KIRKLAND – Julian Peterson had grown tired of watching Super Bowls from his San Francisco-area home. As he watched the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers do battle last February, he started to get this feeling that his NFL career might pass him by without ever having the chance to perform on the game’s biggest stage.
Having already decided that he’d had enough of the San Francisco 49ers’ constant rebuilding, the 27-year-old Peterson had a pretty good idea of where he might want to go next.
“You saw (the Seahawks) going to the Super Bowl and heading the right direction. That’s where I was at at one time, and it just went all downhill,” Peterson said. “I wasn’t ready for the rebuilding project again. I’ve done that.”
Peterson is one of two new Seahawks seeking greener pastures after being part of franchises on the decline. He and former Minnesota Vikings receiver Nate Burleson know all too well that disappointment runs deeper than a loss in the Super Bowl.
Just a chance to play in a Super Bowl was enough motivation for both players to sign with the Seahawks.
“When you talk about the type of organization they have here,” Burleson said, “it really wasn’t a hard decision to make.”
Peterson, a linebacker who had played six years in San Francisco, has been to two Pro Bowls and was considered the heart and soul of the 49ers’ defense. While he loved playing in San Francisco, he wanted more.
“Individual goals are fine and dandy, but the ultimate goal is winning as a team,” he said. “That’s what I’ve always been playing for.
“In Pee Wee leagues, high school and college, I’ve never won the big game. I might have won MVP honors myself, but who remembers that if you don’t get the first-place trophy? That’s all I want to worry about now, and that’s why I came to a team that has a good chance to win that trophy.”
When Peterson arrived in San Francisco as the 16th overall pick in the 2000 draft, he was joining a once-proud franchise that was coming off its first losing season in 17 years. He helped slowly build the 49ers back into a playoff contender before the departures of players like Terrell Owens and Jeff Garcia led to another drought during the Dennis Erickson era.
Peterson wasn’t overly excited about going through another rebuilding process, so he knew it was time to move on.
He said he actually saw the writing on the wall midway through last season, when the 49ers started trading away veterans like linebacker Jamie Winborn, defensive end John Engelberger and quarterback Tim Rattay.
“They traded away a lot of good talent that could have given us a chance to win at that particular time,” he said. “At the time, the coach (Mike Nolan) was saying, ‘We’re trying to win now; we’re not in a rebuilding process.’
“Well, all those trades let me know that they were contradicting themselves. You are rebuilding. You might not say it, but you really are. I just had to get out of there.”
Burleson didn’t have to go through as many losses, but he saw his franchise fall almost as far.
After helping lead the Vikings from 6-10 to 9-7 in 2003, and catching a career-high 68 passes during an 8-8 season in 2004, Burleson watched his organization come apart at the seams in 2005.
First, there was the high-profile, year-long suspension of running back Onterrio Smith, who got caught with a contraption known as The Whizzinator last May. In October came the so-called “Love Boat Scandal,” in which four players were charged with inappropriate behavior on a rented boat. Pro Bowl quarterback Daunte Culpepper suffered a season-ending knee injury a few weeks later.
By the end of the 9-7 season, head coach Mike Tice had been fired and Culpepper complained his way out of town.
Burleson, who came to the Seahawks as a restricted free agent, is looking forward to a season with more football headlines and less off-the-field news.
“That comes and goes – with good teams and bad teams,” Burleson said. “For a while, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t have any problems. And then some things were thrown out of proportion, and then there were some players who kind of tarnished their names a little bit.
“When it comes right down to it, as long as you have an organization that truly backs the players and supports the athletes they bring in, everything’s going to be OK.”
Peterson and Burleson feel that support in Seattle.
And they feel something else, too: the pull of Super Bowl possibilities.
“I’m not going to be playing for another 10 years,” Peterson said. “I need someone who has an opportunity to play in the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl.”
Peterson would far rather compete in a Super Bowl than watch another one from a couch in San Francisco.
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