You want your kids to look up to a true sports hero? Someone who knows what sportsmanship really is? Someone who takes what he's given and makes the very best of it? John Friesz is your man. As for my comments, do you agree? Disagree? Go ahead, send e-mail! Let's debate the issues!!
The article I'm referring to below was taken from the Tacoma News Tribune. If you haven't discovered the Tribnet site, you'll want to! You can get there by clicking the link above or by clicking the icon at the top of the page! They have terrific coverage of the Seahawks throughout training camp and the entire NFL season! Dave Boling; News Tribune columnist
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| CHENEY - As the prankster fate once again applies the wrenches to the already twisting career of John Friesz, we're still awaiting Friesz's first disgruntled utterance. He is, after all, a professional athlete, a calling that generally requires at least a minor in petty grousing. So even if he's not pitching a full-blown hissy, we'd expect just a little "why me?" Maybe a brief "gimme a break." But Friesz continues to keep his mouth shut, his mind open, his dues paid in full and his priorities in order. We may never learn whether John Friesz is a quarterback who can lead a team to the playoffs, but he's certainly proven himself to be a person you'd like to have work for you, or with you. A Certifiable Role Model. His NFL career continues to be a nine-year string of hope and calamity, promise and compromise. He's won starting jobs with talent and lost them because of injuries and salary-cap politics. But he's never piped up about it. |
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If we stopped right there, I'd have to step back and admire him. But keep reading. It only gets more impressive.
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| And right now, he's dripping in irony.
For the moment, Friesz is the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. But that's only because Warren Moon is AWOL. Pay attention, this gets confusing. Moon was brought in last year to be Friesz's backup, but he revived his career after he became the starter because of a Friesz injury. Friesz gladly handed money back to the Seahawks to help give Moon a raise. But that's not enough for Moon. So Friesz is now, once again, the starter. Granted, this has a Russian-novel quality to it. The temptation is to ask Friesz if he thinks he should restructure back to the old agreement because he's now the starter, but the resulting confusion would nullify the comedic effect.
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This is a man that has been asked, time and time again, to do impossible tasks of selflessness. Do you remember the Friesz/Mirer controversy? Mirer was #1 Quarterback, Friesz was #2. Though Rick wasn't performing to acceptable standards, the Seahawks stood by him, at least publicly, declaring that Mirer was the quarterback of the Seahawks. Only to have Friesz step in time and time again to put further doubts in our minds. Throughout the trying times, Friesz never said a bad word about Mirer; never tried to push him out; he strictly performed the job he was asked to do. And then in 1997 when Friesz had clearly won the starting position, he was injured, only to return to the game as the backup to Warren Moon. He didn't challenge Moon or make waves within the organization. He gallantly accepted the #2 spot, prepared to play when called upon.
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At practices on the sunbaked steppes of Cheney, Friesz has been workmanlike, but done little to make anyone entirely forget Moon, a future Hall of Famer who still, at age 41, can pass like few others. Friesz's passes carry little in the way of aesthetics. Some wobble, some float. Much of that could be the residue of the broken thumb he suffered in last year's opener. (Try throwing anything without using your thumb and see how you do.) But he understands the game and has passable skills in all other areas except when he needs to scramble, in which case he is laughably inert. Some of the Seahawks have said they are convinced they can win games with John Friesz at quarterback. Perhaps. After all, he was borderline brilliant two years ago when he finally got the chance to unseat incumbent incompetent Rick Mirer. That streak of good fortune, though, was severed by a broken leg. This was not an unprecedented development. A demolished knee snapped his first bout of success in San Diego, where he was replaced by Stan Humphries, who took the Chargers to the Super Bowl. Are you seeing a trend here? "There have been some weird things in my career, things you don't have a lot of control over," Friesz said. "If it happens, it happens, and there's not much you can do about it."
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So he's not Warren Moon. Few Quarterbacks are. That doesn't detract from the fact that he's done exactly what's been asked of him, and he's done it well. And yes, he's had more than his share of unfortunate injuries. Injuries with bad timing. Did it make him bitter? Did it make him give up? NO!!!! You've got to admire John Friesz's attitude!
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| When it became clear that Moon deserved more money and Friesz deserved less, he readily complied with a bite that took him from $1.9 million down to $370,000. |
| I'm at a loss to explain this one. Friesz had a contract that would pay him a lot more money than he would ever get through renegotiations. Why would you sit down and offer to give up some of the money? WHY???
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| (Get ready for this next quote, because you won't believe it came from a pro athlete.) "It was obvious that if I wasn't going to be the starter, then I shouldn't earn what I was earning. If I happen to play and play well, then I will be compensated. I don't expect anything to be given to me." Repeat for emphasis and shock value: "I don't expect anything to be given to me."
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| There is nothing I can say to add to that. It speaks for itself.
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| Moon, on the other hand, wants the Seahawks to give him heaping gobs of moolah. |
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Biting my tongue!!! (But if you'd like to know how I feel about that, try this page!!
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| And that's all right by the tactful Friesz. "Warren has turned into a leader of this football team," Friesz said. "Everybody would love to see him come back. We hope it can work out to an amicable situation for both the team and Warren." Surely, there must be some selfish motives in there somewhere. "It's obviously fun for me to be back playing, going out with the first unit," Friesz said. "I've had my share of that during my career and it's what I prefer. "I see it as an opportunity to get ready to play when my time is called. I feel that will come at some point this year, whether it's early or late or in the middle, I'm going to need to be ready to play." But aren't there any times, John, when you want to just go in a closet and scream? "No, maybe I'll do that when I'm all done," he said. "Maybe when I'm talking with my grandkids, I'll say, 'you know, back in '93 I could have done this if that didn't happen.' The way I see it now, the past is the past and there's nothing I can do about it." So, if he's the starter, the backup or the clipboard holder, Friesz can live with it. And it's a rare perspective that allows it. "Look, I played eight years and that's eight years more than I thought I'd ever play," he said. "So it's not like I'm on borrowed time or anything, but it's something that has been a pleasant surprise, so I can't get too upset about how any of this turns out."
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The world could learn a lot from John Friesz.
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