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Hawk Talk With Michael Bumpus - Throwback With Ben Obomanu · Hawk Talk

0:01
Speaker 1: You're listening to Hawk Talk with former Seahawks wide receiver
0:05
Speaker 1: Michael Bumpus at the ten yard line. Second and eight.
0:08
Speaker 1: Three wide receivers now in motion as Bumpas left to right,
0:11
Speaker 1: Julius Jones a single setback Matt pump fakes looking at
0:14
Speaker 1: the goal line. He throws it into the end zone.
0:16
Speaker 1: Touchdown Seahawks. It's Michael Bumpas with a diving catch in
0:21
Speaker 1: the end zone. Our ten yard touchdown reception for Bumpas,
0:25
Speaker 1: and the kid out of Washington State has found himself
0:28
Speaker 1: a place on this team powered by Seahawks dot Com.
0:33
Speaker 1: Got half time. He's gonna let it fly, PEPs kind
0:35
Speaker 1: of man wide open. It's been oldline who makes a catch.
0:37
Speaker 1: He's across midfield party. He's gonna go all the way
0:40
Speaker 1: that I got touching ten five touchdown Seahawks. And that's
0:44
Speaker 1: how you get back in the game in a great,
0:47
Speaker 1: big hurry. The Seahawks now need two scores. Ben Obamana
0:52
Speaker 1: with an eighty seven yard catch and run. What's up, folks,
0:56
Speaker 1: this is Michael Bumpus. You're listening to Hawk Talk throwback
0:59
Speaker 1: Thursday Day Today. I got a Seahawk legend. Ben Obomano.
1:03
Speaker 1: We called him Obo. Let me give a little history
1:05
Speaker 1: about this man. In twenty ten, he had his best
1:07
Speaker 1: game five receptions one hundred and fifty nine yards in
1:10
Speaker 1: the touchdown. Six year NFL career, five with the Seattle Seahawks,
1:14
Speaker 1: one with the New York Jets. Ben Obomanu, we call
1:18
Speaker 1: him Obo. How are you doing today, sir. I'm good.
1:20
Speaker 1: I'm good. It's a good morning here in Seattle. Glad
1:23
Speaker 1: to be here on the show with you today. So
1:25
Speaker 1: good to kind of catch up with old teammate too. Yeah,
1:28
Speaker 1: nice to connect again. Obo was one of the first
1:30
Speaker 1: dudes I met. He was a receiver. Um, obviously I
1:33
Speaker 1: played receiver as well. We had a nice little group.
1:36
Speaker 1: It was me u ct Nate Burlison, Dion Branch was there,
1:41
Speaker 1: Logan Payne was there. We had a tight knit group.
1:45
Speaker 1: So I want to say thank you to y'all for
1:47
Speaker 1: embracing an undrafted free agent. And y'all y'all don't treat
1:50
Speaker 1: me no different. I was a part of the squad. Yeah,
1:52
Speaker 1: I was about to say we were glad. Hey, those
1:54
Speaker 1: were the days. That's what you know, a fun time.
1:56
Speaker 1: I still was young too, so it's kind of like
1:58
Speaker 1: I felt I was in the middle. I wasn't event yet. Yeah,
2:00
Speaker 1: but the same time with a rookie. So it's kind
2:02
Speaker 1: of good to baby to have that little mix in
2:04
Speaker 1: our meeting room and have such a variance of you know,
2:06
Speaker 1: you said, young guays, put some old some old g
2:08
Speaker 1: veterans too. Man. They kind of set the stage for us. Yeah.
2:11
Speaker 1: It was fun, man. So let's let's uh, let the
2:13
Speaker 1: people get snogy a little bit. So you're from some
2:15
Speaker 1: Alabama make the mood of Seattle. What was that whole transition? Like,
2:21
Speaker 1: it was exciting and it was you know, a little
2:23
Speaker 1: little nervous at the same time. I tell you this,
2:25
Speaker 1: this is joke. I always tell people when I first
2:27
Speaker 1: got drafted to Seattle, and I was telling people down
2:29
Speaker 1: south and Alabama, huh And I was like, yeah, I'm
2:31
Speaker 1: going to you know, Seattle, going to Washington. They're like, okay, hey,
2:34
Speaker 1: when I come to DC, I'm I'm gonna catch up
2:37
Speaker 1: with you. I was like, what you mean DC. He's like, no,
2:39
Speaker 1: I'm going to Seattle. Yeah, Seattle, Washington. It's like yeah, Seattle,
2:42
Speaker 1: Washington State. No, Seattle, Washington, DC. It's like no, no, No,
2:46
Speaker 1: let's get a map, let's go back. I'm going way
2:48
Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest. So you know, it was fun to baby that,
2:51
Speaker 1: to realize like that, you know, making to the next level,
2:53
Speaker 1: getting drafted, coming to the Seattle seats, especially coming off
2:56
Speaker 1: of a Super Bowl win with you know, veteran coach
2:58
Speaker 1: uh And and Mike hol Groom and didn't have any
3:01
Speaker 1: you know, the perennial MVP and Sean Alexander on the team.
3:05
Speaker 1: So it was exciting. But at the same time, it
3:06
Speaker 1: was kind of tough because I'm you know, born and
3:08
Speaker 1: raised in Alabama, college in Alabama, and my first time
3:11
Speaker 1: leaving the state was to come way to Seattle. I
3:12
Speaker 1: was your first time leaving the state, first time leaving
3:14
Speaker 1: outside the Alabama man was coming to Seattle. So a
3:17
Speaker 1: long flight, too long flight, trying to figure out how
3:20
Speaker 1: to get them. My folks are still nervous, like, all right,
3:22
Speaker 1: so how we're gonna come and visit you, How we're
3:23
Speaker 1: gonna make all this work. I'm like, well, we'll figure
3:26
Speaker 1: it out, so just just just bear with me. I'm
3:27
Speaker 1: going and make this thing working. You know, years later,
3:30
Speaker 1: I'm still here, still here, That's what it does. See, man,
3:33
Speaker 1: I'm still here too. From Cal and I came up
3:35
Speaker 1: and oh four for college never left, so it tends
3:37
Speaker 1: to do that for you. So I got a chance
3:39
Speaker 1: to play against Auburn. You were gone already, but I
3:42
Speaker 1: think CT was still there and y'all spanked this man.
