This week, former University of Hawaii receiver John Ursua is living in the bubble.
As a precursor to next week’s start of training camp, Ursua and his Seattle Seahawks teammates are sequestered in a hotel near the team’s facilities in Renton, Wash.
“It’s been an interesting situation,” Ursua said.
Ursua, like each of his teammates and coaches, has his own room. Meals and snacks are provided.
“They drop it off outside our doors,” Ursua said. “They knock on our door, make sure we have some healthy meals.”
Team and position meetings are conducted on Zoom. The hotel gym is closed. “They’re making sure we stay in the hotel and we’re not walking around,” Ursua said, and “we have our masks on.”
Ursua arrived in Renton on Monday. The next morning, he underwent a COVID-19 test. Thursday’s results showed none of the Seahawks tested positive for the virus. The team will be tested again today, with the results available on Sunday. If they pass the second test, they will undergo physical examinations on Monday.
“And then we’ll go from there and go back to the facilities, start working out, training, practice, all that,” Ursua said.
Ursua said he is ready to resume workouts. Ursua spent most of the offseason in Hawaii before going to Utah for 10 days earlier this month. Ursua, who attended high school in Utah for three years, bought his mother a house in the Beehive State. He said scheduling conflicts kept him from working out in Utah with former UH teammates Marcus Kemp, Ammon Barker, Max Broman and Dylan Collie. “We ended up just talking, texting,” Ursua said.
Ursua said he also has kept in contact and offered advice to three recent UH players — quarterback Cole McDonald, cornerback Rojesterman Farris II and receiver JoJo Ward. McDonald was the Tennessee Titans’ seventh-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft. Farris and Ward signed free-agent contracts with the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals, respectively. The Seahawks and Falcons meet in the season opener. The Seahawks and Cardinals face each other twice this regular season. “It’ll be nice to see some former teammates,” Ursua said.
For now in Renton, Ursua gets his football fix studying plays, participating in meetings, and playing Madden NFL 21 on his Xbox.
“I’m just trying to keep my mind as normal as possible,” Ursua said. “I don’t like being stuck in one place and one area for a long time. Madden helps me out a little bit.”