The Man The Seahawks Signed To Replace Chris Clemons Hasn't Played In An NFL Game Since 2007

The Seahawks lost 31-year-old defensive end Chris Clemons to an ACL injury in Sunday night's game at Washington's green-painted dust bowl. 22-year-old rookie sack specialist Bruce Irvin will replace him in the starting lineup at the "Leo" position unique to Seattle's defense. Replacing him on the roster, though, will be someone much less familiar to Seahawks fans: 33-year-old Patrick Chukwurah.

Chukwurah isn't just old. (Although he is. See him, up there, sacking Aaron Brooks? Aaron Brooks hasn't played since 2006.) He's also been out of the league for a long, long time. His last NFL game, per Pro Football Reference, came in 2007 for the Bucs. (He appeared on the Bucs' roster at points in 2008, but he never played in a game.) His last career sack was of Carolina Panthers quarterback David Carr. In 2009 and 2010, he played for the UFL's Florida Tuskers. During those dark years, he spent plenty of time working out, which is how we wound up with this poorly lit, out-of-focus video of him working out to a lesser Rihanna track. Indispensable stuff, that.

After 2010, the Florida Tuskers left Florida, but Chukwurah stayed. He became a personal trainer. He maintained the figure you see in the poorly lit, out-of-focus, Rihanna-scored video. And he presumably kept in loose touch with a few of his Buccaneers coaches. One, Gus Bradley, had taken over as the Seahawks' defensive coordinator. I suppose that's how the Seahawks knew to bring in Chukwurah for a tryout this week. In his tryout he beat Ray Edwards, and Aaron Maybin, and Travis LaBoy. Fat chance they had to overcome the singular fury of a man the game ditched. If you still needed a reason to love the Seahawks's defense—if the Legion of Boom's chirping didn't do it for you—now you've got one.