Sports

POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Ex-Lincoln High teammates Milloy, Kitna are two of a kind

SEAHAWKS AT COWBOYS: With 27 NFL seasons between them, ex-Lincoln High teammates Milloy, Kitna not quite finished

They forged a bond as grade schoolers playing football on a dirt field at East Side Boys and Girls Club, a relationship that matured as their playing days continued through Lincoln High, and later on opposing sidelines in the NFL.

Both are thirty-somethings now, and in the twilight of their NFL careers. Tacoma natives Lawyer Milloy and Jon Kitna likely will meet for the final time when the Seattle Seahawks take on the Dallas Cowboys this morning in Texas.

After beating the odds and enjoying long, accomplished careers in the league, both will be dealing with unfamiliar roles heading into today’s contest. Neither is a starter, with Milloy, 35, filling a backup defensive back role for the Seahawks and Kitna, 37, holding the clipboard while Tony Romo calls the signals as the Cowboys’ starter.

Milloy has won more head-to-head battles – three to Kitna’s two – and said this one won’t go in the record book because neither is likely to see significant playing time today.

“I really look at him now as if we were the same player, just playing on opposite sides of the ball,” Milloy said of Kitna. “We have the same kind of mental approach, even though it’s two different positions. He wants to win, and so do I.”

Competitiveness and resilience spurred the former Abes teammates (1991 graduates) to a combined 27 years so far in the NFL – something younger players like Seahawks cornerback Marcus Trufant, a Wilson High graduate, can aspire to in years ahead.

“You’re always proud when you see someone from your area, and someone you can relate to who is doing it, has done it and is at a place where you’re trying to get to,” Trufant said. “So I had someone to relate to, and someone to follow.”

DIFFERENT PATHS

Of course, Milloy and Kitna took different roads to the NFL. Milloy seemed destined for stardom from the beginning, starting as a freshman at Lincoln. He developed into a top recruit and All-American at the University of Washington, and later a second-round draft pick for the New England Patriots. He helped lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl title and earned four Pro Bowl berths. Milloy later went on to star at Buffalo and Atlanta in his 14 years in the league.

Kitna was a late bloomer for the Abes. Small and spindly, he did not play quarterback until his senior year, earning Narrows League MVP honors but receiving little attention from college recruiters.

“Lawyer was just loaded with talent,” said Bill Milus, who coached both players at Lincoln. “And we felt that he had a chance to be a good college player.

“I’m not saying that he didn’t work hard, but he didn’t have to work as hard as Kitna, because he was blessed with a lot of talent.”

Kitna caught on late at Central Washington, where he rose up from being the last quarterback on the roster and not receiving a ball as a freshman to a four-year starter, leading the Wildcats to an NAIA co-national championship in 1995.

His efforts piqued then-Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson’s interest. He offered Kitna a tryout, and the Seahawks signed Kitna and sent him over to the World Football League to play for the Barcelona Dragons, where he won a World Bowl title. He eventually earned the starting quarterback job for the Seahawks, to the surprise of many NFL observers.

“I’m a guy who John Clayton said coming out of college in my first minicamp that this guy’s got a 5 percent chance of making it on this roster, and here I am going into year 13,” Kitna said. “And it makes me laugh when people want to characterize your career as something. You know, as a failure, or ‘He’s this or that.’ But I don’t really try to listen to what anybody says because nobody believed I would be here for this long, and here I am.

“So it’s far surpassed even my dreams, and I dream pretty big. And so I think God is amazing, and he has a sense of humor.”

Milloy said the two forged a close relationship because of Kitna’s ability to relate to the other kids in his neighborhood, and the leadership he displayed on the field.

“Jon was one of the few white kids that grew up in the ’hood that all of the brothers kind of liked because he was just one of us,” Milloy said. “He was very down to earth. He came from a good family. His mom and dad were always at the games. He was our quarterback.”

Kitna would go on to start 115 games in the NFL, with stops in Seattle, Cincinnati, Detroit and now Dallas. He has a 46-69 record as a starter, and has thrown for over 27,000 yards and 152 touchdowns in his 13-year career.

