Seattle Seahawks rookie guard Grey Zabel thought his season might be over when his knee went on him in Los Angeles. A week later he played every snap â and explained it with a Kobe Bryant message about showing up for fans, teammates and a short career window.
The result was a quote that will land with a fan base that watched Zabel go from cart scare to starting left guard again in the Week 12 win over the Tennessee Titans.
Grey Zabel Shares the Kobe Bryant Message That Drives Him
Zabel was asked directly about the outside mindset that, even if a player is mostly OK after an injury, maybe he should sit a week just to be safe. Instead of talking about pain tolerance or medical reports, he went straight to Bryant.
âI love what I believe it was Kobe said back in the day, like maybe somebody’s showing up to that game to watch you and if there’s a chance that you’re able to play, go do it⦠you can only play this game for a short amount of time so why would you sit on the sidelines and watch your team⦠thereâs people that depend on you⦠anytime you get a chance to put on a uniform, especially a Seahawks uniform, do it, no questions asked,â Zabel said in a recent press conference.
For a 23-year-old guard drafted No. 18 overall out of North Dakota State earlier this year, itâs a pretty direct window into how he views being a professional.
From Knee Scare to Playing Every Snap vs. Titans
The Kobe mindset hits harder because of what Zabel just went through.
Late in the Week 11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Zabel went down holding his knee and stayed on the turf long enough to spark real fear that the Seahawks had just lost their rookie starter up front. He admitted afterward that in the moment, the pain was so intense that âall the bad thingsâ ran through his head and he briefly thought, chalk it up, itâs a great rookie season.
Subsequent testing brought far better news. Head coach Mike Macdonald called the damage ânothing significantâ and labeled Zabel day-to-day, even as Seattle added interior depth and kept contingency plans ready at left guard.Â
By the end of the week, Zabel had gone from that initial fear to limited practice participant and, ultimately, to active in Nashville. Against Tennessee, he didnât just dress â he played every offensive snap in a 30â24 Seahawks win on November 23.
Thatâs the backdrop for his Kobe answer: a rookie who genuinely thought his season might be over one Sunday, then chose to test that knee and play through it the next, framing the whole decision around fans and a short career window.
What Zabelâs Kobe Mindset Means for the Seahawks
Internally, the Seahawks already talk about Zabel as more than just another rookie. They spent the No. 18 pick on him, plugged him straight into the starting left guard job and have praised his toughness and competitiveness throughout the season.
Macdonald has publicly called him an âelite competitorâ and âtough,â and the staff trusted him enough to let his feel for his body help drive the decision in Tennessee. That trust only grows when a player makes it clear heâs not angling for extra caution once heâs medically cleared â heâs pushing to be in the lineup.
For Seattle, that matters in both the short and long term. In the short term, the Seahawks are 8-3 heading into a Week 13 home matchup with the Minnesota Vikings at Lumen Field on November 30, with every game critical in the NFC playoff race.
Long term, Zabelâs Kobe-inspired approach is part of why the organization sees him as a building block. When your first-round guard is talking about the one fan who might have come just to see him play â and then backing it up by fighting to be on the field a week after a knee scare â it sends a message about the standard he expects from himself.
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