3:45
Speaker 1: It was two thousand and seven. I think that's a
3:47
Speaker 1: year y'all won the national championship. Oh seven, And I
3:51
Speaker 1: remember my first game in Alabama in the speed like
3:55
Speaker 1: it was the fastest team I've ever seen. I get
3:57
Speaker 1: SC once a year, and they're fast, but it was
3:59
Speaker 1: a different type of speed. So with that speed and
4:02
Speaker 1: the SEC, was it a big adjustment going to an
4:04
Speaker 1: NFL Because I remember my jump. I thought the game
4:06
Speaker 1: was just so much faster and watching y'all playing the
4:09
Speaker 1: speed that y'all play. But I would think that adjustment
4:11
Speaker 1: wasn't that. Yeah, it's drastic, as speed probably wasn't wasn't
4:14
Speaker 1: as drastic for me because you know what you said,
4:15
Speaker 1: We're playing against UM, you know some of the bigger programs,
4:18
Speaker 1: some of the you know, SEC ACC football, UM. So
4:22
Speaker 1: at the same time, the speed was an issue, but
4:24
Speaker 1: it was just the quickness of all the players. I
4:26
Speaker 1: think we both probably canna agree that the linebackers were fast.
4:29
Speaker 1: Uh you know the dbs. That's that split second was
4:32
Speaker 1: a little bit fasting when I thought or the windows
4:35
Speaker 1: you know, you're open and the ball's not there. It's like, no,
4:37
Speaker 1: you weren't open, like I felt open, And then you
4:39
Speaker 1: go back and watch the tape like, no, you was
4:41
Speaker 1: open for a split second. So being on the same
4:43
Speaker 1: page with the quarterbacks, those things changed, I think a
4:45
Speaker 1: little bit more, especially during that time when we were
4:47
Speaker 1: coming out. That's when you know, the air raid offenses,
4:50
Speaker 1: spread offense were really really kind of taking off. Now
4:53
Speaker 1: you see it more coming place where everybody's throwing the ball.
4:55
Speaker 1: But for us as receivers and for me as a receiver,
4:57
Speaker 1: especially coming to Seattle, it was more so trying to
4:59
Speaker 1: figure out, right, the balls coming out fast, that window
5:02
Speaker 1: is open for a quick second. You may not think
5:04
Speaker 1: you're open, but the quarterback things you are or vice
5:07
Speaker 1: first and you might think you're wide open, but no,
5:08
Speaker 1: that's that's a safety or a linebacker like hanging around
5:11
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field. So just being aware
5:13
Speaker 1: of my surroundings probably was the biggest adjustment from college
5:17
Speaker 1: to football for me. Was, um, you know, everybody's smart,
5:19
Speaker 1: everybody knows where that going before they even get there. Ye,
5:22
Speaker 1: what was the playbook like for you? I remember because
5:25
Speaker 1: I played in a similar offense as the one we
5:28
Speaker 1: played in in Seattle, but the language is different. So
5:30
Speaker 1: it took me like a cool week week and a
5:33
Speaker 1: half to really feel like I understood what was going on.
5:35
Speaker 1: How was that adjustment for you as far as the
5:37
Speaker 1: playbook and the language and stuff. So I had a big,
5:40
Speaker 1: a big jump start because I played in the West
5:41
Speaker 1: Coast offense in college. My first coordinator my freshman in
5:45
Speaker 1: college was Bobby Petrino. You know Bobby Petrino. He was
5:48
Speaker 1: with Jackson and Jackuash for a lot of years when
5:50
Speaker 1: they had their run with Mark Burnell, and since then
5:53
Speaker 1: he had some coaching stints with Louisville, UM, you know,
5:55
Speaker 1: so in Arkansas, so he had he implemented as a
5:58
Speaker 1: as a freshman. For my four years in college, we
6:00
Speaker 1: had that West Coast offense. So coming to here to
6:02
Speaker 1: Seattle having mic homeroom offense with the same kind of
6:05
Speaker 1: you know that that X isolation on the side, that
6:08
Speaker 1: quick game, it wouldn't awful transition for me because I
6:12
Speaker 1: had already known it. So it was more so just
6:14
Speaker 1: picking up so much of a playbook from week to week.
6:18
Speaker 1: That was the biggest challenge. I think knowing how you know.
6:21
Speaker 1: People don't realize you see that thick playbook during the
6:23
Speaker 1: off season, but it changes from week to week depending
6:26
Speaker 1: on your opponent, your audibles, your hot reads, your you know,
6:30
Speaker 1: the link, the language that you use in the huddle,
6:33
Speaker 1: all this stuff kept changing, and I think that was
6:35
Speaker 1: for me the biggest adjustments. All Right, well, I do
6:37
Speaker 1: know the West, I know the general principles of a
6:39
Speaker 1: West Coast offense. But to know that each week houseleback, homeroom,
6:42
Speaker 1: we're gonna change the playbook and change something, and they
6:45
Speaker 1: can do it so quickly. And I was, you know,
6:46
Speaker 1: a little young guy trying to figure out, all right,
6:48
Speaker 1: so why why are we even changing in the first place?
6:50
Speaker 1: But they have been running the same system, going back
6:52
Speaker 1: to Bill Walsh in the you know forty nine or
6:55
Speaker 1: days that you know, people know it, But how do
6:57
Speaker 1: you stay creative and how do you make sure you're
6:58
Speaker 1: you know, productive each week? So I don't know if
7:00
Speaker 1: people know this about you, but you reversal man, You
7:02
Speaker 1: play in the slot, then they put you on the outside.
