Good read by Peter King on Samuels in his MMQB
Brett Favre elated he came back and that Vikings are winning - Peter King - SI.com
Two very good tackles -- Chris Samuels and Walter Jones -- are nearing the end, and that shouldn't be something just in small type this weekend.
Jones has been a better player, Samuels a better leader. I'm writing about them because I think we -- fans, media, people in the game -- are so inured to players near or at the end of their careers that we turn the page with no regard to the person who has to walk away. That's life. But each has been such an honorable player and person in the game that I think a few paragraphs need to be written about them.
Jones, who turns 36 in January, couldn't come back from microfracture surgery on his knee. He's going to try again in 2010, but the history of microfracture is such that anyone with that much wear on his tires, and at that age, is doubtful to return. "It's too early for a career eulogy,'' said Seattle coach Jim Mora, "but Walter's level of consistency, his level of excellence, is unmatched. In a world in which there's so much boastfulness now, and self-promotion, Walter's gone about his business in a very respectful and dignified way.''
Jones was dominant at the point of attack in the run game, and he had the feet to swing outside and latch onto the top pass-rushers. From this era, he and Jonathan Ogden will go down as top-10 tackles of all-time.
Samuels was drafted by the Redskins third overall in 2000 to be their left tackle for a decade. He almost made it. He's started 141 of 150 games, playing through painful shoulder, knee, ankle, back and neck injuries. But now, having been advised he risks his long-term health if he continues to play with a neck injury, he'll sit the rest of the season. Many of his teammates think he's played his last game.
I followed Samuels in 2000 during the run-up to the draft and through training camp -- in part because SI wanted to do a you-are-there story on a top prospect as he prepared to leave the cocoon of college and enter the pressure of playing right away in the NFL, and in part because of the rise in importance of left tackles. Michael Lewis tells the tale of the value of a left tackle superbly in The Blind Side, and I credit him for seeing what the game has become. Tackle has joined quarterback and pass-rusher as the three most important cornerstone positions for NFL teams.
But as I followed Samuels, I saw not only a good player but also a compelling and conscientious person. The day before the draft, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway, he twice turned away the housekeeper who wanted to make up the room. "It's OK,'' he said. "I got it.'' He'd already made his bed, tidied the room and straightened up the bathroom, hanging the towels neatly on the rack.
In training camp, Bruce Smith and Dana Stubblefield took it upon themselves to school the rook and make his life miserable on and off the field. He took the taunts and the hazing through mini-camps, but determined he wouldn't take it once the real practices started. It took just one practice for Samuels to fight back, taking Stubblefield on a wide rush and, when Stubblefield popped him in the forehead, Samuels cold-cocked him with a roundhouse right to the neck, just below the helmet. He knew as the cornerstone of the offensive line, he had to be a fighter and defend not only his turf but his peers'. He became one of the go-to guys on the team.
When Sean Taylor died senselessly, Samuels vacillated between outrage, fury and leadership -- knowing he had to be there for the grieving, mostly younger guys in his locker room, which he was.
"I've been here six seasons,'' Chris Cooley told me, "and three of those six seasons we've had some significant turmoil. But I never saw guys quit or try less, and part of that is because of Chris. He set such a great example with his work and his play. Part of being a leader is just showing up every day and working hard, and that's all he's ever done.
"It's just so unfortunate that we lose him. He's been the solid rock of the Redskins for 10 years. Cherished by the community. So respected by everyone in the locker room. He's the kind of guy who would have made a great Hog. That's about the greatest thing I could say about him -- he would have fit in with those great Redskins of the past.''
If Samuels and Jones are forced to retire, the league will be diminished without them, and without players like them.