A Strong sense of Seahawks pride

DETROIT — He was there when Rick Mirer was the franchise quarterback and the winter their offseason workouts were in Anaheim, Calif. He endured seven straight non-winning seasons and played in three stadiums in four seasons.

Through it all for the Seattle Seahawks, there has been one constant — fullback Mack Strong.

Tomorrow, Strong will play his 186th game with the Seahawks and his most important — Super Bowl XL against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Ford Field, Seattle’s first Super Bowl appearance.

“I think he roomed with Steve Largent. Didn’t Jim Zorn throw his first dump-off pass to Mack?” running back Shaun Alexander joked.

Just as Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis joked during the season that 43-year-old lineman Ray Brown wore a leather helmet as a rookie, Alexander’s chiding is done out of reverence.

That’s what Strong has meant to Seattle for 13 seasons and what he means to Alexander.

Since joining the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 1993, Strong has 206 carries, 181 receptions and 10 touchdowns. But blocking is his thing. Period.

“You have to be nuts to do what I do,” Strong said. “It’s not necessarily a glamorous position. You have to really love the game because most guys don’t want to play it.”

Strong was one of those guys when he joined Seattle. Following a season on the practice squad, he played in eight games in 1994 and carried 27 times. Strong had designs on being a running back. But his position coach, Clarence Shelmon, squashed those hopes.

“He said, ’You’re a fullback, not a running back,’ ” Strong recalled. “I appreciated him being honest because it kept me from having expectations that weren’t real.”

During the next six seasons (1995-2000), Strong had a combined 36 carries and was a part-time starter. Since 2001, Strong has played in every game and averaged 21.6 carries a season.

“Mack is about my favorite player of all time,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. “The Mack Strongs of the world make it worth my while to coach and teach. He does all the dirty work. He’s the lead blocker most every play for Shaun. We have drafted in the last few years a couple guys to kind of replace Mack because at some point, everybody’s career ends. But I’ll be darn, we can’t do it.

“This year, he was about as good as you can be at that position.”

Strong earned his first Pro Bowl selection this season.

“Mack’s our sixth offensive lineman,” right guard Chris Gray said. “He’ll put his helmet into a guy’s chest and put them on their back.”

On the Seahawks’ road to the Super Bowl this season, one of Strong’s highlights was a career-best 32-yard run against the Redskins in the NFC Divisional round. But he takes the most pride in Alexander’s 1,880 yards and 27 rushing touchdowns in the regular season.

“With the exception of scoring a touchdown, it’s the next-best thing to do,” Strong said. “I don’t get the chance to run or catch the ball that often, but when I’m able to make a block and I see Shaun get in there, I take a lot of pride in that. I feel like I’ve had a hand in it.”

Strong is also taking pride in Seattle being enamored with football again. As the longest-tenured Seahawks player, he remembers the lean years. In February 1996, then-owner Ken Behring moved the team to Anaheim. The players worked out in the old Los Angeles Rams facility and the front office set up shop at a Residence Inn in suburban Seattle. Order eventually was restored when the league intervened, forcing the Seahawks back to Seattle. A year later, billionaire Paul Allen purchased the team.

“I definitely thought about [leaving the Seahawks],” Strong said of those turbulent years. “When those contract issues came up and being a fullback and maybe feeling like I wasn’t getting paid enough or wasn’t appreciated enough, I wanted to look at other places. But at the end of the day, Seattle was the best situation.”

And a win against the Steelers would be the best ending for Strong.

“We’ve accomplished a lot of never-been-done goals this season, but there is still one more thing to accomplish,” he said. “You don’t get to the Super Bowl by accident. It’s not by chance and we just didn’t get lucky. We’re a good football team and we’ve been a good team for awhile. What people saw this year is what we’re capable of when everybody at once decides to play at a high level.”