7:05
Speaker 1: Where did you prefer slot outside, and then what was
7:07
Speaker 1: your favorite route. I'd preferred outside. I preferred being outside
7:12
Speaker 1: because I tended I'm not the biggest receiver, but I'm
7:14
Speaker 1: not the smaller CVO, right, so I try to be
7:16
Speaker 1: on the outside. I have more room to kind of
7:18
Speaker 1: maneuvering and get away from those linebackers and the safeties
7:20
Speaker 1: in the middle of field. Like put me on the
7:22
Speaker 1: on the outside while it's just me. My don't even
7:24
Speaker 1: want on with a cornerback, and I kind of know
7:26
Speaker 1: he knows, you know, he has sidline for help. At
7:28
Speaker 1: the same time, I also know where his help was
7:29
Speaker 1: coming from, from the inside, from the safety. So my
7:32
Speaker 1: best route out that I love and I always, you know,
7:34
Speaker 1: try to try to get the coaster to put me
7:36
Speaker 1: in for it was a corner route. When you get
7:38
Speaker 1: this chance to stem inside, you know, put something, put
7:41
Speaker 1: that corner back in the in the bond does he
7:43
Speaker 1: have and turn me over to the safety floor maybe
7:45
Speaker 1: you know, some help or maybe even double coverage, or
7:48
Speaker 1: I can break it off and go to the corner
7:50
Speaker 1: and next thing you know, he's he's you know, the
7:51
Speaker 1: quarterback has a good window to throw it too, throw
7:53
Speaker 1: it to the sideline. If I catch it, we're good.
7:55
Speaker 1: If it's an overthrow, it's still okay. But he can
7:57
Speaker 1: throw it up and give me a chance to make
7:58
Speaker 1: a play. So I've always liked the corner route just
8:00
Speaker 1: because I get to be on an outside receiver. For
8:02
Speaker 1: the most part, I could just stand me in create
8:04
Speaker 1: more room for that outside throw, and then the same time,
8:07
Speaker 1: get stick to the to the post, come back to
8:09
Speaker 1: the corner at the same time, regardless of where you know,
8:12
Speaker 1: if I'm opening out, the quarterback still has a chance
8:14
Speaker 1: to make give me a chance to make a play.
8:15
Speaker 1: So it's not a goal route where everybody you know
8:17
Speaker 1: just loves just run deep. It's a little maneuver. And
8:19
Speaker 1: then at the same time, that was one of my
8:21
Speaker 1: favorite routes. Man. I used to want to play outside
8:24
Speaker 1: so bad when I was in college and wanted to
8:25
Speaker 1: get outside of me. I can do it. When I
8:27
Speaker 1: got to the to the league, they put me outside
8:29
Speaker 1: a little bit and I was like, man, it's fast
8:30
Speaker 1: out here. I'm gonna stick to the slide slide. I
8:32
Speaker 1: used my quickness and whatnot, and I always wanted to
8:34
Speaker 1: run the Dino route, and they used to run the
8:36
Speaker 1: Dino route so nice. It's that get to the top
8:39
Speaker 1: of the post, give a corner. It's like a double
8:40
Speaker 1: move type. Look, I always wanted to run that route.
8:43
Speaker 1: You gotta have a sweet feet for that. Yes, you're right,
8:45
Speaker 1: you gotta sweet fee for that. Now you were there
8:47
Speaker 1: in Kirkland at that facility. I was. I was there
8:50
Speaker 1: for mini camp and then we made the move to
8:53
Speaker 1: v MAC. I mean that. I mean that was night
8:56
Speaker 1: and day like, the facilities were crazy. I mean, what
8:58
Speaker 1: was that transition like for even before that, I was
9:02
Speaker 1: part of that last class who had training camp in
9:04
Speaker 1: CHENI was so I went to Cheny and I can
9:07
Speaker 1: tell you, going back to your previous question about you know,
9:09
Speaker 1: making that jump, I'm coming from SEC football and coming
9:12
Speaker 1: from you know, training camp, being at you know, your
9:14
Speaker 1: your your dorm rooms and everything on campus and kind
9:17
Speaker 1: of being a good UM cafeteria. Then we go to
9:20
Speaker 1: Cheny and it's hot in western Washington, this corn field
9:23
Speaker 1: dry heat feels dry heats. I'm like, all right, I'm
9:25
Speaker 1: from Alabama, but this is different. Ye, this is different.
9:28
Speaker 1: And then when we came back going back to our practice,
9:30
Speaker 1: Tiling's like all right, now we're in Kirkland, UM and
9:33
Speaker 1: our facilium dinners like all right, this is this is okay,
9:36
Speaker 1: this is still it's still okay to NFL will make
9:39
Speaker 1: it work. And then all of a sudden, like you said,
9:40
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, my third year we started,
9:42
Speaker 1: they started talking about building a practice cility in renting
9:45
Speaker 1: vmat uh. And that was kind of great for me
9:48
Speaker 1: to be able to be a young player, to know
9:50
Speaker 1: that we had all these veteran players, they were established themselves,
9:53
Speaker 1: um as you know, a perennial powerhouse in an NFC
9:56
Speaker 1: west coming off that Super Bowl run back in two
9:58
Speaker 1: thousand and five to baby back and had that little
10:01
Speaker 1: piece of product. Yeah, I was part of picking out
10:03
Speaker 1: my locker out. This is my first locker. I was
10:05
Speaker 1: the first person to use these plugs, sending this bench
10:08
Speaker 1: to see how things were built from the ground up.
