Dave Wyman recalls his first NFL start
Sep 9, 2011, 3:00 PM | Updated: 3:19 pm
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Wyman & Bob, 2-7 p.m. on Seattle Sports
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By Dave Wyman
Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor will be making his first NFL start this Sunday and it gets me thinking about my first start. Like Chancellor, I had seen some action as a rookie but that first start is always a little nerve-wracking. Here’s a short story I wrote about my experience:
I had dreamed of playing in the NFL ever since I was in kindergarten. So before my first game as a starting linebacker in the NFL, I was nervous! This came in Mile High Stadium against the Denver Broncos as we opened our season in 1988. I was so nervous; all I could eat at the pregame meal was a handful of grapes and a bowl of Froot Loops! 15 minutes before kickoff … I threw all of that up into a garbage can on the way out to the field.
During the second series of the game, the Broncos put a big tight end named Clarence Kay in the backfield. He came straight out to block me so I stepped up and met him at the line of scrimmage. It sounded like a car crash inside my helmet! In the meantime our nose guard Joe Nash had hit the Broncos ball carrier, Tony Dorsett, and caused him to fumble.
I temporarily reeled from the hit with Kay, but regained my balance and fell half-conscious onto the ball. I stumbled off the field and as I took my helmet off, I became aware that my chin was gashed open and bleeding down the front of my jersey (see above photo). As the doctors stapled my chin shut, I muttered, “I think that guy knocked the %$# out of me!” Trainer John Kasik, who was attending to me, pointed out to the field and said, “You ought a see the other guy.”
The Broncos training staff was hauling Clarence Kay off the field on a stretcher. I don’t remember feeling bad about it at the time, but I was relieved to see him standing on their sidelines at the end of the game in his street clothes. We won the game 21-14, partly because of my fumble recovery, and I had been “baptized by fire” that day as a full-fledged starting NFL linebacker.
Good luck, Kam!
