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Seau Shows What’s Inside Really Counts

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

His metamorphosis from misplaced linebacker to Pro Bowl alternate has been lost in the rubble of another season to forget.

A few more victories, an attention-getting playoff berth, and instead of laying low, Junior Seau might be taking a bow today.

You remember Junior Seau, the bitter, sullen, mistake-prone Junior Seau. He was the woe-is-me first-round pick who grudgingly signed a $4.525-million contract to play for his hometown Chargers.

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He began his National Football League career in a pout. Early in the season he had more penalties than he did tackles. The fans in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium booed him, and then the opposition ran right by him.

“How low is low?” Seau said.

Disaster, however, eventually gave way to gradual improvement: A proper read here, a tackle there.

“Accepting my role as an inside linebacker was the big thing,” Seau said. “No more glory. It was hard to get rid of the glory years on the outside. It was hard to let go.”

Junior Seau’s pursuit of glory has been relentless. It drove him hard at USC, where he piled up 19 sacks as a junior. It pushed him to train and work harder than most any other draft-eligible player, and prompted his draft-day value to rise dramatically.

Glory suits Junior Seau. It makes him happy. Makes him cocky. And in an appealing boys-will-be-boys way, it makes him unbearable.

“He’s giving me a ration of grief, because he’s playing out of position and he’s in his first year and he’s selected to be an alternate to the Pro Bowl,” linebacker Gary Plummer said. “He’s telling me he’s gotten what I’ve been trying to get for the last eight years.

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“So I go over and get two glasses of water and throw them on him to cool him down.”

A glorious shower. An inspiring affirmation of what defensive coordinator Ron Lynn has been trying to tell him for the past four months: “There is glory to be found as an inside linebacker.

“He can be a glamour player, the glamour player in the league where there are no glamour players,” Lynn said. “Who do you talk about when you talk about inside linebackers? (Miami’s) John Offerdahl? (Detroit’s) Chris Spielman? (Chicago’s) Mike Singletary?

“This guy can be all those guys and much, much more. He also has the ability when all else is said and done to get into our four-down linemen scheme and rush the passer. He offers the best of both worlds.”

However, none of it has happened as quickly as Seau had planned. By his calculations, he was on his way into the Hall of Fame as soon as he donned the shoulder pads for the first time.

“He expected to play like Superman,” Lynn said. “But you take (Seattle’s) Cortez Kennedy and (Tampa’s) Keith McCants, and tell me who has had the most impact on their team? I don’t think it’s even close. Junior is light years ahead of both of those guys because he’s played more plays.”

Seau has been in the team’s starting lineup since the second game of the season. And although he’s been standing on the sideline in third-down situations, he’s No. 2 in tackles with 73.

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“On third downs I’m sitting on the pines just looking at the guys go at it,” he said. “It’s frustrating. I never dropped back in coverage in college. It’s coming together, but they’re schooling me and I have to accept my role.”

His role, while presently that of a youngster in training, will change. As Lynn envisions it, Seau will play here, there and everywhere--the way Denver has used Karl Mecklenberg in the past.

“I think Junior can be the dominant guy in the league at his position,” Lynn said. “I don’t see any one else on the horizon. Name another inside linebacker. (Buffalo’s) Shane Conlan? Shane Conlan can’t carry this guy’s helmet.”

That’s all well and good, but Seau knows how well he played as an outside linebacker. His forte was rushing the passer, and here he is 15 games into his NFL career and he has yet to record a sack.

It’s no fun playing inside. No one notices. There is no glory.

“Inside linebackers don’t have as high a profile as outside linebackers,” he said. “On the outside you get sacks. One sack a game, and you’re considered a dominant player.

“You get nine tackles a game as an inside linebacker, and you’re just a good player. You don’t get money nowadays for tackles. You don’t get the prestige. You don’t get the respect outside guys get.”

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Before the draft, Seau met with the Chargers’ coaching staff and said he welcomed the opportunity to play inside. After being selected, however, he began to balk at making the position change. After saying all the right things, everything went wrong.