10:10
Speaker 1: I think we took a couple of tours when I
10:12
Speaker 1: was still playing, So that was kind of fun to
10:14
Speaker 1: baby saying right now, this is what I'm talking about,
10:16
Speaker 1: going back to you know, NFL, being a you know,
10:19
Speaker 1: an NFL player on a big time organization. The vMac
10:22
Speaker 1: would kind of epitomas everything that I think the Seahawks
10:25
Speaker 1: wanted and I think it was a great jump, especially
10:26
Speaker 1: coming from our facilities in Kirklands. Yeah, for sure. So
10:29
Speaker 1: I remember my first game. I'll never forget. It was
10:32
Speaker 1: against the forty nine ers. Um I saw Ross was
10:35
Speaker 1: out there, guys I used to play, you know on
10:37
Speaker 1: Madden Wit and it was surreal to me, Like pre game,
10:39
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and I'm taking it all in. I'm
10:41
Speaker 1: looking around. It was centrally and at the time, I'm
10:43
Speaker 1: looking around like, Damn, I made it. You know what
10:45
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Do you remember your first game and that
10:47
Speaker 1: in that moment where you're like, Damn, I arrived, It's
10:49
Speaker 1: time to go. We played the Dallas Dallas Cowboys. I
10:53
Speaker 1: was always a Teo fan, you know Teos from Alabama.
10:56
Speaker 1: Hometown guy, home state guy. Um, you know, the Dallas Cowboys,
11:01
Speaker 1: the Star. We went to the Cowboys Stadium and I
11:04
Speaker 1: think this is one of the first years in hand
11:06
Speaker 1: Javis World was first built. That's when I really really realized.
11:10
Speaker 1: You know, the home games in Seattle were always great
11:11
Speaker 1: and always a chance to be able to be excited
11:13
Speaker 1: about playing in NFL. But when I got a chance
11:15
Speaker 1: to play and see a guy who always looked up
11:18
Speaker 1: to always wanted to pattern my game after after into
11:21
Speaker 1: and being in Cowboys Stadium, Javis World, all the hype
11:25
Speaker 1: of that place getting built, My family got a chance
11:28
Speaker 1: to come in town. I had probably more family than
11:30
Speaker 1: I had ever had, because you know, it's kind of
11:31
Speaker 1: tough get everybody out to Seattle, but I got I
11:33
Speaker 1: got a lot of people out to Dallas. That was
11:35
Speaker 1: kind of one of those the final moments for me,
11:36
Speaker 1: where this is it. I made it. I'm in the NFL,
11:39
Speaker 1: and I'm playing not only on the stage of with
11:41
Speaker 1: my peers, but also some of the same people like
11:43
Speaker 1: you talked about that I, you know, played Madden, played
11:46
Speaker 1: with on a Madden Football game just a couple of
11:47
Speaker 1: years earlier. Now I'm actually on the same fields, some
11:49
Speaker 1: of the same kind of talent. So what I struggle with.
11:53
Speaker 1: They used to put us on special teams. We're receivers, right,
11:55
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, I haven't tackled anybody since high school.
11:58
Speaker 1: They used to put us on kick off on punk
12:01
Speaker 1: cover and ask us to go down there and make tackles.
12:04
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I haven't done this in a while,
12:05
Speaker 1: but you seem to excel at it. What do you
12:07
Speaker 1: think about your game? Allowed you to kind of get
12:10
Speaker 1: into that defensive mode after being a receiver all these times,
12:12
Speaker 1: and go down to make plays. I played safety and
12:16
Speaker 1: receiver coming up in high school, so I had some
12:18
Speaker 1: of the you know, I always want to say I
12:20
Speaker 1: was a big hitter in college in high school. Probably wasn't.
12:23
Speaker 1: But you know, in high school, do you think you all? Yeah?
12:25
Speaker 1: I think for me it was more so understanding and
12:27
Speaker 1: being committed to being a tackler, right. I think that's
12:30
Speaker 1: one of the first things you have to do. You
12:31
Speaker 1: see anybody making an adjustment to a different position, to
12:34
Speaker 1: a different you know, scheme or playbook. You have to
12:36
Speaker 1: want to and I think I had to want to
12:38
Speaker 1: to be able to stay on the field. I learned earlier,
12:40
Speaker 1: especially my rookie year when I came and I was
12:43
Speaker 1: playing fourteen that had come off the Super Bowl. I
12:45
Speaker 1: knew Mike Homeroom was the type of coach, veteran coach.
12:47
Speaker 1: He won the veteran guys. He explicitly told all of
12:50
Speaker 1: us our rookie year back in two thousand and six
12:53
Speaker 1: that he won the same guys that took him to
12:54
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. He's gonna win with those same guys.
12:57
Speaker 1: So for a young guy to try to crack the field.
12:58
Speaker 1: It was all right, you better learn how to tackle,
13:00
Speaker 1: you're learning to catch a kick, you know, return kicks.
13:03
Speaker 1: You better do whatever you can to be to stay
13:04
Speaker 1: on the field. So for me, I just started paying
13:06
Speaker 1: more attention to start trying to you know, watch some film.
13:09
Speaker 1: Most time when when receivers are watching film on on
13:12
Speaker 1: you know, Jerry Rice and trying to get better. I
13:14
Speaker 1: started watching like Marcus Truth and I started watching some
13:16
Speaker 1: of the defensive guys that started saying, all right, how
13:18
Speaker 1: are you making the tackle? What are you looking for?
13:19
Speaker 1: Are you reading hips? Are you reading angles? How do
13:21
Speaker 1: you when you're running full speed? How do you know
13:23
Speaker 1: when to breakdown and start gathering yourself with the tackle?
13:25
Speaker 1: So that so that most importantly I can find a
13:28
Speaker 1: way to stay on the team and get on the
13:30
Speaker 1: field too. And I think that's what I you know,
13:31
Speaker 1: I talked about a lot with young guys even today, Right,
13:34
Speaker 1: if you want to play and stay on the team.
13:36
Speaker 1: And for me having that luxury of playing on the
13:38
Speaker 1: Seahawks for from two thousand and six allway up into
13:40
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, bar that had to do with
13:42
Speaker 1: me figuring out and trying to learn ways to get
13:44
Speaker 1: on the field. So it was a want to first,
13:46
Speaker 1: but then it was also like taking an extra step
13:48
Speaker 1: and saying, all right, let me watch some film on
13:50
Speaker 1: guys who had done it before, some other you know,
13:52
Speaker 1: guys that were making tackles that were that were dvs.
