A day after asking Lofa Tatupu to restructure his contract, the Seahawks and the Pro Bowl linebacker have “mutually parted ways” the team announced.
By “mutually parted ways” the team means: We asked him to take a pay cut, he said no, so now we’re releasing him.
This is just another reminder of how cutthroat the NFL can be, when a three-time Pro Bowler and longtime captain can become expendable over the course of a couple of years. But given Tatupu’s injury struggles in recent years and the Seahawks’ plan to get younger (see Hasselbeck, Matt) the move also makes some sense. The move also serves as a reminder that Pete Carroll isn’t going to favor or show loyalty to his old USC players.
Tatupu started all 16 games last season, a testament to his incredible toughness, but he was not the same player he was when he made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons. By the end of last year, he was barely practicing, and he needed surgery on both knees in the offseason. He missed 11 games in 2009, one because of a hamstring injury and the final 10 games with a torn pectoral muscle. In 2008 he fought through broken thumb and a knee injury, again playing through the injuries, but he fell off the form that made him a Pro Bowler from 2005-2007.
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