Lawyer Milloy has always been a starter.
From the time he earned a spot in the starting lineup as a rookie with the New England Patriots in 1996 through the 2008 season with the Atlanta Falcons -- and including a three-year stretch with the Buffalo Bills -- Milloy missed only six games in 13 seasons and started every game he played.
Now Milloy plays for the Seattle Seahawks, but he doesn't play much: Milloy has been active for all nine games, but he hasn't started any and mostly sees the field on special teams. He says that has made things extremely difficult for him.
"It's been the toughest thing in my career to sit on the bench," Milloy told John Boyle of the Daily Herald. "My eye is always on the prize, and when I came here I came here under these circumstances, and I signed a contract and I'm loyal to it. Coach [Jim] Mora is a guy I heavily respect, that's why I went to Atlanta four years ago, and he mapped it out for me. I had a chance to play at home, eventually when my number is called just be ready.
"Honestly as the season progressed I thought I was going to be able to accept that role and run with it, but being on the sideline is something that I'm not very comfortable with. I'm not saying that's going to change anything, I respect the young safeties that we have here, the team that we have. I really can't worry about what I can't control, and that's the way I've handled it."
Milloy just turned 36, and he's the oldest non-kicker on the team. His 14th season may be his last, and if it is, his NFL career isn't ending the way he envisioned.
Lawyer Milloy struggling while sitting on the bench
Posted by Michael David Smith on November 20, 2009 12:17 PM ET
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Class act....would like to see him have a great final year....he should have joined the Purple...only weekness.....
He is maaaad slow these days. But still selfish, so thats cool
I was always curious about his name......Does he have sibling's named Attorney Milloy, Counselor Millory, Public Defender Milloy?
That must be tough standing on the sideline for a high 6 figure salary. I hope he pulls through.
Must be nice to mostly sit on your rear end and get paid what he does.
I always liked Milloy when he was with the Pats, a good, smart player who hit hard and made a number of big plays. And he got his SB ring in 2001 so he'll always be a Super Bowl champ. Unfortunately for him he got greedy in 2003 so he ended up with the Bills and missed the next 2 rings he could have had.
Sounds like its time for him to call it a career and go enjoy his well earned millions.
They hate their coach!
Somewhere in the outskirts of Gillette Stadium, Bill Belichick is laughing out loud as he reads this article.
@HarrisonHits: The Pats unceremoniously released Milloy a week prior to the start of the 2003 season. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and the team's defensive captain at that point. The team wanted him to take a major paycut in the fourth year of a seven year deal that THEY gave him. I would not call his actions greedy. They didn't want to honor the deal that they signed him to, and they cut him. He signed a deal with the Bills to reunite with Bledsoe. It's not like he pulled a Johnny Damon and split for a bigger deal...
I've always liked Lawyer. Even the comments above are classy....he's not trying to rip anyone, he's just expressing regret that things didn't work out in Seattle the way he though they would.
HarrisonHits says:
November 20, 2009 12:48 PM
Must be nice to mostly sit on your rear end and get paid what he does.
I always liked Milloy when he was with the Pats, a good, smart player who hit hard and made a number of big plays. And he got his SB ring in 2001 so he'll always be a Super Bowl champ. Unfortunately for him he got greedy in 2003 so he ended up with the Bills and missed the next 2 rings he could have had.
Sounds like its time for him to call it a career and go enjoy his well earned millions.
______
Kind of like Randy Moss got greedy and left the Vikings to play for the Pats and now he will NEVER get a ring since the Pats are on their way DOWN. LMFAO!!!!
I just LOVE how Pats fans think that whenever a player wants to get the money that they deserve and they leave the Pats for a team that is willing to pay them more, the player is greedy...but when the Pats want the player to take less than market value, the Pats' organization isn't greedy. LAME, just like the New England/Boston fan base.
GFY, HGHarrisonSucks!
Moss left the Vikings to play for the Pats? Ok, so we're rewriting history now. The Pats derangement syndrome will never end. Hate for hates sake. Feel sorry for CornFlorio, don't hate him.
@CornFlorio
Just so you know, Moss was traded by the Vikings to the Raiders, who traded him to the Pats.
If you plan to comment about a player, at least have your facts straight!
Milloy is now on a crappy team... nothing left to say.
Milloy picked off Tom Brady when he was a Bill and the Bills beat the Pats that year. I'm just sayin
Yeah, Ben Bernanke, he may have picked him off, but the Pats also won the Super Bowl that, year, too...
Lawyer used to be my favorite player, until one fateful day. It was Bledsoe's first game against the Pats, and I traveled to Buffalo to see the game... As luck would have it, we stayed at the Pats hotel....Well, as any other 13 year old kid would do, I rode on the elevator all day long meeting players and getting pictures and autographs.
Now there was one guy who was a complete prick to me. Yep, Lawyer, my favorite player. Now I know I might sound stalker-ish, but what would you do if you were at the same hotel as your favorite team, in Buffalo (a hell hole), and you were 13?
Well, the elevator stopped, and it was just me on, and just Lawyer in the hall. He didn't get in, just stood there. I asked for his autograph, or at least a picture, and he ignored me. Me and him, five feet away from each other, and he wouldn't say a word. Just stared at me. Now as a kid I knew how to get autographs, I wasn't a maniac about it. Anyways, he was a dick.
Oh, did I mention I was wearing his jersey at the time?
Later on, I was still in the elevator ( I swear I'm no stalker!!) and he got on, so I got to give him a piece of my mind then...
I don't think a professional player, especially one who played at as high a level as Milloy did earlier in his career, could ever admit entirely to himself, let alone out loud, but it sounds like he's simply having a hard time being not good enough to play more. It doesn't sound like he's complaining about anything the team is doing or that the guys on the field aren't good enough to be out there, it just sounds like his experience playing back in his home area has turned out to be a bittersweet one as opposed to the happy ending homecoming I'm sure he had hoped for in his mind. Once great players who have had a significant role on on a team throughout their entire career usally can't make the adjustment to that of benchwarmer/role player. That's why journeyman players can sometimes stick around longer than some of the stars. For example, Vinny Testaverde. He was able to play into his Social Security years because he was used to not being a star/being a backup/role player. Dan Marino, John Elway, etc. could have played that long too, but they would never have been able to accept the role that Testaverde did. If Kurt Warner hadn't had such a lowly begining to his career, he probably wouldn't have been able to get through the Giants years or the years in Arizona where he was a backup.