13:54
Speaker 1: See that's where I messed up. I was like, man,
13:56
Speaker 1: I don't tackle nobody. They got me down here trying
13:58
Speaker 1: to tackle deals. I'm a turner coach. Put me back,
14:01
Speaker 1: put the ball in my hands. See I would If
14:02
Speaker 1: I would have took that approach, I might have played
14:04
Speaker 1: at least one or two more years. You got it
14:06
Speaker 1: was your way to kind of follow get that anxiety
14:08
Speaker 1: and that stress out. That That's how I looked at
14:10
Speaker 1: the two. It's like, all right, if they won't get
14:11
Speaker 1: me the ball. If I felt like I, you know,
14:12
Speaker 1: had worked hard all week and I wanted to catch
14:14
Speaker 1: a pass a couple of plays in the game, and
14:17
Speaker 1: they say, nah, you know he's healthy, he's gonna he's
14:20
Speaker 1: gonna give it a go. And I had practice all week,
14:22
Speaker 1: it was like, all right, well, you know what that
14:24
Speaker 1: return of man, somebody got to get it. The DBS
14:27
Speaker 1: trying to cover me on gunner and they hold every
14:30
Speaker 1: single play, every play. I'm gonna this my chance to
14:32
Speaker 1: get them back. So that was my way of trying
14:34
Speaker 1: to make sure that I still have fun in the
14:35
Speaker 1: game and take that first take some of that frustration
14:37
Speaker 1: out on game day. You know what, I'm probably not
14:39
Speaker 1: gonna get you know, maybe two or three passage this game,
14:42
Speaker 1: if at all, I'm probably gonna get five or six,
14:44
Speaker 1: you know, off of snaps. Well, I'm gonna make the
14:46
Speaker 1: most of them. Go try to you know, make somebody
14:47
Speaker 1: pay on special teams. A lot of people talk about
14:51
Speaker 1: beast Quack, right, oh yeah, the big play against New Orleans.
14:55
Speaker 1: And when I watched that play, I look at the
14:58
Speaker 1: players around, like, oh yeah, I played with him. I
15:00
Speaker 1: played with him. You were on the field when that
15:02
Speaker 1: went down. What was that whole thing? Like? Man, it
15:06
Speaker 1: was it was kind of cool. Same thing. You know,
15:07
Speaker 1: there's there's always stories in between the game, right, So
15:10
Speaker 1: in this particular play, we had talked about, you know,
15:13
Speaker 1: especially in Peak Carroll's offense, the way Peak Carroll's wired
15:16
Speaker 1: and our offense. At that point, he said, every play
15:18
Speaker 1: you're in the field, you're expecting the school. I want
15:20
Speaker 1: you guys to expect. We don't call a play just
15:22
Speaker 1: to call a play. Every play, you should think the score.
15:25
Speaker 1: So this is one of those players where right we're
15:27
Speaker 1: going we're trying to you know, the playoff game. We're
15:28
Speaker 1: trying to not necessarily run a clock out, but we're
15:30
Speaker 1: trying to eat it, eat it some time. Yeah. So
15:32
Speaker 1: I'm blocking on the back side of the play. I
15:35
Speaker 1: get a chance to block Roman Harper. God I went
15:38
Speaker 1: to I'd be played against each other in high school
15:40
Speaker 1: for for three years in high school. He went to Alabama,
15:42
Speaker 1: so he played each other, you know, for my four
15:44
Speaker 1: years in college. Um so now I get a chance
15:47
Speaker 1: to block a guy who I've known pretty much man
15:49
Speaker 1: for about ten fifteen years. So we're blocking the back
15:52
Speaker 1: out of play, and I said, all right, hey, well
15:55
Speaker 1: doing the play, I say, well, you know Marshawn Man
15:57
Speaker 1: from just running this clock out, so you might as
15:59
Speaker 1: well game. I'm just telling you now, you know the conversation,
16:03
Speaker 1: don't know because dvs and receivers do we block and
16:06
Speaker 1: do they want to tackle? No? So we're over there,
16:08
Speaker 1: you know, kind of brother in lawn a little bit
16:10
Speaker 1: having this conversation. And then I was sending here the
16:12
Speaker 1: crowd saying, and so I say, oh, something happened Marshawn
16:16
Speaker 1: being Marshawn, And he looks. He's like, he's still going.
16:19
Speaker 1: He's still going, He's still going. He takes off. So
16:22
Speaker 1: as a receiver, I gotta take off because I'm like, hey,
16:24
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be on the field. Let my guy
16:26
Speaker 1: be the one to make the shoe string tackle on
16:28
Speaker 1: Marshawn Lynch. So then next thing, you know, we start
16:31
Speaker 1: running towards the play. Next thing, you know that it
16:32
Speaker 1: was kind of a double thing. Cool just probably wouldn't
16:35
Speaker 1: like it. I'm watching, but I'm also blocking, but I'm
16:37
Speaker 1: also watching. I want to see this thing too. So
16:40
Speaker 1: the crowd people don't know twelfth Man. The crowd, we
16:43
Speaker 1: feed off of everything you do. And so in that
16:45
Speaker 1: particular play, it would start off just you know, a
16:47
Speaker 1: regular routine play, but it was as the crowd kept
16:49
Speaker 1: going and I, you know, I took a peek, Roman
16:52
Speaker 1: Harper took a peak. Nexting, you know, we got an
16:54
Speaker 1: off horses and we started trying to make a play too.
