On Sunday, and for the rest of this season, the 35 on the back of Joey Blount’s jersey won’t be the most significant number worn by the rookie safety.
Instead, it will be the 1, 15, 41 on his cleats that will mean the most to Blount, the numbers of his three former teammates at the University of Virginia, Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, who were killed in a shooting last month.
Blount wore the cleats during last week’s game against the Raiders, playing only hours after flying back from Miami where he attended Perry’s funeral, having missed Friday’s practice with Pete Carroll’s blessing. Blount will wear them again Sunday against the Rams as the Seahawks take part in the league’s My Cause My Cleats Initiative, and he plans to continue wearing them to keep alive the memory of his three friends whose lives were cut short before they could potentially realize their NFL dreams.
“I think about them every day,” Blount said. “In the game of football, there are a lot of whys that will motivate you to play—family, friends, goals—but for me my purpose got a lot bigger, because those three young men, their dreams were to be where I’m at and they couldn’t get there, so I want to make sure that their fires and flames never burn out.”
Having flown from Miami to Seattle Saturday evening, arriving after midnight, Blount was told by his head coach that the team would be OK with whatever he needed to take care of himself, including not playing in the game, but despite being physically and emotionally drained, he felt the best thing for him and to honor his friends would be to suit up and play.
Prior to kickoff, Blount led the team out of the tunnel carrying the 12 flag, and on that sprint to midfield, and every other play during Sunday’s game, his thoughts were with Chandler, Davis and Perry.
“It was not just physically but emotionally hard because every time I stepped on the field, I would just talk to them in my head just say a little word, like ‘This play is for you,'” Blount said. “I’ve got to always remind myself even when I’m tired that this rep is not just for me, but it’s for other people that were proud of me that wished they could be in my shoes that I’m playing for. So it was a really emotional game for me. Physically I was tired—it was a lot of traveling and I was just worn out from all the emotions and crying that I did, but it was a statement game… It was an emotional game to say the least.”
“Just Like A Little Brother”
While Blount, who…
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