Merrill: On the Clock

[keg in kc]

On the clock

Chiefs defensive tackle Junior Siavii knows time is running out if he’s to make it in the NFL.

By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star

RIVER FALLS, Wis.

As a cool end-of-camp breeze swept through this sleepy college town, Junior Siavii ran. He lined up on the thin white sideline, raced to the old wooden press box with the beer sign, then pointed his feet back to nowhere.

Whistles blew on another field. In some ways, Siavii has always been out there alone, running from his past, swatting at the wind. Good luck at camp, the text message read three weeks ago. Steve Greatwood, his old college position coach at Oregon, didn’t know Junior wasn’t practicing.

Earlier this summer, they talked on the phone for an hour and agreed this was a make-or-break year. If Siavii was ever going to live up to the hype, the second-round pick in the 2004 draft, he’d have to impress in training camp.

Siavii walked off the field again Tuesday, his knee hurting, the clock hands moving. He won’t acknowledge what others at Kansas City’s training camp are thinking — that he might not make the team.

“I think it’s a big year for me,” Siavii said. “This is supposed to be my year. There’s a lot of things slowing me down. I’m just saying it’s not over yet. I’ve still got a shot.”

There is so much Junior Siavii wants to say. That he’s sorry. That he wants a new start. He ran a giant paw through his buzz-cut hair. He shaved it before camp — he’d grown it out for nine years — because it was time for a change.

He ran to the sideline 13 times, then grabbed his pads off the grass. Most of the team was gone.

The Chiefs play their second preseason game on Thursday night at New York, and it’s the second chance for coach Herm Edwards to evaluate those on the cusp of making the roster. Siavii probably won’t be in the lineup.

Once a 6-foot-5, 330-pound super-size Samoan sensation, Siavii is now a cautionary tale with a balky knee, a mystery man who conjures up images of spit hoods and untapped potential. Just when it looked as if Siavii had grown up and paid the price for a night of wilding in Minnesota last year, his knee gave out early in the 2005 season.

Siavii says he still hasn’t fully recovered from that injury, but his survival instincts tell him he needs to be back on the field. They’re the same instincts that helped him rise from a de facto indentured servant to an NFL defensive lineman. It’s the same untrusting exterior that wonders what trouble is lurking around the corner.

“When everything’s going good,” Siavii said, “something bad always happens. The knee, the incident that happened in Minnesota … I’m not using it as an excuse, but I’ve just got to change it all. I’ve got to make better judgments.

“I’m more of a homebody now. I stay at home, go to work, go to the movies. That’s it. I don’t want people to pity me because of my background and where I’m from. But don’t sleep on me. Yeah, I haven’t been playing much. But don’t sleep on me. Don’t take me for granted.”

Greatwood worried about Siavii when he packed up for Kansas City in the summer of 2004. For two years, Siavii had finally found happiness. In Eugene, he was home. He came to America from Pago Pago, American Samoa, brought over by a man who claimed to have connections with the University of Utah football program. Siavii spent his days in a warehouse folding T-shirts, not playing football.

He eventually fled, scrimped to put food in his mouth, and landed at Oregon. Every time it seemed football would lead him to happiness, he wound up in trouble.

“He’s always been kind of a street-smart guy,” Greatwood said. “He’s had to be. As far as the workings of society and how to carry yourself, there was a lot of growing up to do with him. I don’t know if he’s still a finished product. If you’ve talked to him, you know he has a hard time expressing himself.

“But when you break down those walls to the inner core, there is a good person there. He can put on a rough exterior, but deep down, the guy wants to express himself, and he does it very well sometimes.”

Siavii has had a hard time developing any reputation on the football field. He played in 12 games as a rookie, with 12 tackles, one sack and three quarterback pressures. Last year, he managed just 14 tackles and a fumble recovery. Siavii said he played hurt for much of the year, and he finally found relief with an offseason knee scope.

But his progress has been slow, and legal battles dogged him much of the 2005 season. In the early-morning hours of Aug. 14, 2005, a rare night off in camp, Minneapolis police were called to a disturbance at a posh hotel. Siavii assaulted a doorman, and police restrained him by placing a spit hood over his head.

Siavii called the incident “stupidity on my part.” He apologized to Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson. He wished he would’ve done more.

“I’ve wanted to apologize to the organization, especially to Kansas City,” Siavii said. “It’s my fault how it happened, and I’m sorry. I never got a chance to apologize. Nobody ever asked me about it. I hope they forgive me.”

The Chiefs traded down and got an extra second-round draft pick in 2004, and Siavii was the first one called. He was considered a raw prospect, an ascending force who had 30 solo tackles and two sacks his senior year.

Peterson said he knew there were risks in drafting Siavii. “Every year you draft somebody, it’s a risk,” he said.

“He just hasn’t been able to put it together. You feel bad for a guy like that, but you’ve got to make decisions and move on. We haven’t made any decisions yet, but they’re coming.”

That’s why Siavii is running. He vows to be practicing full speed next week. He won’t allow himself to believe that it’s over.

“If I didn’t think I could perform, I wouldn’t be out there right now,” Siavii said. “I’d be sitting inside or something. To me, it’s a lot of mental problems going on right now because I’m hurt. I just have to overcome it.

“I don’t know … I want to say so much, but I can’t. I want to come out here and perform, that’s it. I just want to play.”