Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman wears hearing aids and doesn’t always catch everything the quarterback says, but he doesn’t think it’s fair to blame his hearing if he misses something.
Coleman told reporters today that he relies on his lip reading and doesn’t think he has any more of an excuse to miss an assignment than any other player.
“For me, I just read lips,” Coleman said. “I never really had any or caused any problems, and if I ever did, I made sure it was corrected before I ever went out there. I don’t ever really use my hearing aid as an excuse. I’ll find a different excuse before I use my hearing as an excuse.”
Even with his hearing aids Coleman can’t hear as well as most people, but they improve his hearing significantly.
“I always use a scale from zero to 10, zero being completely deaf and 10 being perfect hearing. About eight, nine, 10 is everybody else – normal hearing. Without my hearing aid, I’m probably about a two. With my hearing aid, I’m probably about six, seven, eight, depending on the day,” Coleman said.
A six, seven or eight is enough for Coleman to do his job, with no excuses.