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Ben Burr-Kirven: "It Was A Good First Step" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's been almost two years, ye out on that field.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Just how that feel, right, Tunnel? And yeah, it was
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: pretty surreal, you know, like you said, it's almost exactly
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: two years to the day, and it was definitely, uh,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: you know, almost took me by surprise being out there
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: on that kickoff. Everything felt faster than he used to
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: and definitely a little bit of rest. He got some
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: work to do, but it was it was just fun
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to play football again.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Ben, Just what has this two years been like for you?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, a lot of ups and downs, probably more
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: of the ladder than than anything, just kind of working
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: through it to get back to this point.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was it was just taking it
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: one day at a time. You're definitely right. There was
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of ups and a lot of downs, and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: there was definitely some you know, some downs that were
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: that felt like that might be it and I wouldn't
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: be you know, playing ball again. And I definitely, you know,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: had those thoughts a lot of times. But it was
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: just you know, surrounding myself with the right group of
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: people to support me and just chipping away day by
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: day and you know, all of a sudden you wake
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: up in your back playing ball again now that.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You are playing for whatever the next step is.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, uh, today was just a
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: small step, and I think there's still to me, there's
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: a ton to work on. I felt I felt rusty
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: out there. I definitely gotta I got to get back
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: to work and clean some stuff up. But it was,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: you know, it was a start, and I was able
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to play an NFL game and came out the other
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: side and clean and healthy. And to to be able
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to say that after you know, all the work it
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: took to get here is a big winning of itself.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: But it's just step one and you know, I got
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to keep improving and hopefully, you know, go out and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: have a better game next week. Yeah, that was That
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: was pretty special. Obviously, you know, I haven't done anything
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: like that since I was in college, so I had
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: to I had to make sure I checked with Pete
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: and me and Tyler went out there and make sure
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: we didn't screw it up and say something wrong and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: not do what we want to do. But it was
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: it was a special gesture from Pete and it definitely
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: meant a lot to me to get to go out
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: there and do that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: You have to do anything different yet post practice.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Post game. Oh yeah. I mean, just with the the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: extent of the injury I had, there's always gonna be
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: stuff I have to deal with. So I definitely have to,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: you know, spend extra time taping, rehabbing things like that,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: just make sure I stay on top of everything. And
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: that'll probably just be the nature of my career for
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: as long as I play football. And that's just you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the nature of the beach. You play this game, you
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: have an injury like that, there's always going to be
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: things that you know that will bother you down the road.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: And so we just got to stay on top of
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: stuff and and keep grinding. But like I said, was
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: able to go play a football game today and go
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: play another next week and just keep stacking them.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: At what point in the process did you think you can,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I know, I can get back from from them.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think, you know, there was there was
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: never a time I didn't think I would do it.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: There was just hard times, But you know, from you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: from the moment I was hurt. I mean I was
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: in the ambulance leaving Looman. There was never a thought
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: that I wasn't going to be back here doing this.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And that was kind of the through line throughout this
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: entire process that I was going to be back playing football,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: and I knew I wanted to to do everything I
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: could to make sure it was not only just play
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: footle playing football here with the Seahawks. You know. Unfortunately,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: we were able to, you know, stay in contact with
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Pete and everybody throughout this whole process. And you know,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I was training out in Chicago with Nick Belore this offseason,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and we just reached a point where I was all right,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: let's tell them we're ready to come in and work out.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: And you know that we told him. They let me
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: come in and we worked out, and here we are, Chuh.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: It's just where our trainers based at work with a
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: guy named Bobby Tamasis, who was, you know, probably one
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: of the biggest driving forces in me getting back on
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the field. I linked up with him through Nick. Nick's
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: worked with him for almost a decade now, and so
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I I started working with him in the end of
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: last year and went out there and spent the summer
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in Chicago with him and Nick working and it was
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: kind of you know, not only just because you know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: you want to be in person with the train of ball.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: So it was good to have Nick is a kind
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of a pair of eyes who's you know, he's played
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: with me, he's seen me, and kind of have him
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: be able to be almost a an impartial person, to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: be able to say, hey, you look good, this needs work,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: this isn't ready. And it kind of reached a point
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: where Nick was saying, hey, man, like you look like
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the guy used to play with him. You you should
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: go on to work out, and so that was kind
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: of the whole thought process