It was a good time for a truce, however temporary it may be.
In the end, the NFL and the family of Junior Seau respected the moment Saturday, the day of the induction of the first Polynesian into America’s favorite sport’s Hall of Fame.
There will be other times when the lawyers can duke it out, slogging through the wrongful death suit the family filed a year after Seau killed himself in 2012 at age 43.
The family rejected the NFL’s settlement for players suffering from health effects due to head trauma. Like others, they see it as hush money, and not enough to adequately address the issue.
“The Seau family wants the truth to come out,” their attorney, Steven Strauss, said at the time of the suit.
The league said policy regarding deceased inductees dictated that Sydney Seau, daughter of the Chargers, Dolphins and Patriots linebacker, could not speak live as her father’s presenter. Seems more like it was fear of what she might say.
Sydney said she never had any intention of talking about how repeated head contact common to football irreparably damaged her father and many others because of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Thankfully, the NFL relented and let her speak. Thankfully, she talked about Junior Seau’s passion and talent, not his head injuries and the manner of his death — although that is important and not to be ignored, it was properly put aside for this one day.
“Most of all you gave us your heart. … I know at times it seemed like everything you accomplished in life was not enough,” Sydney said. “You were more than Junior Seau No. 55 and a buddy. You were a light.”
Others also noted the significance of Seau as the first Samoan and first Polynesian to be enshrined at Canton (and just a few months after the first to win the Heisman Trophy, Marcus Mariota).
“Obviously today is a major milestone for us,” said Jesse Sapolu, a Samoan from Farrington High and the University of Hawaii who earned four Super Bowl rings as a 49ers offensive lineman. “It’s like Junior’s spirit is at the door at that Hall of Fame, opening the door to tell the Polynesian kids there’s no limitations to what you can do.
“I remember when I first came to the league, every three or four weeks you might see one on the other team. Now we’ve got three or four on every team.”
But there was only one Junior Seau. His friends everywhere know that, including those here in Hawaii.
“It was ‘Hey, Buddeeee! With four ‘e’s’,” said Rick Nakashima, the Honolulu restaurant owner and former UH track coach who became friends with Seau in 2006. “When he signed something nice, for a friend, that was his stamp of authenticity.”
Another friend described Seau as going through “a downward spiral” in his personal life following his retirement in 2009 after 20 NFL seasons.
Nakashima did not see Seau the last two years of his life, and describes him as “the most socially brilliant person I’ve ever known.
“We told him to come out here and hang out and get away from things, but he never wanted to. I told him I loved him because of how he treated other people. He knew how to include people he’d just met, would bring them into the conversation, polite and kind. Remembered everybody’s names.”
The Seau that Nakashima remembers took his work seriously but himself not so much.
“We were driving down to his annual fundraiser. As we’re headed down there, we’re cruising through Oceanside. He says, ‘Buddeeee, you ever have a pedicure?’ So we pulled in and next thing you know we’re in chairs. The funny thing is the pedicurist comes up, looks at his toes and starts laughing, like, ‘What am I going to do with this?’ His toes were all just mangled, all broken from stopping too fast on the football field. So he just laughed, too.”
Junior Seau lost that ability to laugh way too young. It was right that he was remembered purely for football greatness and the way he lived Saturday.
But the eventual full telling of how and why he died could save others, or at least bring them some justice.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quickreads.
