After struggling through a tough 2008 season, Seahawks president Tim Ruskell and coach Jim Mora decided the team needed an infusion of toughness.
Enter, in order, nose tackle 
Together, they bring 34 seasons of NFL experience to the mix – not to mention more than half a ton of toughness.
“Either guys have it or they don’t,” Mora said. “A team has it or they don’t have it. We’ve made a concerted effort in the draft and free agency to find guys that have a strong physical presence.
“These guys are all tough. They’re all tough.”
This makeover wasn’t just a coach longing to have more toughness on his team. It became an organization-wide obsession.
“We made a point with our scouts, to have that be a filter we put all these guys through. Where are they on the toughness scale?” Ruskell said. “Because that’s the point of emphasis with the coaching staff, so it has to be the point of emphasis for the personnel department.
“Jim made it a point of emphasis all offseason – that’s how you win the close games, that’s how you win the road games, that’s how you win playoff games. Toughness. Our record is not good in road games forever, and you can’t keep blaming the travel and the time zone.
“There’s something more to it than that.”
It’s toughness. And, unlike proper footwork or textbook tackling technique, it’s not something that can be coached.
“I don’t know that you go through three weeks of training camp and just create nastiness,” Mora said. “We look at guys and say, ‘Are they tough guys? Are they great competitors? Are they guys that can intimidate on the field? Do they have a strong physical presence?
“And we try to add guys like that to the mix.”
Redding finds it, well, tough to argue with the logic or the selection of players.
“If that was the goal – to get toughness – than they fulfilled it once they got all of us,” he said, smiling. “So I think they did a good job.”
With all that said, here’s a look at each of the tough guys the Seahawks added to their mix:
Colin Cole – All it takes is one look at the 6-foot-1, 330-pounder to see that “toughness” could be his middle name.
It’s also a prerequisite for the position he plays.
“Certainly, you start with the nose tackle,” defensive end
“We have toughness in Colin.”
But where did Colin get his toughness? “I can’t say that I’m the epitome of what toughness is, but for me it goes all the way back to high school and wrestling,” he said.
Cole wasn’t just a wrestler – and definitely not a ’rassler. He was the undefeated state champion his senior year at South Plantation High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – and his only loss as a junior came at the state tournament. His combined two-year record: 61-1.
It was wrestling that taught Cole how to establish a good base when someone else is trying to knock you over, and how to use his low center of gravity and natural power to impose his will on others.
“Prior to me wrestling, I don’t know that I had the balance, I don’t know that I had some of those things that I utilize playing defensive line now,” he said.
It also was wrestling that gave Cole an outlet for his aggressive nature.
“If it hadn’t been for wrestling, I would never have gained the abilities that I’ve got right now – especially to be able to play on the interior the way I do,” he said. “All the attributes that you have to have to play, I got from wrestling.
“Every play, every snap, for me is hand-to-hand combat. Every snap for me is tight quarters. Hands. Hand placement. Balance. When guys are coming at your legs, you’ve still got to play square; you’ve got to still play with speed. But at the same time, sometimes you have to play off one guy to get another guy.”
T.J. Houshmandzadeh – Traditionally, you don’t think of wide receivers as being tough. Durable. Productive. Elusive. Deceptive. Yes, yes, yes and yes.
But tough? “Toughness, for me, is every position,” Ruskell said. “Certainly there’s mental toughness.”
That’s Houshmandzadeh, the untraditional wide receiver whose I’ll-show-you streak goes beyond competitiveness and is even longer than his name.
“It’s a product of the way I grew up,” said the man who averaged 89 receptions the past five seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Before he was T.J. Houshmandzadeh the NFL player, he was Touraj Houshmandzadeh the tough kid growing up in equally tough Barstow, Calif.
“I grew up having to fight just to eat, to live,” he said. “When that’s the case – when you’re fighting just to survive – football is nothing.
“Toughness is just a quality I have. I don’t know why. I wouldn’t even call it toughness, even. I would call it just being very competitive. I hate to lose. I’m very competitive, and that’s what comes out.”
For an example of Houshmandzadeh’s toughness – or competitiveness – just watch the way he works the middle of the field. It’s an area where only the tough survive, but he thrives.
Houshmandzadeh also credits his competitive nature to the fact that he did not start playing the sport until he was 17. That’s when he was running back and led Barstow High School to a 10-1-1 record his senior season.
Why the late start? “I have a problem with people telling me what to do,” he said. “When you go to practice and you’ve got this coach telling you to do this and do that, I didn’t do well with that.
“But I realized if I wanted to play, I had to listen to somebody. If I was going to survive in this world, somebody was going to have authority over me.”
If not total control over him.
“As a late-bloomer, it was me feeling like I haven’t been getting my due since I’ve been in the league,” he said. “I feel like I always have something to prove. That’s how I feel. I’ve got something to prove this year.”