When contract negotiations stalled and then turned ugly, he became more irritated at the prospect of playing inside linebacker. By his own estimation, he had the most talent to offer at outside linebacker.

“I was a lost kid at that time. Very confused,” he said. “You can feel yourself falling off track and I fell off track. I lost my morals and values on what got me here.

“Then I went out and played against the Raiders in the final preseason game and I wasn’t ready. I got in the fight and everything happened so quickly. I couldn’t grasp what happened. And what happened was Junior Seau was immature and ran away. He wanted to find a rock and just hide behind it.”

The Chargers, however, stuck with Seau. They played him. They reminded him they were going to play him at inside linebacker, like it or not. And when he struggled, they continued to stay with him.

“It’s gonna take time. He would be involved in a lot more things on a lot more downs if he was in a position to handle it,” Lynn said. “He isn’t going to beat people by running by them like he did in college. He isn’t going to be getting big stiffs at left tackle like he did in college.

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“He’s become more patient and more disciplined. His first response to anything was to go at a 100-m.p.h. tempo.

“It’s like the first time you pick up a baseball bat. You’re going to swing as hard as you can to hit the ball as far as you can. It takes some time to learn the timing is more important than brute strength. Junior can still be the great home run hitter, but being more efficient, he will be better.”

With his size--6-foot-3, 243 pounds--Seau brings something special to the middle of the field. He’s built like Chip Banks and runs like Anthony Miller. And when he’s on target, he hits like Lee Williams and Leslie O’Neal--combined.

“You couldn’t draw an athlete more perfectly,” Lynn said. “He’s a big man, and there are very few guys playing where he’s playing that have the speed he has.

“He made a play (against Denver) on a screen pass that got the attention of all his teammates. He was on the wrong side of the field, standing in the wrong place and yet he responds athletically and runs all the way across the field to stop a guy for a two-yard gain. You see something like that, and you realize he’s not even scratching the surface.”

Williams recalled the same play. “Just unbelievable,” he said. “I’m talking a great athlete here. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say what you have here is a potential superstar.”

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Seau doesn’t turn 22 until January, and he still hasn’t experienced his first NFL training camp. He’s as green as he is talented.

“Junior’s got the kind of raw physical ability, that regardless if you put him at free safety, he would make some great plays,” linebacker Billy Ray Smith said. “I kind of gained a new appreciation for him, because he’s got that natural ability, but he didn’t rest on it.”

Smith, like Seau, was the fifth player selected in the first round of the draft. And like Seau, Smith was asked to make the switch from outside linebacker to the inside.

“It’s like a different game inside,” Smith said. “To be head up on the tight end or on the line of scrimmage looking in, you really only have to worry about guys coming at you from one side.

“You move to the inside and it’s kind of like the difference between tic-tac-toe and 3-D tic-tac-toe. It adds another dimension that you have to worry about.”

Smith stayed inside for three years--a lifetime for an impatient Seau.

“It’s so different,” Seau said. “When I was lining up at the beginning of the year, I was looking at half of the field. This was my half of the field. I wasn’t looking at everybody who was participating in the game; just the people in my half. That’s how I dealt with it. I had to simplify the defense.”

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In the middle of the field, it’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve. If you make one wrong move, “you can’t recover,” Seau said. “On the outside, you can still make a mistake and your speed and athletic ability can bail you out of trouble.”

Plummer, who perennially leads the team in tackles from his inside position, has provided a steady example for Seau. Plummer also has grown to respect his understudy.

“I’ve really been amazed at his progress,” Plummer said. “I’ve seen guys come and go and these guys played inside linebacker in college.

“So what Junior has done without any previous experience amazes me even more. If he continues to improve like he has, there is no doubt in my mind he’ll be an All-Pro some day.”

Seau, the embryonic superstar, still has the first sack to record, the first interception to grab, the first fumble to recover. And already, he’s come so far.

“No question in our mind,” Lynn said, “we’ve got a gem here.”

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