Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
GREGG BELL
Associated Press
KIRKLAND, Wash. - The unusual continues for the head-shaking Seattle Seahawks.
The latest rarity has center Robbie Tobeck in a Seattle-area hospital indefinitely with an abscess in his left hip - just as fellow Pro Bowlers Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck are returning to the offense.
"Only this year," coach Mike Holmgren said with a smirk following Friday's practice.
Tobeck, a 13-year veteran whom the Seahawks (6-4) value for his sage line calls and blocking audibles, has missed the previous two games with a severe flu. In August, he had bone chips removed from his elbow.
"Tobeck's in the New England Journal of Medicine about four times," Holmgren said.
Tobeck reported to practice last Monday in preparation to start Monday night's game against Green Bay (4-6) with pain in his left hip. That left him questionable with what the team thought was a muscle pull or a tear.
A midweek MRI exam revealed the abscess. Now, the 36-year-old veteran of two Super Bowls is spending his Thanksgiving weekend in the hospital under a regimen of antibiotics to fight the infection.
"They've got to watch this thing. He is under heavy antibiotics, I think," Holmgren said. "He's sick."
Chris Spencer, the team's first-round draft choice in 2005, will almost certainly make his third career start at center Monday; Tobeck was downgraded to doubtful on Friday.
Earlier this week, before he knew Tobeck's condition, Holmgren reiterated Spencer will soon become the Seahawks' long-term center. And in May, general manager Tim Ruskell said, "I think you will see Chris Spencer quickly challenge at center."
Spencer started five games at left guard for the injured Floyd Womack earlier this season. Spencer said that experience starting next to Tobeck is helping him now.
"Now, I see what he saw. I know why he makes his calls," Spencer said, adding he hoped to visit Tobeck later Friday.
"He's a tough guy, a leader. You miss a guy like that."
Tobeck's hospitalization is just the latest of the Seahawks' unusual absences.
Bobby Engram, the team's leading receiver in 2005, will miss his seventh consecutive game Monday. A thyroid condition has caused him to have an accelerated heart rate and extreme fatigue. Doctors are succeeding in slowing Engram's heart with medication - but the medication leaves Engram exhausted.
Alexander missed six games while doctors waited for a crack in his left foot to disappear. It still hasn't. But the 2005 league rushing leader will start his second consecutive game Monday because he has been pain-free for more than a month.
"I told them we might as well stop X-raying it," Alexander said. "We know that we are at a point where in order for me to hurt it again, it would have to be almost the same exact way. We don't think that is going to happen."
Starting tight end Jerramy Stevens is just now getting back into the flow of the offense following knee surgeries in April and August.
Right tackle Sean Locklear will miss his fourth consecutive game Monday. He has a high left ankle sprain. The league also suspended him for one game because of a January arrest for assaulting his girlfriend.
Long snapper J.P. Darche is out for the year. He went on the injured reserve list Sept. 13 with a hip injury.
And starting defensive tackle Rocky Bernard has a right foot injury. Holmgren said Bernard's availability for Monday night will be a game-time decision.
Hasselbeck's sprained ligament in his right knee has been the only recent Seattle injury to follow an expected course. He will start Monday for the first time in five weeks - "unless something happens in the next couple days that is unforeseen," Holmgren said, presumably with his fingers crossed. Doctors originally told Hasselbeck to expect a recovery time of four to six weeks.
All this after Holmgren began telling his team in March that the recent spate of Super Bowl runners-up faltering in their following seasons has not been a mysterious hex, but merely the result of key injuries.
"I haven't had one (like this)," Holmgren said of his 15th season as an NFL head coach. "It's no fun. This is my first go around at this sort of thing, where a lot of your key guys on offense go out."