Seahawks rookie Orlando Huff realizes his NFL dream

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

KIRKLAND – Orlando Huff knew his NFL dream would be realized.

He knew it even after Arizona State University had to rescind his scholarship because his high school grades weren’t good enough to qualify him by NCAA standards.

He knew it even while attending a junior college in the eastern Arizona desert, seemingly hidden from the eyes of big-school recruiters.

He knew it even when he was working a minimum wage job in Fresno, Calif., detailing Cadillacs so that he could make enough money to pay a year’s tuition at Fresno State.

He knew it because Janice Huff said so. She promised Orlando he could do anything he wanted, as long as he put his mind to it. And sometimes mother knows best.

Now Orlando Huff is living his dream, participating in his first NFL minicamp after the Seattle Seahawks drafted him in the fourth round of the April draft.

“In my heart, I knew I’d get to this point,” said Huff, a rookie linebacker from Fresno State. “It was just a matter of when.

“When you have a gift and know you have it, it’s all about timing. Some people are patient enough to wait until it’s time, and some people are not. That’s the difference between somebody who achieves and somebody who doesn’t. I stayed patient.”

Huff’s trip to the NFL took some detours, no doubt. But he’s made it, just like he knew he would.

Janice Huff first realized it was his destiny when Orlando was in the sixth grade. Her sister, Shirley Coats, told him he would one day play professional football. Coats died of cancer a few days later.

“I always told him,” Janice Huff said, ” ‘If football is what you want, go capture it.’”

Janice’s word is like gold in the Huff household. She raised three boys on her own after divorcing her husband and moving the family to Columbus, Ohio, when Orlando was 4. After graduating from Ohio State University, Janice worked a myriad of different jobs to support the family.

“All I knew was, I wasn’t going to be labeled as a single parent with bad children,” Janice Huff said. “Even though the father’s not in the picture, that doesn’t give a home the right to be dysfunctional.”

She exposed her sons to different parts of the city. She had them bussed to better schools. Janice Huff made sure her three sons got the best of everything.

“When people realize there’s more out there, they fight and try to get more,” Orlando said. “That’s what my mom instilled in us, that there’s better things out there.”

Eventually, the family moved west, to Upland, Calif., a town 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles. All three boys (Orlando is the middle son, between Demetrist and Jarvis) started playing junior football, and quickly became all-stars.

Orlando chased his dream through high school and college, even though his academic woes often got in the way. His high school grades weren’t high enough for NCAA standards, so Huff spent his first two years at Eastern Arizona Junior College in Thatcher, Ariz.

Huff earned all-conference honors in football, but his grades continued to suffer. He eventually earned a scholarship to Fresno State, but had to sit out a year to become eligible. He paid for school by detailing cars, then got his grades in order in time for the 1999 football season. By the time his two years at Fresno State were over, Huff had amassed 191 tackles and been named All-Western Athletic Conference twice. By all accounts, he was a model athlete.

“Orlando did what he had to do,” Fresno State coach Pat Hill said. “He’s a very low maintenance guy. You never had to worry about Orlando.”

Huff is currently three classes from earning his sociology degree at Fresno, something he intends to continue to pursue next spring.

His indoctrination into the NFL will take some time. Huff has already described the Seahawks’ playbook as looking like “the Yellow Pages,” but the coaches like his potential. He’ll probably spend this season solely on special teams, but Huff has the ability to eventually play both inside and outside in Seattle’s defensive scheme.

Sometime this summer, Huff expects to sign his first NFL contract. As a fourth-round pick, he can expect a signing bonus of more than $250,000. He’s already earmarked at least part of that to go toward a house for his mother.

“She’ll be taken care of, because I just want what’s best for her,” Huff said. “Our family came a long way, and now we’re just finally starting to reap the benefits.”

Demetrist Huff, the oldest son, qualified for the 1999 NCAA wrestling tournament and hopes to eventually get on to the freestyle circuit. Younger brother Jarvis, 19, is a freshman free safety who plans to transfer to El Camino College next fall. He eventually wants to join Orlando in the NFL one day.

“I’m going to play against him,” Jarvis Huff said. “He’s my role model right now. I see him and what he’s doing, and he makes me strive to do the same things.”

Of course, the Huff family picture is not complete without Dad. Malcolm Huff drifted in and out of his sons’ lives throughout their childhood. They prefer not to talk about him now.

“My mom was the sole provider, and he wasn’t really a factor,” Orlando said. “But he’s paying the price now.”

Paying the price?

“It’s something he could have had,” Orlando explained. “It’s like a diamond in the rough. You judge a book by the outside cover, you never know what kind of book you have. He didn’t know what he had in his sons.”

With the help of a persevering mother, the Huff boys have done pretty well for themselves. And Orlando has achieved his dream.

Notes: Rookie wide receiver Koren Robinson has begun running patterns and catching passes, but he won’t take begin practicing full tilt until training camp opens July 29. “It’s just frustrating standing on the sideline watching everyone else go full speed,” Robinson said. … The Seahawks signed wide receiver Todd Floyd, who spent the past two summers playing in NFL Europe. Floyd, a 27-year-old UNLV product, is 6-foot-3, 197 pounds.