Justin Griffith – If the nose tackle shoulders the most thankless tasks on defense, then it’s the fullback who does it on offense.
Griffith is a square-your-shoulders, drive-your-body-into-the-defender lead blocker – the kind needed to play fullback in coordinator Greg Knapp’s offense. That’s why he is reunited with Knapp a third time (they also were together with the Atlanta Falcons and Oakland Raiders). That’s also why Griffith emerged as the starter, even after
“Justin provides a confidence level for the runners that are behind him that Owen has not attained yet,” Mora said.
It starts, of course, with Griffith’s toughness – a definite requirement for his job description.
“There isn’t a whole lot of glory that comes with the position,” he said.
Just a lot of personal satisfaction, and team success.
“First thing, you’re blessed just to be able to play the game,” Griffith said. “But I consider my toughness coming from my dad.”
Lowery Griffith owned a tire shop in Magee, Miss., when Justin was growing up. He still does.
“When I was young, he would never let me sleep in,” Griffith said. “We were always going somewhere. I was either outside in the yard working or helping him at work – lifting tires and rims, changing oil, that type of stuff.”
That’s when Justin was a teenager. His first job was hauling watermelons when he was 12.
“The toughness come from that right there – doing things you don’t want to do, but he made you do it anyway,” he said. “Just being around him and working hard, that got me ready for this because to be a fullback you’ve got to stay strong if you’re going to be part of the game.”
Take it from a guy who never wanted to be a fullback. Griffith ran for 4,700-plus yards and 66 touchdowns his final two seasons at Magee High School. But when he got to Mississippi State, the coaches moved him to fullback.
“Most people don’t know this, but my first and second year at Mississippi State University, I quit twice because I didn’t want to play fullback,” Griffith said.
But each time, he ran into a roadblock on this way back to Magee.
“Both times I quit, my dad met me on my way home and we drove all the way back to Mississippi State,” he said. “So he put that no-quit thing in me.”
Cory Redding – When you talk about toughness, the versatile defensive lineman talks about what it was like to play for the 0-16 Detroit Lions last season.
Redding says getting traded to the Seahawks in mid-March was like starting his career all over again. So the toughness he has displayed – no, flaunted – has been spiked with ample amounts and joy and rejuvenation.
“If you get 11 guys on the field that want to do their job in an extraordinary manner, that will create an extraordinary unit,” Kerney said.
Speaking of “getting” and “guys,” Kerney also offered this assessment of Redding’s at-times violent style of play, “He’ll either beat the guy, or he’ll beat the guy. He’s a good player and a powerful player.”
Redding smiles when told of Kerney’s evaluation. But then Redding has pretty much been smiling nonstop since he joined the team.
“It’s football,” he said when asked about the roots of his toughness. “I don’t want to downplay any other sport, but this is football. You’ve got to be tough in this game. You can’t go out there and be soft.
“If you don’t have that killer instinct, then you’re not going to make it. You’re going to get weeded out. You have to stay mentally tough and physically tough. And I believe we control that, and bring that.”
Ken Lucas – This is his second tour with the Seahawks. A second-round draft choice in 2001, Lucas left after the 2004 season and played the next four years with the Carolina Panthers.
But when the Seahawks were looking to get bigger at cornerback – and also add that needed toughness – they re-signed Lucas.
“Yes, of course I consider myself a tough player,” the 6-foot, 205-pound Lucas said. “Because of my stature, sure, but stature is just one thing. It’s also a mindset.”
Lucas wasn’t always a cornerback. He played wide receiver in high school and also for most of his first two seasons at Mississippi.
“When I moved to corner, I learned to acquire that mentality it takes to play corner,” he said. “My mental toughness comes from people telling me what I can’t do. I’m so motivated by the naysayers that it pushed me to become the player I am today.”
And that would be a player that defensive backs coach Tim Lewis ranks as one of the most competitive players he’s ever been around.
“I just thank the people that told me I would never make it, or wouldn’t last long, for supplying the motivation for why I’m here today,” Lucas said. “It’s a blessing for me to be on Seattle’s team right now. I’m truly blessed.”
Lucas doesn’t just talk the talk; he walks the walk – to the benefit of the younger players who are smart enough to follow his lead.
“It’s work ethic, and I think I’m one of the hardest working people during the offseason,” he said. “I’m highly motivated by not letting the younger guys outwork me in the offseason.
“It’s also about the desire and the passion to want to be best at what I do. I won’t stop until it’s a consensus thought that I’m the best DB in the league.”
Attitude. Environment. Upbringing. Work ethic. All are ingredients the Seahawks have added to the mix while looking to get tougher this season.
“I’m not going to say they did a great job with anything,” Houshmandzadeh said. “I’m going to let everybody else say it. I’m going to show you all, and then let you say it.”
