Seau back with Patriots
It seems improbable that a 39-year-old who hasn’t played football for more than nine months could go from the sunny comforts of the beach to the cold brutality of an NFL field in a matter of days. But then, extraordinary feats are nothing new to Junior Seau.
The Patriots, decimated by injuries at linebacker, officially signed the 12-time Pro Bowl today, bringing him back for a 19th NFL season and his third with the Patriots. To make room for Seau on the 53-man roster, the Patriots placed linebacker Adalius Thomas (broken right forearm) on injured reserve, ending his season.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick indicated during his morning press conference that Seau will travel with the team to Seattle for Sunday’s game, and while he didn’t say the linebacker would play against the Seahawks, he didn’t rule it out, either.
“Junior hasn’t even practiced yet, so we’ll see how it goes,” Belichick said this morning. “I’m not saying he can or can’t, but we’ll take a look at it in practice and make a determination going into the game.”
Seau was present at practice this afternoon, wearing No. 55 and stretching with fellow veterans Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, and Larry Izzo.
Belichick joked that while he was quizzing certain players on the Seahawks’ tendencies, he had to ask Seau the following question: Who are we playing? But Belichick made it clear that he has a great amount of respect for Seau, who, while spending much of his free time surfing the beaches of Southern California, has remained in outstanding physical condition.
“That’s part of the whole makeup of Junior that is so phenomenal,” Belichick said. “He is ready to play football. He’s a football player. You look ‘football player’ up in the dictionary and Junior Seau, Troy Brown, those are the guys who define it — in every sense of the word.
“He went from the surfboard to the football field. He probably makes that transition better than any player that’s ever played.”
Seau, who arrived in the Boston area late yesterday afternoon after Belichick and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli called him Wednesday night, said he’s excited to be back with New England, though he admitted he is uncertain how much he might contribute right away.
“I’m still brushing off the wax from the surfboard,” Seau said this afternoon. “I got a pretty good tan, but I think I’ll be losing that in the next 2-3 weeks. Other than that, it’s going to be fun.
“I’m here just as a number right now. I don’t know what they have in store in terms of implementing me into the scheme and what have you. I’ll definitely talk to Coach Belichick to see how much he wants me to play this week, if he wants me to play. I’m just going in there, just cramming, trying to do a crash course for things that will happen this week.”
Seau, who was a defensive captain in 2007 and finished fifth on the team with 76 tackles, said during the offseason that the only team he would come back to play for was the Patriots. Today, he said it was an easy decision to make, even so late in the season.
“What it took was that a coach you respect made a call to come out and help guys that you have a lot of love for,” said Seau, who had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in February and has since recovered. “Obviously there is a lot of history here with us. It wasn’t a hard decision.”
Nor did Seau make it sound like a particularly sentimental one.
“I have no time to get all drama, I just don’t. I don’t want to go Oprah on you,” Seau said. “It is what it is. I was cutting up oranges for a cooler for [daughter] Cindy Seau and now I’m here putting on cleats. That’s life. You have to make adjustments and make them quick.”
The Patriots have suffered significant attrition recently at linebacker. They re-signed veteran Rosevelt Colvin Wednesday, and the position has been hit by injuries to Pierre Woods (jaw), Tedy Bruschi (sore knee) and Vince Redd (ankle), as well as Thomas. The Patriots had held out hope that Thomas, who was injured during the Patriots’ 20-10 victory over the Bills Nov. 9, would return at some point before season’s end, but that door was closed today with the decision to place him on injured reserve.
“We wanted to monitor the situation and get all the information, and take as long as we could,” Belichick said. “We just felt like at this point, we needed to do what was best for the team. [Getting Thomas back this season] was probably a longshot, but we just wanted to keep it open as long as could.”
Belichick reiterated that adding a player of Seau’s ability and character is worthwhile under any circumstances.
“I think Junior is good for your football team at any time of year — September, November, January, February, July,” Belichick said. “He’s just good for your football team, period. He’s a good player. He’s a good person. He loves the game, and I think that enthusiasm and passion carries over to everybody who is around him — players, coaches, other people in the organization. He’s a special guy, and a special player. He brings a lot.
“It’s pretty remarkable what he’s doing, the fact he played as much as he did last year, at his age, at that level, is pretty remarkable, especially at that position. I’m lucky to have coached a couple guys like that — Clay Matthews, Junior. That’s rare at that position. A lot of those guys don’t make it to 30, let alone 40.”
Mike Reiss and Christopher L. Gasper of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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