Salk: Kam Chancellor’s greatest legacy may be changing how NFL teams look at his position
Jul 2, 2018, 10:00 AM | Updated: 10:32 am
Kam Chancellor continued to be a physical presence while NFL rules changed. (AP)
(AP)
Kam Chancellor is one of my favorite players of all-time.
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I’ll never forget his hit on Demaryius Thomas in the Super Bowl, what he did to Vernon Davis, jumping over the pile for a field goal block, that one hit against Eric Winston where he just caved him in, the scream on special teams in Philly and countless others.
Kam was different because he looked different, and that made him stand out and fit in all at the same time. On a Seahawks team of physical freaks, he might have been the freakiest.
In the early years, it seemed like the rules of the game were going to change and make a player like him irrelevant, but he showed that you can still punish and intimidate in the modern NFL. For a while, he was maybe the only safety truly doing so. Now, every team is looking for their own version of Kam and that might be his greatest legacy.
How cool must it be to change the way NFL teams view your position?
He was also leader among leaders. The guy Pete Carroll would always point to as the calm voice in a locker room full of outlandish personalities and alpha males. He was the alpha-ist because of his talent, his work ethic and his fearlessness.
Unfortunately, his career will also have the caveat of his ill-fated holdout before the 2015 season. He drove a (mostly temporary) wedge between himself and the fans and it paved the way for future contract disputes and issues with outsized egos on this roster.
Kam’s career was also cut way too short. If it seems impossible to play forever with his fearlessness and physicality, that’s probably because it is. He battled through knee, hip and eventually neck issues, but ultimately he succumbed. While not surprising, it’s too bad.
Kam was fun to watch, fun to root for, fun to have on your side, and as important to the Seahawks’ run as nearly any single player.
