This summer, the legendary linebacker will be posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ex-teammate Rodney Harrison helps explain why Seau’s life, and his death, contain lessons that every professional athlete, across sports, must understand
By Peter King
Editor’s note: This is part of our summer series, The MMQB 100, counting down the most influential people for the 2015 season.
It’s a strange task, picking the 100 most influential people in the NFL for 2015. Highly subjective, of course. You can make a logical argument for 200 people, and you can logically argue that someone’s 92 is another’s 19. But here’s one we puzzled over: Junior Seau.
He enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, but what business does he have on a list of most influential people in pro football in 2015? A little more than three years ago Seau, 43 years old, killed himself with a gunshot to the chest. He died alone in a house by the Pacific Ocean. After a starry NFL career with San Diego, Miami and New England, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility five months ago. He’ll be enshrined on Aug. 8 in Canton.
We at The MMQB considered him important this year for a few reasons. His story will be told often in the run-up to the Hall of Fame induction, and it’s an important story for players of today to hear—because of his intense passion to be great, because of a ruinous personal streak that prevented him from having a balanced life, because personal and family pressures forced him to have an insatiable desire for money that was impossible to satisfy (a problem any NFL player with a cadre of hangers-on faces), and because he was discovered to have CTE after his death. That’s the brain disease that, posthumously, an increasing number of football players have been found to suffer from.
He’s a beacon. He’s a model, for good (mostly) and for bad. His story is vital.
* * *
Seau (left) and Harrison at the 1999 Pro Bowl. (NFL/WireImage.com)
Among his teammates, Rodney Harrison probably knew Seau best. The two were teammates for nine years in San Diego, and for three more in New England as both of their careers wound down. I’ve known Harrison—both as a player and now as we share work on NBC’s Football Night in America—for almost 20 years. I would bet that, unprompted, he has brought up Seau’s name 50 times over the years, for so many reasons.
Why, I asked Harrison recently, should players and fans, and the architects of the game, think Seau’s legacy is influential in 2015?
“Because,” Harrison began, “he is the benchmark for what every player should aspire to be. And because his life, and the problems he had, is a lesson that every player should learn.”
Here are Harrison’s thoughts on his former teammate…
Seau the player: “Best teammate I ever had, and that’s saying something, because I played with Tom Brady and so many unselfish guys on the Patriots. But ex-players who played with Junior, when we talk about him, we talk about how he impacted all of our lives so much. There is no question that in all my years of football he was the biggest influence on me, on and off the field.
“He instilled work ethic, real work ethic, in me. Junior would party till 2 a.m., then be the first one at the facility at 5 a.m. Never failed. As hard as Tom Brady prepares, he couldn’t touch Junior. No one I have seen could. He was the hardest practice player I’ve ever seen. He’d be diving around, sprinting every play in practice. I’d say to him, ‘Man, save some of that for Sunday. What are you doing?’
He’d just say, ‘I get paid to practice. I play the games for free.’ He just thought practice was so important to how you played every week, and so that’s what I did. One of the greatest things anyone has ever said about me is when I left the Patriots and Bill Belichick was quoted as saying, ‘He’s the hardest practice player I’ve had in all my years of coaching.’ That’s from Junior.”
Seau the warning sign: “Read Ecclesiastes in your Bible. Read how Solomon, a rich man, felt like he was always chasing the wind. He could never be happy. Junior talked about that. No matter what he achieved, no matter how great he played, he always felt empty. He needed to find that balance in his life, and he never did. And he had hangers-on who always wanted things from him. They were always pulling at him. Pull, pull, pull.”
Seau and his legacy: “I heard after he died that he owed Vegas all this money. He had problems with his investments, especially his restaurant in San Diego. What Junior needed to know, and what players today need to know, is it’s gonna end one day. No matter what you achieve, no matter how much fame you achieve and greatness you achieve, those owners aren’t gonna come to you after you’ve retired and are in trouble … those owners aren’t gonna come to you and write you a $10-million check. Junior never could be normal and live a normal life, because he was Junior Seau.
“But with Junior, you have to remember it all. I have to tell you what he told me one time, something that’s been really important to me. He told me, ‘Rodney, it doesn’t matter what you do as a football player. It’s how you impact somebody else’s life.’ And that’s been important to me both before and after I retired.
“How can I not be indebted to Junior Seau, as a football player and as a man? His biggest trait was unselfishness, and how he impacted so many lives.”
* * *
What I’ll never forget about the hours and days after Seau’s death is the tears. How many people in San Diego wept openly? Grown men. His mom just falling to pieces in front of the cameras. A community, grieving for someone who was more than just a great football player, after a shocking suicide.
Did the money do it? In part.
Did the inability to find happiness in all parts of life do it? In part.
Did the massive debt do it? In part.
Did CTE do it? In part.
Did football, and all its great and powerful and starry elements, do it? In part.
Junior Seau, football hero. In death, he is an inspiration and a cautionary tale, and his story needs to be heard by every rising-star athlete in every sport. His meaning, on an off the field, should never go away.
