When opportunity knocks

  • By Scott M. Johnson / Herald Writer
  • Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:00pm
  • Sports

KIRKLAND – The low point in Joe Tafoya’s professional football career came not from a rejection, but from an opportunity.

Tafoya was sitting at home after being released by four different NFL teams when he got a call from the representative of another league.

“He was like: ‘We’ve been keeping an eye on you. We want you to come out and play in the Arena League,’” Tafoya recalled Wednesday. “I don’t have anything against the Arena League, and I don’t think badly of those guys, but I felt like that was too much of a step down for me.

“That just motivated the hell out of me. The same day I went to the weight room.”

Apparently, it paid off. Not only did Tafoya get back into the NFL, he found himself getting significant playing time for a team that would go to the Super Bowl.

Like many of his Seattle Seahawks teammates, Tafoya has spent part of this week reveling in how far he has come.

“Ever since you’re a kid playing on the street, this is what you imagine doing,” said Tafoya, who was cut by three different teams between August 2004 and last March. “Right now I’m at the height of (football), whereas last year I was sitting at home at the low point.”

Eleven players currently on Seattle’s roster have been cut at some point after their rookie years. Wide receiver Bobby Engram is the most notable, having been released by the Chicago Bears in a salary-cap-related move in 2001. Punt returner Peter Warrick also made headlines when he was cut in that the former first-round draft pick requested his own release from the Cincinnati Bengals last August.

But most of the players have been told at some point in their careers that they just weren’t good enough for the NFL.

“It doesn’t matter what you do in life, you always have the opportunity to get where you want to be,” said cornerback Kelly Herndon, who was cut by two different teams after three consecutive training camps before hooking up with the Denver Broncos in 2001. “If you want to achieve your dream, just keep working hard at it. No matter what you do, you can get to where you want to get.”

Unlike Tafoya, Herndon doesn’t remember a low point in his professional football career. He recalls having a good summer in NFL Europe in 2000 before getting cut by the 49ers for the second time in August.

“I was going against Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens in practice,” Herndon said of San Francisco’s training camp, “and I was like: ‘Man, these are the best receivers in the game.’ All I could do was get better. I always had the positive thoughts. That’s just the way I think.”

Positive thoughts also carried defensive lineman Rodney Bailey, who spent his first three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers – Seattle’s Super Bowl opponent – before spending last season on New England’s injured reserve. The Patriots gave up on Bailey after training camp last September, and he spent 11 days unemployed before the Seahawks signed him shortly after their regular-season opener.

“We’ve all been through different types of adversity,” he said. “I really believe in taking things one step at a time, one day at a time, and waking up with a good attitude every day.”

When it comes to peak-to-valley, feel-good stories, Seahawks safety Marquand Manuel has the most inspiring. The Bengals gave up on him after their 2004 training camp, and Seattle signed him because it was desperate for special teams players. Manuel spent the 2004 season on the Seahawks’ coverage units before getting his opportunity three months ago.

When starting free safety Ken Hamlin suffered brain injuries in an October incident at Pioneer Square, Manuel was unexpectedly thrust into the starting lineup and never missed a step. The Seahawks have won 11 of 12 games with Manuel as the starter, and now he’s on his way to the Super Bowl.

“That’s the biggest thing I thought about after (Sunday’s NFC championship) game: everything I went through to get here,” he said Wednesday. “The whole trial that I’ve been going through. I’m not saying it’s all been bad, but it’s been one long trial.

“I just kept working hard. I just kept working at it, and now I’m part of a unit that’s finally winning.”

Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren admitted last week that he wasn’t even sure if Manuel could make it as an NFL starter.

“And now all of a sudden he’s our starting safety, directing traffic back there and changing things, and he’s had a phenomenal season,” Holmgren said eight days ago. “I’ll never forget that. (Not even) when I’m in my nursing home porch in my rocker.”

If anything is to be learned from the 11 Seahawks who have overcome being cut, it’s that the dream never dies.

“Dreams do come true,” Manuel said. “You’ve got to keep working hard because you never know when your opportunity will come.”

Tafoya, having spurned the Arena League for another shot at the NFL, knows that better than anyone.

“There’s hope,” he said. “You can still reach the pinnacle, no matter how far down you are. You’ve just got to want it.”

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