16:56
Speaker 1: So it was good to be a part of that
16:57
Speaker 1: because it was, like you said, the people on the
16:59
Speaker 1: field point time the playerself is one of the iconic
17:03
Speaker 1: plays in Seahawks history. And for it happened with a
17:05
Speaker 1: guy like Marshawn Man, one of my one of my
17:06
Speaker 1: good teammates, Ben Glad it happened. Turning the handle, Lynch
17:09
Speaker 1: left side finds a little bit of a whole kicker's
17:11
Speaker 1: legs movie. He's called the forty midfield forty five is
17:14
Speaker 1: on the run, Lynch, forty thirty five. Look at him,
17:17
Speaker 1: Go who's down there? Twenty fifteen he gonna go, It's
17:21
Speaker 1: gonna go touchdown, Sayhawks, Oh my word, my sixty seven
17:29
Speaker 1: yard run Marshawn Lynch, unbelievable. See I got I got
17:35
Speaker 1: two buddies, right, I got you who was part of
17:38
Speaker 1: one of the biggest plays in Seahawk history. And they
17:40
Speaker 1: got my boy rap who caught the hooking ladder of
17:43
Speaker 1: boys the state against Oklahoma. So I'll be rapping for y'all, like, yeah, man,
17:46
Speaker 1: my boy was in on that play by boys another
17:48
Speaker 1: other place. So for you guys to be a part
17:50
Speaker 1: of this such big moments like you're gonna live forever.
17:52
Speaker 1: Whenever they see that play, they're gonna see eighty seven
17:55
Speaker 1: Oman in the end zone. Celebrated windows. That's awesome, man.
18:00
Speaker 1: So you've had an opportunity. You played for three coaches
18:02
Speaker 1: in Seattle, right, and yeah, Mike, yeah, Jim, yeah, Pete
18:06
Speaker 1: for a little bit. Every coach is different, right. Was
18:09
Speaker 1: it was it tough adjusting to each style or was
18:12
Speaker 1: it just business as usual? Oh? It was tough. It
18:14
Speaker 1: was tough if you think about it too. And I
18:16
Speaker 1: used to tell people all the time, man about you know,
18:18
Speaker 1: how do you have longevity? How do you create value
18:20
Speaker 1: for yourself from playing from different coaches? You know, most
18:23
Speaker 1: time when when you hear about the coaching chain, people
18:25
Speaker 1: don't understand it from from receiver or a players standpoint.
18:28
Speaker 1: As soon as you get that you know highlight on
18:30
Speaker 1: the bottom of the sports sticker that says, you know,
18:32
Speaker 1: coach has been fired or the new coach has been hired.
18:35
Speaker 1: Immediately that goes through everybody's mind from you know, the
18:38
Speaker 1: staff and the organization all the way down to you know,
18:40
Speaker 1: the field equipment guys is all right, turnover, there's that
18:43
Speaker 1: new coach that this new regime wanna come in and
18:46
Speaker 1: clean house and bring in their guys. Right, So how
18:48
Speaker 1: do you become a part of their guy? How do
18:50
Speaker 1: you be their guy as well. So for me, it
18:52
Speaker 1: was it was a tough adjustment. Guys there were there
18:55
Speaker 1: was a lot of uncertainty, you know, talking with your aging,
18:57
Speaker 1: talking with the other teammates. Who's gonna come, who's gonna stay? Uh,
19:01
Speaker 1: you know, what are they looking for in a player?
19:03
Speaker 1: For me, it was it was it was important for
19:05
Speaker 1: me to be able to still maintain those relationships throughout
19:07
Speaker 1: the organizations. I think I prided myself on, you know,
19:10
Speaker 1: having good relationships with staff, you know, from cafeteria workers,
19:13
Speaker 1: from you know, the equipments to have our trainers. Some
19:16
Speaker 1: of those people are key, key, key parts in the
19:18
Speaker 1: way this whole show runs. And when you have a
19:20
Speaker 1: good relationship with them, they kind of speak volumes because
19:22
Speaker 1: that's those are the first impressions, not necessarily your game film.
19:25
Speaker 1: It's sometimes just hey, what kind of guy's been? And
19:27
Speaker 1: I think I set a good stage, set a good
19:29
Speaker 1: presson for myself of being hard worker, good guy. You know,
19:32
Speaker 1: everybody likes him, like, no, you should keep you should
19:34
Speaker 1: at least met them, should at least keep theim around
19:36
Speaker 1: for a while, give him a chance. And so from there,
19:39
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing you talking about the adjesmtion
19:41
Speaker 1: from coaching staffs Uh, it's being able to show that
19:44
Speaker 1: you can adjust to their their style of play, their
19:46
Speaker 1: play with what they're looking for. And I think that's
19:48
Speaker 1: where I shal you think about the transition from Mike
19:51
Speaker 1: Conry was me being a young player trying to come in,
19:53
Speaker 1: learn the system, show that I'm you know, coachable, and
19:55
Speaker 1: trying to show that a'm I can be a party
19:59
Speaker 1: of the Seahawks going for when that time comes. When
20:02
Speaker 1: we got Jim Moore, Jim Moore's you know, had been
20:04
Speaker 1: on the staff. That the good part is he was
20:05
Speaker 1: a defensive cord you know, for a year before he
20:08
Speaker 1: became the hand coach. So the same thing being in
20:10
Speaker 1: those meetings asking Jim more, I'm trying to make a tackle?
20:12
Speaker 1: What are you? How are you coaching your dbs to
20:14
Speaker 1: make tackles? That relationship carried over to when he became
20:17
Speaker 1: the head coach. No, I know, being I know what
20:19
Speaker 1: kind of guy he is. He sticks around, he's gonna stay,
20:21
Speaker 1: He's gonna earn a spot in the team. Then the
20:23
Speaker 1: same thing when Pete Carroll came along, it was knowing
20:25
Speaker 1: he loves competition, well, he had no same thing on
20:28
Speaker 1: the field, like no, Bing has been competing since he's
20:30
Speaker 1: been here, being you know, going back looking at film,
20:32
Speaker 1: he think I think him and um Snyder did a
20:35
Speaker 1: really good job of looking at film, trying to clean
20:38
Speaker 1: the most they could out of the players and seeing,
20:41
Speaker 1: you know, what type of players, what kind of development
20:43
Speaker 1: they had over a couple of years, and they saw
20:45
Speaker 1: being it was always competing. Did he get a shot
20:47
Speaker 1: to play and get a lot of snaps a receiver?
20:49
Speaker 1: Not necessarily, but he's been competing and working amahana since
20:53
Speaker 1: we since he's been here, since that we've seen on film.
