Last season could have been termed disastrous for Itula Mili.
Not only did Jerramy Stevens take over his starting tight end position in the robust Seattle Seahawks offense, but before the season even began he was rushed to the hospital for surgery to untangle his intestines that had become mangled in response to surgery he had when he was 8 years old.

“It was scary because of the unknown,” Mili said. “One minute I’m a starting tight end in the NFL, the next I can’t even eat food. The intestines twisted and just stopped working. They straightened it all out, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. It could happen again 20 years from now just like it did this time.

“All I can say is, it makes me really, really appreciate what I have here.”

Mili, 33, had averaged better than 37 catches and 400-plus yards in the previous three seasons, setting franchise records for number of receptions (46) and yardage (508). Stevens broke the latter with 554 yards, and came up one shy of his reception mark last year, while Mili was active for just two games and didn’t catch a pass in 2005.

But as minicamp began Monday, Stevens was still on crutches from off-season knee surgery that will keep him out until training camp, and Ryan Hannam left as a free agent to go play in Dallas. So this week it's Mili at tight end, along with a bunch of free agents such as Will Heller, Mike Gomez, Brock Edwards and Matt Henshaw.

“We’re looking for players, for heaven’s sakes,” Seahawks tight ends coach Jim Lind said. “Jerramy will be back, but obviously we have to replace Ryan Hannam, so we’ve got to find a guy. It will be an interesting deal with that bunch to see who rises to the top. And somebody has to in that group, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

The exciting part is how good Itula looks. He’s been right on course, working real hard and it’s showing up out on the field. Any of your players you’ve been around, you feel for them when something like that happens to them. You can feel what they’re going through. But this game is so week by week you never know what’s going to happen, and as the season went along we were fortunate Jerramy and Ryan stayed healthy. He wasn’t able to get back in there, but it’s a new year and Itula has accepted the challenge and is ready to go.”

Once Mili did get healthy and regain his strength, there was no room for him on the active roster with Stevens and Hannam playing so well. At his age, it could have ruined him mentally, and the coaching staff knew it.

Teammates helped him fight through the blues. Five years in a row he had played every game for the Seahawks, and in 2004 he played in 15 of 16 games. Now he couldn’t get near a game until the end of the regular season; and then when the Seahawks won both of their playoff games and went to Super Bowl XL, there was Mili, stuck in suspended animation.

“He was a real pro last year and went through a real tough year,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. “He’d been used to playing and could not play, first of all because he got sick. He was seriously sick, and when he came back, the makeup of the team and the special teams wouldn’t allow me to get three tight ends active for the game. So I am very, very pleased with how he’s looking. He’s come in in good shape and I know he wants to contribute. Now that Jerramy won’t be able to go until training camp, it gives Itula a chance to feel good again and a part of this thing. That’s healthy.”

Yes it is, particularly in the wake of frustration seeping through every pore of his body. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, he changed up his work regimen, and instead of bulking up then losing weight, he worked out – strengthened his flexibility and kept his weight down.

And instead of getting the once over from the coaches as he did the past couple of season, he’s got the look of a lean and mean tight end – ready to block, catch passes or just run over people.

“It comes down to how I respond to what happened last year,” Mili said. “Things happen to a lot of guys in the NFL, and it just hadn’t happened to me before. Right now I’m going into my 10th year; it’s in the past, all I can do is respond to it and I think I have.

“Just standing on the sidelines all year, the way I look at it now is sometimes you play for nine years and can take it all for granted. Just being on the sidelines last year made me realize what a good thing I had going and that I needed to do everything I could to get back to where I was. It can all get taken away from you real fast. Being part of the NFL and especially the luck of playing for an organization like the Seahawks, I can now say it was a good experience that taught me a lot.”

¶ 06/06/06 9:38 PM //

So many times they've had to stand in this same room and explain the inexplicable. Explain the blown coverage. Explain the field-goal attempt that doinked off the upright. Explain the lost fourth quarter that defied all logic.

On the road to two decades of mediocrity, the Seahawks have lost a lifetime of these games. This season they're winning them.