BUMPS IN THE ROAD

The two faced their share of adversity in the pros. Milloy, a captain with New England and part of the organization for seven seasons, had to deal with getting released by the Patriots just before the season started in 2003 after struggling to renegotiate a contract agreeable to both sides that would have allowed him to stay.

He signed a lucrative deal with Buffalo soon after the Patriots released him, but still had to get over the shrewd way New England head man Bill Belichick handled the situation.

Kitna had what he termed the worst year of his professional playing career last season in Detroit. With the Lions struggling through a winless season, the team placed him on the injured reserve list with a bulging disk in his back last October. Kitna claimed the team used his back injury as an excuse to demote him as the starter in favor of getting a look at younger backups Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton.

Kitna ultimately was traded to Dallas after the season ended.

“The hardest part of all is you have established a reputation as a team player and an unselfish guy,” Kitna said. “You see that just by the attitudes and the actions of a few certain people, and other people can start to question who you are as a man.”

Cory Redding, a defensive end who played in Detroit before coming to Seattle in an offseason trade, backed Kitna.

“I take my hat off to him because of how poised he stayed,” Redding said. “He didn’t gripe. He didn’t moan. He just did what he was supposed to do. They took him out, and he stayed out and supported his team.”

THE JOURNEY HOME

Milloy considered not playing football during the offseason after the Atlanta Falcons severed ties with him in April. He began putting out feelers and networking in the Seattle area in search of a possible career after football. Milloy got involved again with the University of Washington over the summer with the coaching change to Steve Sarkisian.

And then the Seahawks came calling in September, which Milloy deemed the perfect opportunity.

Like Kitna before him, he would get a chance to play for the team he grew up rooting for. Money was never the issue for Milloy, who signed a one-year, $845,000 deal to play with Seattle.

“It was more so just knowing that this was the place where I wanted to raise my family,” Milloy said. “I decided to come home to be around family and friends. And I decided from the transition standpoint it was more important to be on this team than anything else, and football-wise just knowing I have a couple years to give it my all and be productive, why not do it for the home team?”

Kitna sees it as a great opportunity for his childhood friend.

“I’m just so happy for him,” Kitna said. “This is something that we’ve talked back and forth about over the last couple of years. And something he’s always hoped he could do was finish his career in Seattle.

“Besides all that, Seattle is getting a steal. Because what he’s already done, and I know it, is by stepping into the locker room, raise the competitive level of that locker room. I like to think of myself as a pretty competitive person, but that guy right there is about as competitive as they come. He’s not going to take no for an answer. And losing is not OK with him.”

PAYING IT FORWARD

Both Milloy and Kitna intend to get involved with the community they grew up in once their playing careers are over.

Kitna and wife Jennifer are having a house built on American Lake. They plan to move back to the Tacoma area with their four children once his playing career is over to pursue teaching careers and also establish a ministry. Kitna said his time in Detroit should help his effort here working with inner-city youth.

Kitna also wants to coach high school football, which he had intended to do if he had not signed with Seattle after his career was over at Central Washington. Kitna had applied for his former coach Milus’ job at Lincoln once he stepped down.

Milloy said one of the avenues he might pursue is as a motivational speaker and a mentor to kids who are in similar situations as he dealt with growing up in a low-income environment.

“I think it’s important that young kids know that not only myself, but there’s other guys in the league that sat in those same desks, and walked in those same streets and played on those same courts, and went through some of the same things that you went through, and they made it,” Milloy said. “And it’s because they made the right choices, and they had people around them that believed in them.”

Both know their professional careers are winding down, but Milloy acknowledged that although both will be spending a majority of their time on the sidelines today, there’s always a chance they could be out there.

“Knowing him, I know it’s eating him up not to be on the field,” Milloy said of Kitna. “And it’s eating me up also. But the thing that you do is you go out there and work hard, and you stay ready. And you never know.

“We might be counting this game.”

Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437

Eric.williams@thenewstribune.com

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