20:55
Speaker 1: So I think in those in those uh, you know,
20:57
Speaker 1: coaching changes. For me, it was tough because you don't
21:00
Speaker 1: uncertainty makes it difficult. But at the same time, I
21:02
Speaker 1: think I did a really good job of making sure
21:04
Speaker 1: that my character, my personality, my work at the kind
21:06
Speaker 1: of shine through just through the organization and by what
21:09
Speaker 1: took place on film. So you worked hard, blue collar guy,
21:15
Speaker 1: build great relationships. And now it's towards the end of
21:18
Speaker 1: your career. Did you kind of feel like, Okay, this
21:21
Speaker 1: is coming to an end. And once you got that feeling,
21:24
Speaker 1: what was your plan after football? You never know right
21:27
Speaker 1: about the end of the game, when when the end
21:29
Speaker 1: of the line is gonna come man coming in as
21:31
Speaker 1: you talked about as a seven round draft pick of
21:33
Speaker 1: you as under the free agent. The odds already against
21:36
Speaker 1: us anywhere, right, So we try to tell kids all
21:38
Speaker 1: the time about you know the odds and makes it
21:40
Speaker 1: in thefl are you know less than than one percent?
21:42
Speaker 1: And if you do, your career is less than three years. Right.
21:45
Speaker 1: So once you get that three year mark, what happens
21:47
Speaker 1: a lot of times in the NFL. Guy start getting comfortable. Ye,
21:49
Speaker 1: I made three years. Now you know that three years
21:52
Speaker 1: turns into I can play for fifteen? Yeah, like no, no, no,
21:55
Speaker 1: you might still play for four, but you might play
21:57
Speaker 1: for five. Like you just add, you go year by year.
22:00
Speaker 1: So for me, I always said that I had wanted
22:02
Speaker 1: to be a lawyer, right um. Growing up in the
22:04
Speaker 1: family in the South, education was always big, I said.
22:07
Speaker 1: And they always used to ask me too, as a
22:08
Speaker 1: little kid. You know you can you can't say athlete,
22:11
Speaker 1: you can't say entertainer. My grandfather used always say, choose
22:13
Speaker 1: a real career. I don't come with those, you know,
22:15
Speaker 1: uh lofty dreams of being a professional athlete. You choose
22:18
Speaker 1: a real career. So I want to be a lawyer.
22:20
Speaker 1: So every year that I got that I was playing
22:22
Speaker 1: NFL was always a preparation in the offseason, um job
22:26
Speaker 1: interviews or job shadowing going back in the NBA. Like,
22:29
Speaker 1: I was always making those plans to that at one
22:32
Speaker 1: point and someday when it when it ends, I can
22:34
Speaker 1: be ready for that next transition. So that's what happened
22:36
Speaker 1: to me. So when I got to be thirty, as
22:39
Speaker 1: most players and you kind of see how how the
22:40
Speaker 1: NFL works a little bit. Once you get up and
22:42
Speaker 1: start pushing thirty, people don't think about the you know,
22:45
Speaker 1: the economics of football, the league minimum for for us.
22:48
Speaker 1: As we continue to grow our careers, your minimal stalary
22:51
Speaker 1: goes up. So at one point I got to be thirty,
22:53
Speaker 1: they could got they could have gotten you know, two
22:56
Speaker 1: two young receivers for the price of bins. Those economic
22:59
Speaker 1: decisions are kind of creeping in. So that's what that's
23:02
Speaker 1: when I knew the career was kind of coming to
23:03
Speaker 1: a to an end because at that point to pay
23:06
Speaker 1: to pay a league middle of talent for a player
23:08
Speaker 1: going into this eighth ninth year, you gotta be able
23:11
Speaker 1: to you know, have some force for two of this
23:14
Speaker 1: situations happened to you. But at the same time, you
23:16
Speaker 1: should also start with paying this in general because that
23:18
Speaker 1: you never know. So that's what happened to me. Yeah,
23:20
Speaker 1: so then you went back to school, right, you went
23:23
Speaker 1: to law school. Man. I cannot imagine going back to
23:27
Speaker 1: school at thirty. I mean I told myself when I
23:29
Speaker 1: was done, I'm done. I'm not done to go back
23:32
Speaker 1: to school. So I admired dudes who go back to
23:34
Speaker 1: school and further their education. What was that transition? Like,
23:37
Speaker 1: you go from look, I'm playing on Sundays's got sixty
23:40
Speaker 1: thousand scream my name, and now I'm in class with
23:43
Speaker 1: a twenty four or twenty five year old, you know,
23:45
Speaker 1: sitting right next to sitting right next to me, and
23:47
Speaker 1: he used to call me the old man law school.
23:48
Speaker 1: It was an old man. I was married my second
23:51
Speaker 1: year law school, my wife and I had our first child,
23:53
Speaker 1: So that that made the worst Look you you're a
23:55
Speaker 1: family guy, You're really married. Now, really old guy. It was,
23:58
Speaker 1: but it was one of those things where you think
24:00
Speaker 1: about it too. In the NFL, when people don't necessarily
24:03
Speaker 1: think about when they watched the games on Sunday, we're
24:05
Speaker 1: in you know, quote unquote class every day Monday through Saturday,
24:10
Speaker 1: we're in the film room. We're studying, we have playbooks.
24:13
Speaker 1: We come in as people who come into you know,
24:15
Speaker 1: tour the practical sillers. You see pins, you see paper,
24:18
Speaker 1: you see notebook, you see projectors, highlighters. So you're in
24:22
Speaker 1: You're in an educational environment every single day anyway. So
24:25
Speaker 1: for me, it was it was kind of a two
24:27
Speaker 1: things where I had already been in this environment when
24:30
Speaker 1: I was studying. I you know, used to studying the playbook.
