KIRKLAND — The fragility of second chances has not been lost on a pair of Seattle Seahawks cornerbacks this summer.
Pete Hunter and DeJuan Groce already have endured the pain of life without football, and both players are doing everything in their power not to feel it again.
“It’s cold out there when you’re not playing, when you’re watching every Sunday,” said Hunter, a 27-year-old cornerback who spent most of last season without a team. “That’s what goes through my mind when I get tired: ‘Last year, I didn’t have a job.’ If I’m in training camp and start feeling tired, that’s what pushes me through practice.”
Groce was in a similar state of mind earlier this month.
“The only thing that was really hard was watching the preseason games,” said Groce, who was released by the New Orleans Saints in March and did not get picked up by another team until the Seahawks signed him last week. “That was hard because I’ve never missed a preseason game.”
While the odds are stacked against them — cornerbacks Marcus Trufant, Kelly Jennings and Josh Wilson are all but assured to make the 53-man roster, while Hunter and Groce are battling each other and safety Jordan Babineaux for the fourth cornerback spot — the well-traveled cornerbacks are not giving up hope.
“If you think of the negative, you’ll let yourself go toward those negative thoughts,” said Groce, also 27 and having already made stops in St. Louis and New Orleans. “I just try not to do that.”
That Groce is in an NFL camp is not all that surprising. He has, after all, played 54 games over four seasons since coming into the league as a fourth-round pick of the Rams in the 2003 draft. But the fact that he’s with the Seahawks is a bit of a shock, seeing as how he spent his first three seasons on the other side of the Seattle-St. Louis rivalry.
“Getting to camp and putting on my uniform, it was kind of like: wait, I’m not supposed to even like Seattle,” said Groce, who counts four starts against the Seahawks among his career total of 20.
Groce was a tad bit surprised when his agent told him the Seahawks called for a tryout in June. He had been cut by the Saints two months earlier and was trying to stay in shape while waiting for another opportunity.
He said that Seattle was one of eight teams to express interest, and yet he had to wait another two months before the Seahawks called to bring him to camp and compete for a spot in the secondary.
“I’m just looking at it as an opportunity to help the team out,” Groce said. “They wanted me to come in and help, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m going to do my best to do whatever I can to help this team out.”
Just in case, Groce has a couple business plans on the back burner. He owns an Avis franchise with family members in his native Cleveland, and he’s also started working on a medical recruiting company.
Hunter has not only planned for life after football, but he’s also lived it. After being released by the Cleveland Browns last September, he spent almost the entire regular season away from the game. He went into a mortgage loan business and started training to be a border patrol agent before the NFL came calling again. Depleted by injuries in the secondary, the Seahawks signed Hunter in January, and four days later he was taking the field against the Cowboys for a playoff game at Qwest Field.
Despite the inactivity, and hardly any knowledge of Seattle’s defense, Hunter helped contain a Dallas receiving corps that included Terrell Owens en route to a Seahawks playoff win.
“It’s a tough job,” said Hunter, who spent his first three NFL seasons with the Cowboys. “But you’ve got to be mentally tough in this league.
“I’m still learning. It’s like I’m new this year because I’m learning the system. I only have two games under my belt, and it was in the nickel. So I’m just learning the whole defense.”
While Hunter missed his time away from the game, he’s not scared of what the future may bring.
“Football is what I do, not who I am,” he said. “I love the job that I’m doing, but I went to college to get my education. I have something to fall back on.
“But luckily, I got another chance, and I’m looking forward to it.”
The fact that both Hunter and Groce are back in the league says a lot about their persistence.
“Don’t ever give up hope,” Hunter said. “You’ve got to be able to adapt to whatever life gives you.
“If your playing days seem to be over, you can’t give up. I didn’t sit back and wonder: why am I not playing anymore? I kept pushing, stayed positive, and something good came out of it.”
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