Moon Not too Old to Lead Seahawks

Some people keep telling Warren Moon he’s too old to be an NFL quarterback and take the punishment that goes with the job.

He tries not to listen. Sometimes he can’t cover his ears fast enough.

“The more people talk about my age, the more you buy into it,” said the Seattle Seahawks’ star quarterback, who turns 42 in November. “Then when you do something, you say, ‘Hey, I’m not supposed to be able to do that.”’

Those people aren’t his teammates.

“We don’t look at his age or anything like that,” said new Seahawks running back Ricky Watters. “We just kind of look at it like, ‘This is a phenom right here.”’

Moon, in his 15th NFL season and 21st in pro football, is the league’s second oldest player behind 44-year-old Steve DeBerg, Atlanta’s third-string quarterback. But Moon plays, DeBerg doesn’t.

Moon is also a key to the Seahawks’ bid to make the playoffs for the first time since 1988. And he’s got more help this year with the addition of Watters and an improved defense, which has led the team to a 3-1 start.

Moon’s role has changed this year and the Seahawks no longer rely as much on his passing. Watters plays a big part of that, and it’s no coincidence that the quarterback helped recruit him as a free agent.

Moon believes the Seahawks’ new approach of run first makes them a better a team. Nonetheless, he’s as competitive as ever.

“I haven’t been able to get in the type of rhythm that I’m used to in the passing game,” Moon said.

He thinks his 25-day holdout from training camp before he settled for a two-year, $4.9 million contract hurt his accuracy, but he insists he’ll get better. And who could doubt him? He set team records for completions (313) and yards (3,678) last year.

“I think he lies about his age,” Seattle coach Dennis Erickson said. “I think he’s younger than he is.

“It won’t amaze me if he plays next year. And it probably won’t amaze me if he plays the year after that. I might be too old to retire when he gets done playing.”

But the way he’s going, Moon might never stop.

He is a man of principle who left the Houston Oilers after 10 years because he refused to take a pay cut when they decided Cody Carlson was their No. 1 quarterback. In Minnesota, where he played three years, he was waived by the Vikings after he refused to take a pay cut when the team decided Brad Johnson was its quarterback. (Moon also played six years in the Canadian Football League).

The Seahawks signed him as a free agent--to be John Friesz’s backup--before last season. He became Seattle’s starter after Friesz broke his thumb in the 1997 opener.

Moon responded with a splendid season, passing for an NFL-high 409 yards and five touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders in October. He got to the Pro Bowl as an injury replacement for Elway and was that game’s MVP.

“I can still throw it,” he said. “I’m blessed with that. I’m just doing the things I’ve always done.”

Moon was sacked 30 times in 14 starts with Seattle last season. With the additions of Kevin Glover and Brian Habib to the Seahawks’ offensive line, he has better protection this year.

With Watters and Seattle’s running attack taking the pressure off him, Moon won’t get hit as much as last season, when he missed the second Oakland game because of sore ribs.

Moon has always taken good care of himself, which might explain why he’s still around. If he’s not careful, he knows he won’t be able to make it onto the field.

“Instead of having treatment once a day, you have treatment twice a day,” Moon said. “Or you get your massage twice a week. Or you go see the chiropractor if you get whacked around a little bit.”

The key, of course, is not getting whacked around.

“I don’t take a lot of unnecessary chances,” he said. “You don’t see me putting my shoulder down trying to take on somebody like Aikman did. I think being smart about it has a lot to do with it.”

Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman, 10 years younger than Moon, broke his collarbone running against Denver in Week 2.

“I watch these young guys go down every week and I pinch myself sometimes,” he said. “I’m so lucky I can still go out there every week and play.”

Steelers coach Bill Cowher is a longtime admirer of Moon. He thinks the University of Washington star of the 1970s is with the right team in the 1990s.

“He’s in a very good offense,” Cowher said. “He’s not taking the beating that he did in Houston with the run-and-shoot. Now, he’s able to hand off to Ricky.”

Darrin Smith, Seattle’s leading tackler and new linebacking star, was still in high school when he first began following Moon’s career.

“It’s really a privilege getting to play with somebody who is going to be in the Hall of Fame,” the 28-year-old Smith said. “Down the line when I’m done playing football, I’m going to be able to say I got to play football with one of the best.”