24:32
Speaker 1: You studying not just the offensive playbook, but you know,
24:34
Speaker 1: slot receiver, outside receiver, special teams. I gotta be on
24:38
Speaker 1: call just in case they want me to return punts
24:40
Speaker 1: of kicks. I was always studying. Not only that, in
24:42
Speaker 1: the offseason, I was you know, taking classes. I was
24:44
Speaker 1: trying to pick people's brains at some of the companies
24:46
Speaker 1: here in Seattle, Microsoft and Boring, trying to pick their brains.
24:50
Speaker 1: And obviously, so I think mentally, I was probably more
24:53
Speaker 1: prepared for their transition into the classroom than a lot
24:55
Speaker 1: of other players because I was already you know, uh,
24:57
Speaker 1: kind of building myself up to be a a student again.
25:01
Speaker 1: But like you talked about, the legal field and trying
25:04
Speaker 1: to study cases was definitely a lot different than trying
25:06
Speaker 1: to learn to playbook and figure out the cover two
25:08
Speaker 1: versus cover four, right, So it was difficult, but at
25:10
Speaker 1: the same time, I just was glad that I had
25:12
Speaker 1: my family to support me a little bit. The football
25:15
Speaker 1: foundation of studying helped a lot. But it was one
25:17
Speaker 1: of those things where I feel like, you now, that
25:20
Speaker 1: was it. I'm not going back to school. That was
25:22
Speaker 1: my last go around. I did it. I'm glad I
25:24
Speaker 1: made through three years, but it was It was one
25:26
Speaker 1: of those things where I wanted to stick to my
25:28
Speaker 1: plan of being a lawyer, and school was the only
25:30
Speaker 1: way that, you know, going back getting your legal education,
25:32
Speaker 1: getting to JD was the only way that was gonna happen.
25:34
Speaker 1: So it was not necessarily a you know half too,
25:37
Speaker 1: but it was a one two kind of thing. Yeah.
25:39
Speaker 1: So now you're a lawyer here in the Northwest, the
25:41
Speaker 1: Northwest US. That you get up here, you're gonna stick around.
25:44
Speaker 1: You know, there's something about the Northwest that keeps you here.
25:47
Speaker 1: How do you like your new lifestyle? I like it.
25:49
Speaker 1: You gotta think about it too. My wife is from Seattle.
25:52
Speaker 1: We had gotten married shortly after my playing career was
25:55
Speaker 1: coming to an end, and I was trying to forgot
25:57
Speaker 1: go to law school. People we forgot about this part.
26:00
Speaker 1: Went to University of Albama for law school, An Auburn
26:02
Speaker 1: Tiger guy goes back to the ribata Alabama jersey somewhere
26:05
Speaker 1: or sweat or somewhere. I don't have anything in Alabama
26:08
Speaker 1: the whole three years I was there. No Alabama tire,
26:12
Speaker 1: no Alabama sweatshirts. Nothing. I's like, no, no, no, did
26:15
Speaker 1: you wear Auburt stuff? Alburt stuff. On top of that
26:18
Speaker 1: on campus, my car, at my Auburn tag, my apartment
26:21
Speaker 1: had Auburn stuff hanging out. So they folks gave me
26:23
Speaker 1: a hard time, but it was It was also the
26:26
Speaker 1: part of the deal of my wife being from Seattle,
26:28
Speaker 1: born and raised. If I take she said, if I
26:30
Speaker 1: take her to Alabama for a law school, I had
26:32
Speaker 1: to guarantee them coming back to Seattle afterwards. So it
26:35
Speaker 1: was already in. It was baked in the cake. All right, Well, yeah,
26:38
Speaker 1: I can go to law school. I can go down
26:39
Speaker 1: here and kind of make a name for myself. Receivers,
26:42
Speaker 1: we were you know, We're d was a lot, so
26:44
Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to the rival school, go
26:46
Speaker 1: back home, being home with family and friends. Alburt doesn't
26:48
Speaker 1: have a law school. But there's also a chance to
26:50
Speaker 1: kind of get my name out there, kind of start
26:52
Speaker 1: the pot a little bit, the former Auburn Tiger guy
26:54
Speaker 1: going back to Alabama to law school. My wife was
26:57
Speaker 1: quick to REMOMMI when those three years with we're coming
27:01
Speaker 1: right back. So it's been so it's been great to
27:03
Speaker 1: be able to go back and have an education, had
27:06
Speaker 1: a league career, but also come back as a former
27:08
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks man. The Seahawks, the organization, the twelves, they've
27:11
Speaker 1: done a really good job of making you still feel
27:14
Speaker 1: at home. Like you know, a lot of players struggle
27:16
Speaker 1: with that identity of not being a football player, not
27:18
Speaker 1: being able to identify and see themselves on the field,
27:21
Speaker 1: or see themselves on the side of the state or
27:23
Speaker 1: have people say great game. The Seahawks in the city
27:26
Speaker 1: of Seattle have done a really good job of making
27:28
Speaker 1: it making us former players still feel a part of
27:30
Speaker 1: the NFL or the part of the organization. Also, you know,
27:33
Speaker 1: they know our names, they know our faces, so it's
27:35
Speaker 1: been great to be able to redefine myself not just
27:37
Speaker 1: as being the former Seahawk, but being the attorney as well.
27:39
Speaker 1: So it's been good being a real estate lawyer here
27:41
Speaker 1: in Seattle. Ben Obomanu went to Auburn drafted seventh round,
27:46
Speaker 1: had six years in the league, three coaches, successful career. Afterwards,
27:51
Speaker 1: went to law school at the arrival Alabama. Didn't wear
27:54
Speaker 1: in the Alabama gear, but he did rep Auburn on campus. Man,
27:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming in, taking time in Holland at
28:00
Speaker 1: your boy. Hey, let's do this again and maybe not
28:03
Speaker 1: on on mics and stuff, and it's kicking one time,
28:05
Speaker 1: kicking it. I'm with you, all right, man, thank you. Hey,
28:07
Speaker 1: that's been Hawk Talk. I'm your host, Michael Bombas. This
28:09
Speaker 1: is Hard Talk throwback Thursday. You listened to Ben Obmanu.
28:12
Speaker 1: Check us out. I lect you next time.