‘Surreal’: Told he’d never play again, Ben Burr-Kirven plays again for the Seahawks
It was a preseason game in early August, a full month before the games get real.
For Geno Smith, Bobby Wagner, Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf and 11 others among the 22 starters on offense and defense, it was a night off. They watched from the Lumen Field sideline as Seattle’s mostly reserves and rookies played the Seahawks’ preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings.
For Ben Burr-Kirven, it was the biggest game of his football life.
After two of the loneliest, doubting years of his life he was back, playing the sport he’d been told he must give up.
Burr-Kirven tapped his helmet with both hands. Then the former University of Washington linebacker didn’t jog, he sprinted onto the field to be in the middle of the Seahawks’ kickoff team for the opening kick Thursday night. He wasn’t in on the tackle teammates Dee Eskridge and Coby Bryant made on the returner.
Midway through the second quarter, with Seattle trailing 10-0 and All-Pro teammate Bobby Wagner watching from the sideline, Burr-Kirven entered on defense for the first time. He was at inside linebacker, next to Jon Rhattigan. The Vikings threw short passes away from Burr-Kirven three times. He blitzed on one of those plays, and slammed into Minnesota running back Ty Chandler while trying to get to quarterback Nick Mullens.
The Seahawks forced the Vikings into a three-and-out drive on Burr-Kirven’s first series.
On the next series, Burr-Kirven sprinted to the edge of the defense and tackled Minnesota running back Abram Smith for no gain.
Statistics of tackles and snap counts can’t measure how special it is for Burr-Kirven that he now all the way back.
“It was surreal,” he said after the Seahawks’ 24-13 win Thursday night.
“It’s a huge moment when you don’t play football for two years and get told you will never play again. To be out there today was a pretty special experience.”
Burr-Kirven said he felt rusty, and that the game came at him quickly. He said the opening kickoff was faster than he remembered it being.
“I definitely felt like I haven’t played football in two years,” he said, “so there’s a lot to clean up.”
Coach Pete Carroll said this is a big deal to all inside Seattle’s locker room. He made Burr-Kirven a captain for the game.
Burr-Kirven said that was “pretty special” of Carroll to do.
The coach thought that was a obvious call.
“It’s been a long road,” Carroll said. “He’s looked really good, looked very comfortable, and looked full speed.
“It’s an inside and personal deal for all of us, to see him have made it back after it was such a long haul for him. Excited for his chances.”
And that was before the former University of Washington linebacker played in a game for the first time since Aug. 21, 2021.
That night in a preseason game at Lumen Field, two seasons into his NFL career as a special-teams mainstay and backup to Bobby Wagner at middle linebacker, Burr-Kirven did just as he did Thursday night. He ran down the field on the opening kickoff against the Denver Broncos. As the kick bounded into the Lumen Field end zone for a touchback, Burr-Kirven got shoved. The push caused him to lose his balance and step too far across his left leg. That pushed his entire knee “out the back door,” as he now describes it, through the central, back portion of his left leg.
He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and had extensive nerve damage in his leg. The nerve damage caused in Burr-Kirven what’s known as drop foot. That’s a condition in which one can’t lift the toes or front of the foot.
It required what he says is the first nerve-replacement surgery in a leg on a professional athlete.
The nerve damage was so extensive multiple doctors told him to begin his life after football. He was 24 years old.
“That’s what I was trying to really suss out: ‘Am I done?’ he said the second day of training camp two weeks ago.
Thursday night, there he was. Not at all done.
Teammate Quandre Diggs, Seattle’s Pro Bowl safety, said it “was dope” to see Burr-Kirven return to practicing with the Seahawks July 27.
“Just knowing the road he’s been through the last two years and being able to stay in touch with him over all this time, it’s been cool. I’m excited for him.”
The day Burr-Kirven returned to the team, Diggs pointed to younger Seahawks trying to make this year’s roster on special teams. They don’t know and have never played with Burr-Kirven.
Diggs told them during the practice: “This guy is a menace on special teams.”
“So some of these younger guys and younger linebackers that think ‘Oh I’ve arrived,’ Diggs said after practice, “well, BBK is back.
“So be alert for him going out there and taking people’s reps.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2023 at 8:37 PM.
