The Seahawks hosted the Inaugural Media Combine at VMAC, with media members, Sea Gals and Blitz competing against each other in six different skill drills.
The first Seahawks.com media combine started off with a bang. Or maybe it was more of a crash, but when Sports Radio 950 KJR's Matt Mikolas, aka, Slickhawk, stumbled, then fell to the turf midway through his 40-yard dash, it was a perfect tone-setter for a day that was a lot more about entertainment and laughs than it was anything remotely resembling the elite athleticism that was on display at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis over the past week.
When all was said and done, a group of local media, three Sea Gals, one mascot and one former Pro Bowl cornerback—fortunately Marcus Trufant took it easy on the rest of the field—participated, not all that impressively, in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, three-cone drill, vertical leap, broad jump and gauntlet drill. Among those throwing to participants in the gauntlet drill was none other than Ring of Honor member Jim Zorn, who was kind enough to go easy on us by dialing back the velocity. Former Seahawk Jordan Babineaux led everyone through the drills, demonstrating how things were done while offering more encouragement than any of us deserved.
The final numbers can be found here, but the day was more about having a good time while also realizing just how incredibly far normal human beings are from professional athletes when it comes to things like running and jumping. For example, the winning media time in the 40-yard dash of 5.19 would have only tied for 15th among offensive linemen at this year’s combine—you know, the group of 300-plus-pound men for whom straight-line speed is of minimal importance.
By the time the day was over, there was one injured back, one wrecked shoe, several falls, and countless laughs and bruised egos.
If humiliating ourselves in front of our peers wasn't enough, a handful of Seahawks like Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner, Bruce Irvin, Justin Britt, Mark Glowinski, DeShawn Shead and Steven Terrell popped into the VMAC's indoor facility to talk a little trash and laugh at our lack of athleticism and grace. Sherman jokingly (or maybe he wasn't joking) set the over-under on muscle pulls at seven, which mercifully appears to have been too high.
In addition to Slickhawk crashing and burning, in a full Seahawks uniform no less, other highlights included 710 ESPN Seattle's Liz Mathews going through drills barefoot, 710 ESPN Seattle's Danny O'Neil participating in a suit and headband, KJR's Dick Fain showing off some impressive speed and agility, and so many goofy faces while people ran. As for me, I'm still walking without a limp several hours later, so for me the day was a success.
Just don't ask how I'm feeling tomorrow.
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Seahawks media members, Sea Gals and Blitz competed against each other at the Inaugural Seahawks.com Media Combine. See how their faces compared to their NFL Combine counterparts in the 40-yard dash.
