Spinal Injury Ends Seahawk's Career

15-year fullback Mack Strong bows out with herniated disc
By Jesse Andrews,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 8, 2007 11:20 PM CDT
Spinal Injury Ends Seahawk's Career
Seattle Seahawks fullback Mack Strong, left, and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, right, present President Bush with a football jersey during a fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert and the Washington State Republican Party on Monday, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bellevue, Wash. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)   (Associated Press)

After 201 games for the same team, Seattle's workman-like Mack Strong is calling it a career to avoid further damage to a spinal injury. Fifteen years of using his body as a battering ram has led to a herniated disc that his doctors believe will heal without surgery. The condition was aggravated in the Seahawks' loss to Pittsburgh yesterday.

"I think I kind of coaxed him into playing the last couple years," Coach Mild Holmgren conceded. The back helped lead the way for running back Shaun Alexander's MVP season in 2005, as well as the first Super Bowl appearance in Seahawk history in February 2006. (More NFL stories.)

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