Mack Strong calls it a career after neck injury
Monday was expected to be devoted to rehashing everything that went wrong during the Seahawks' 21-0 setback to the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday, but the focus instead was on Mack Strong.
The veteran fullback has played his final down for the team -- after 15 seasons, countless lead blocks and a career full of memories.
Against the Steelers, Strong, 36, herniated a disc in his neck that was pinching on his spinal cord. The injury was originally called a stinger Sunday.
"It was a lot more severe than that," Strong said.
Strong said he is grateful that he will not need surgery, but he made it clear that he also doesn't need to inflect any more punishment on his body.
"To me, it's a no-brainer. I've given every ounce inside of me to football," said Strong, who was forced to pause and gather his emotions twice while discussing the sudden end to his improbable career and the importance of life after football with his wife, Zoe, and their two children.
"I have no regrets. It's time to move on to bigger and better things."
Strong has played with and through a medical journal of injuries since joining the Seahawks in 1993 as an undrafted rookie out of Georgia. Stingers. Concussions. Strains. Sprains. Bruises. Bumps.
"I'm a fullback," Strong said with a chuckle. "That kind of goes with the territory. That's just kind of the way things are. You're always going to have some kind of pain or injury that you've got to push through."
In recent years, teammates have kidded Strong about being two inches shorter than he was when he entered the league because of all the linebackers he has slammed into while lead blocking for a succession of 1,000-yard rushers -- Chris Warren, Ricky Watters and now Shaun Alexander.
Since joining the league in 1993, he has carried the ball just 230 times for 899 yards and five touchdowns. His longest run from scrimmage was 21 yards in 2003. He also caught 218 passes for 1,456 yards and 10 touchdowns. But statistics don't reflect the important role he played clearing holes for the Seahawks top rushers.
When Strong woke up at the team hotel in Pittsburgh on Sunday morning, that's when he first sensed that something wasn't right.
"I felt something like maybe I had a little crick in the neck, and maybe a little tingling in my arm," Strong said.
"But I'd felt that before, so I didn't think anything about it."
He played in the game anyway. One collision, on a play that appeared as normal as any of the thousands in his career, left him with a burning sensation in his arms and legs.
"Even on film, it doesn't look like anything happened," Strong said. "But I knew right away -- this is something different, I've never felt this before."
During the plane ride back from Pittsburgh on Sunday night and then when he woke up Monday morning Strong said, "I kind of felt it in my gut that this was something significant. It wasn't just like any other ding or injury that I've gotten before in my career."
Additional tests performed Monday confirmed what Strong had sensed.
"I'm just very grateful I got to play as long as I did," he said.
With Strong's abrupt -- and unexpected -- absence from the offense, Leonard Weaver becomes the starting fullback. Ready, or not.
Bad Surprise for Seahawks ....Mack Strong calls it a career after neck injury
Bad Surprise for Seahawks ....Mack Strong calls it a career after neck injury
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