What nobody knew about Nate Burleson
Seahawks trivia answers: Part II
Some people will remember Nate Burleson as a decent Vikings receiver, others can only think of him as someone born to call NFL games on Nickelodeon, but to me he’s always going to be the bitter after taste of the poision pill.
The Seahawks signed Burleson as a free agent in 2006, but seemingly only as revenge for the Vikings signing Steve Hutchinson and burning Seattle’s transition tag with the “poison pill” clause that sealed his trip to Minnesota. The Seahawks screwed up by giving Hutchinson the transition tag, and then they doubled down on that mistake by signing Burleson to a seven-year, $49 million contract that contained the same poisonous clause if the Vikings tried to match.
Burleson had just 328 yards and one touchdown over 12 games in the previous season. In his first season with Seattle, Burleson had 18 catches for 192 yards. Though he did score nine touchdowns in 2007, Burleson missed virtually all of 2008 and the contract never worked in the Seahawks favor like they thought it would.
But Burleson did something right:
He led the NFL with 58 punt returns for 658 yards in 2007.
In fact, Burleson is the only player in NFL history with three punt returns of 90+ yards.
Unfortunately, it seems like few of us even remembered his time as a punt returner. At least, not THAT fondly.
Most franchise career punt return yards: Nate Burleson! (9.6% — least popular answer!)
Burleson got the fewest answers of any of these five options in last week’s trivia quiz despite his 1,288 punt return yards being the most in Seattle Seahawks history:
Lockett had 1,078 career punt return yards. Bobby Joe Edmonds had 1,010 punt return yards with the Seahawks. Washington had 1,069.
Galloway didn’t have as many yards, but he holds the franchise record with four career punt return touchdowns.
Leon Washington punt return penalty: Kennard Cox! (9%)
Another one where the least-popular answer was the right one, which I attribute to the probability that none of us really remember Kennard Cox.
The former 7th round pick of the Bills with 20 career tackles appeared in 23 games for Seattle from 2010-2011. On October 23, 2011, the Seahawks went on the road to face the Browns and found themselves scorleess, down 3-0 midway through the third quarter.
Despite blocking TWO field goals in the game, Seattle’s special teams ultimately let them down. (I mean, their offense let them down really.) But it wasn’t Washington’s fault.
Forcing their fourth punt, Washington took it back 81 yards to seemingly give the Seahawks a 6-3 lead that would have been insurmountable, but Cox was called for an illegal block in the back and Seattle only got the ball at their own 45. On the very next play, Charlie Whitehurst threw an interception.
Though the Seahawks tied it 3-3 minutes later, the Browns then took a 6-3 lead and Seattle never got close to field goal range again.
Not a real team name submission: Glue Sniffers! (31%)
It does not surprise me that some fan submitted the team name idea “Diarrheas” in 1975. It surprises me that out of 1,741 submissions, the Seahawks still chose to list Diarrheas on their team website as one of the submissions 50 years ago when they didn’t list most others.
I tried to come up with a fake team name that would be almost as ridiculous as Diarrheas, but also not so potentially true that nobody would get it right. I wasn’t going to make the correct answer something that might seem realistic like “Warriors” or something because then nobody would get it right.
30% of your sniffed out the right answer.
Seahawks first-ever opponent: Cardinals! (19%)
Seattle’s first exhibition game was against the San Francisco 49ers. Their first win was against the Buccaneers (13-10 in Week 6). But their first game was a 30-24 home loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Were any of you there?
Before the game, Cardinals receiver Mel Gray predicted that his team would score six touchdowns against the Seahawks:
It wasn’t quite that many (zero by Gray), but the Cardinals scored enough. Cardinals running back Terry Metcalf had 133 total yards that day. He’s not related to DK, but he is a Seattle native who went to Franklin High.
Most-recent points: Noah Fant! (11%)
If I were to reverse engineer how to get this answer correct without actually knowing it (I wouldn’t have known it), I would ask myself another question:
“Why is this question even here?”
4 out of 5 fans answered the most logical answer, kicker Jason Myers, but that’s not what happened.
In the Seahawks final game of the season, Geno Smith threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Noah Fant, his first touchdown in over two years. This gave Seattle a 30-25 lead over the Rams with 3:19 remaining, making it irrelevant to kick the extra point.
The Seahawks went for two and Smith’s pass attempt to Jaxon Smith-Njigba fell short. Fant scored the most recent points for Seattle.
Most passes by a punter: Herman Weaver! (7.6%)
Jon Ryan has the most famous pass attempt by a Seahawks punter, but Herman Weaver has the most total: 7.
Seattle’s punter from 1977 to 1980, Weaver went 4-of-7 as a passer with the Seahawks, including 3-of-4 for 73 yards in 1979.
Called “Thunderfoot” by Howard Cosell, Weaver shares another NFL record: 14 career punts blocked.
Did anyone get 5 or more answers correct?
Seaside Joe 2269
This was not the type of post that I do very often, but I enjoyed researching and making the questions, even if they were a bit hard. What did you think, was Seahawks trivia a worthy post?
If what is online can be trusted Terry Metcalf is actually related to DK! Terry Metcalf is the father of former NFL RB/WR Eric Metcalf, who is a cousin of DK. Quite coincidental that Terry and Eric are Seattle natives, while DK ended up playing for many years for the Seahawks.