So many times the postgame locker room was so silent you could hear the hissing of the showers. The excuses came in whispers. Faces were blank. The players' answers to questions never seemed to add up.

How could they explain the inexplicable?

Now there is life in the locker room. There is a feeling that something is happening here. Something new. Something else that is just as hard to explain, but a lot more enjoyable.

No coach can quantify rolls like the Seahawks are on. A coach can't summarize in one paragraph why the same franchise that has lost these games for as long as this town can remember suddenly is winning them.

How does anyone explain the 11 false-start penalties on the New York Giants? Every team plays in loud stadiums and even if the Seahawks' home was as loud as Husky Stadium once was, it doesn't explain how a good team made the same mistake 11 times.

How does a coach explain a quality field-goal kicker like Jay Feely gagging not one, not two, but three game-winning field goals, each a little uglier than the one before it.

Every good team gets a break here and there. But in Sunday's 24-21 overtime win against the Giants, the Seahawks got breaks here and here and there and there and all the way to infinity - or at least to the best record in the NFC.

"I do believe this is our year," said Shaun Alexander, who rushed for 110 yards that were as tough as January.

The statistics will say that Seattle didn't deserve to win. So what? The highlights will say the Hawks were lucky. They were. It doesn't matter.

The Hawks are 9-2, undefeated in six home games. And each win is another brick in the wall.

"I've been on some bad teams that were this close to being good teams," said center Robbie Tobeck, holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart. "But the close games you lose. You can say what you want about this game, but we found a way to get the `W'. That's what it is sometimes. It's grinding it out. It's the NFL."

When you're hot, you're hot. You absorb the inevitable injuries. You escape the seemingly inescapable. You believe in miracles. You make them happen.

"There's no way to really explain this," cornerback Marcus Trufant said. "We just kept fighting and fighting and playing hard and things finally went our way. You've just got to keep playing."

A break here? A break there?

Sure, Feely missed three potential game-winners, but the Seahawks' defense made sure none of them were chip shots.

And sure the offense struggled against the Giants' steely defense, but when quarterback Matt Hasselbeck had to make one final play, he found D.J. Hackett for 38 yards.

And five plays later, just as he did against Dallas, Seahawks kicker Josh Brown confidently hammered his 36-yard game-winner.

"We've been on the losing end of these games a lot of times," said guard Steve Hutchinson, a Seahawk since 2001. "Frankly a lot of the guys who have been on this team for a while are tired of it. Tired of losing games like this."

The Seahawks busted another ghost on Sunday. They now have won at home against Atlanta, Dallas and New York. They've established themselves as the NFC's favorite to go to Detroit in February.

"I don't think we're getting the respect we deserve being 9-2 in the Northwest," said Joe Jurevicius, who had eight catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns. "But that's fine. Let's just continue to play strong football and let the chips fall where they may."

This team doesn't allow one bad down to affect the next down, the way past Seahawk teams did. Mistake doesn't pile on top of mistake.

For instance, Hackett and Hasselbeck miscommunicated on a third-and-five in the Hawks' second overtime possession, then connected on the game-winning drive.

"There is a fine line between winning and losing, and that was obviously true today," Hasselbeck said. "For whatever reason in the past we were never that (winning) team and now, for whatever reason this year, we are that team. Whatever the reason is, I don't know, I don't really care. I just like being that team."

Sometimes winning is inexplicable, as hard to understand as the winds that swirl around the stadium, as confusing as the snap counts were to the Giants' offensive line.

"All I know," Tobeck said, "is it's a lot more fun to explain a win like this. At least you can explain a win with a smile on my face."

¶ 28/11/05 6:46 PM //

Giants punter Jeff Feagles, 39, set the NFL record for consecutive games with his 283rd. The mark of 282 was held by defensive lineman Jim Marshall.

Star: Shaun Alexander ran for 110 yards and a TD on 31 carries. He had seven carries for 16 yards at halftime.

Extra point: The Seahawks are 9-2 for the first time since 1984, the last time they won a playoff game.

¶ 28/11/05 6:45 PM //