CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chris Gray is old. This is apparent by his flecks of gray hair and the bio that shows he celebrated his 37th birthday in June.
Gray is also sore, although that’s not as apparent upon first sight. Really sore, in fact.
“I’m achy all over,” the Seattle Seahawks’ veteran offensive lineman said last week, after taking a day of practice off to heal. “My knees ache, my elbows ache, my shoulders.
“You should come home with me. When I walk in my house, I go straight to the medication. That’s pretty much the whole season.”
Needless to say, Gray could use a weekend off. But it won’t be this weekend.
As long as the Seahawks have a mathematical chance of improving their playoff standing, coach Mike Holmgren is going to keep pushing toward that goal. So when the NFC West champion Seahawks face the Carolina Panthers today, there won’t be any resting of starters.
Seattle (9-4) still has a remote chance of catching one or both of the top two seeds in the NFC, but only if things fall just right. So there will be no rest for the weary.
And no rest for the old, which comes as a slight disappointment to Gray.
“Going into the playoffs fresh, that would be ideal,” he said last week. “It’s a long season, with all the games and practice. (Rest) makes a difference for someone like me.”
Holmgren was adamant all last week about not giving his starters time off in today’s game. He opened his Wednesday press conference by telling reporters: “Before the questions come, nothing changes in our approach to the game. No one’s resting.”
With the remote possibility of catching NFC No. 2 seed Green Bay, or even top seed Dallas, the Seahawks don’t want to take any chances of missing out on an opportunity to get a first-round bye.
“For us, the biggest thing is that we still have a shot at getting the first-round bye,” Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander said. “Of course, we know that Dallas or Green Bay has to lose more games in the next three weeks then they have all year. However, anything is possible. So for us, this game is all business, and we’re taking it serious.”
The Seahawks trail Green Bay (11-2) by two games in the battle for the No. 2 seed, meaning it would take three Seahawks wins and two Packers losses, or two Seahawks wins and three Packers losses, for Seattle to get the bye.
Mathematically, Seattle could also catch No. 1 seed Dallas (12-1) if the Cowboys lose their final three games and the Seahawks win all three of theirs. Under that scenario, the two teams would have identical 12-4 records, but Dallas would have one more loss in conference games.
Seattle has already clinched a fourth consecutive NFC West title, meaning the Seahawks will host their first playoff game. As the No. 3 seed in the NFC — or the No. 4 seed, if they drop two games on No. 4 Tampa Bay — Seattle would host a game in the wild-card round during the weekend of Jan. 5 and 6.
It’s likely that Seattle could face a decision in the next week or two, when the bye is no longer possible, as to whether to rest some starters. Gray would love to take a few snaps off, and veteran left tackle Walter Jones has been nursing sore shoulders and a tender knee for most of the season.
“If it’s not going to affect your positioning as far as playoff seeding and all that, I say give those guys a rest,” middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. “But everybody else should play. You can’t take a step back at this point in the season.
“With those guys, they’re veterans. They know their jobs.”
The Seahawks rested several starters in the 2005 regular-season finale, having already wrapped up homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Seattle lost that season-ending game to the Packers, snapping an 11-game winning streak.
Tatupu doesn’t want to close out this regular season with a similar feeling.
“We’re on a little roll here, and I want to keep the momentum going,” he said. “In 2005, we took time off, and I didn’t like going into the playoffs with a loss.”
Defensive tackle Rocky Bernard, who is also battling some soreness in a tender groin muscle, could use the rest but knows that the better option is to continue to pushing through the pain.
“If you keep playing every week, every week, then you take some time off, your game gets out of synch,” Bernard said. “So I’d rather just keep playing.
“If I get the rest, it’s cool. But I think we should play.”
And if Gray gets some time off before the end of the regular season?
“That would be unbelievable,” he said.
But he’s not counting on it.
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