Robbie Tobek: Even being a dirt bag isn't bad enough

Seahawks coach Jim Mora tried explaining the indefinable characteristics that make good offensive linemen a breed apart.

It’s been a topic the past week since his frustration with his line’s ineffective performance caused him to juggle the lineup in fear for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck’s health and well-being.

There are a few linemen in the league with elite athleticism – Walter Jones, for instance – who can just walk up to the line and dominate an opponent. But the bulk of the really good ones are guys who do whatever it takes to get the job accomplished, within the rules … or at least somewhere close to the rules.

They’ve got to have an inherent nastiness, Mora said, but not quite be demonstrably dirty about it. They’ve got to have the toughness to ignore the inevitable pain, be proud enough to bounce off the canvas after the occasional flat-backing, and stubborn enough to absolutely never tolerate getting beaten by a defender.

Mora came up with the term “dirt bag” to describe their nature. And he used the term as a high compliment.

Sure, dirt bag works. I’ve got a better word for it: Tobeck.

Robbie Tobeck played seven seasons of his 13-year NFL career with the Seahawks. He was probably more athletic than most fans expected, but he will be the first to concede that he kept his job, and even made it to a Pro Bowl (2005), by being crafty and scrappy.

“You probably can’t print this, but you’ve got to be a little bit of a (term that definitely is more salty than dirt bag),” Tobeck said. “You have to have a certain amount of nastiness to you.”

Why? Because that’s the currency in which defensive linemen trade. They love to dish it out.

“In the NFL, if a guy tries to intimidate you, you’ve got to go back after them,” Tobeck said.

At times, Tobeck gave up 30 to 40 pounds to an opponent, who might have been a high draft pick with a giant salary. Didn’t matter. He spent his week working on ways to win those battles.

“Walter Jones can just go out there and be dominating, but I had to figure out some other ways,” Tobeck said. “You have to be honest with yourself about what kind of player you are and what you can do. That’s what (the Seahawks) are trying to evaluate now.”

In Tobeck’s case, he thought the job required the application of unrelenting annoyance.

“I always thought you’ve got to be like one of those gnats that just keep after you,” he said. “It annoys them and takes them out of their game.”

Tobeck heard Mora describe line play as hand-to-hand combat, and agreed.

“It literally is a fight out there, punching, pushing, shoving, head-butting,” he said.

And for the truly effective, it goes an extra step … which Tobeck calls “finishing.”

“Guys like (former Seahawks guard) Chris Gray and myself, we had to learn that maybe a guy beats you, but you have to try to save the block by getting even just a little bit of him, maybe even a piece of his ankle, and that is just enough that the quarterback can avoid him.”

And, yes, it gets a little nasty. Tobeck admitted that when he was freed to help out a guard, he would see the exposed ribs of a defender and it was an appealing place to plant his helmet.

“It’s like being a boxer, go to the body, go to the body,” he said. “And as the game goes on, it slows them down.”

Tobeck recalled one time he squared off against a defender in Cleveland when being smart was a matter of not getting into a fight.

He’d been going at it hard with the guy and when he stone-walled him one time, he taunted “Hey, I thought you were supposed to be rushing the passer, what are you doing up here?”

The guy punched Tobeck, who backed up and indignantly pointed it out to the nearest official, who had no recourse but to eject the offender.

The king of head games at the line of scrimmage, Tobeck said, was former Vikings and Seahawks defensive tackle John Randle.

“He knew your mother’s name, your sister’s name … He did his homework and he could really get inside your head,” Tobeck said. “I learned a lot from him.”

The center’s job requires more practical homework than that, because his duties involve calling protection assignments for the offensive line. The job demands good communication with the quarterback, and Tobeck said he often studied the calls with Matt Hasselbeck, and sometimes sat in on quarterback meetings.

To the linemen, protection of the quarterback is considered a blood-oath.

“The quarterback is your guy, especially when he’s somebody you like, like Hasselbeck … You want to go to war for the guy,” Tobeck said. “You’re his bodyguard and there’s nothing worse than seeing him back there on the ground. It literally ruins your night. You might have 60 snaps and 59 will be great, but if you give up a sack, you’ve had a horrible game.”

Tobeck retired after the 2006 season, but still recalls the sacks.

He’s watched the current Seahawks and thinks that the injuries along the front have contributed to their lack of continuity and consistency.

“You see guys you’re counting on to be your future up there and for one reason or another they haven’t embraced that role,” he said. “I look at our guys (Seahawks) and I don’t think it’s about ability and I don’t think it’s about work ethic, because I know they work hard. So, it’s hard to put your finger on it.”

Do they maybe need to be more dirt-baggy?

“I wouldn’t have said it that way, but I know what (Mora’s) saying and I agree with it.”

As one of the great dirt bags in Seahawks history, Tobeck should know.