By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Just as he has done his entire career, going all the way back to ninth grade at Jacksonville Junior High, Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Clinton McDonald saved his best for his biggest moment. The 287-pound nose tackle matched his career high for tackles in a game with five in Sunday’s 43-8 romping of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
McDonald is the second former Red Devil to become a Super Bowl champion. Dan Hampton was a defensive tackle on the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team when they beat the New England Patriots 46-10. That team is widely regarded as the best defense in the history of the NFL, but this year’s Seattle team has worked its way into the conversation.
Current Jacksonville High School athletic director Jerry Wilson was McDonald’s head basketball and assistant football coach in high school. He plans to retire McDonald’s and Hampton’s high-school football jersey numbers in a ceremony during the 2014 football season.
“It’s really something that our school has two defensive linemen that have won super bowls,” Wilson said. “The similarities are uncanny. They both play defensive tackle, both from Jacksonville, both teams dominated the super bowl, both teams talked about as maybe the best defense ever. You retire one of those guys’ jerseys you got to retire both of them.”
Hampton played 12 seasons for the Bears after playing college ball at Arkansas. He is now in the NFL Hall of Fame, class of 2002.
McDonald, who turned down scholarship offers from Arkansas and Arkansas State to play for Memphis, also put legendary Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning on his seat one time, made the initial hit on the first of Denver running back Knowshon Moreno’s two fumbles, and recovered Manning’s fourth-quarter fumble that allowed the Seahawks to run out the clock for the victory.
It’s a fitting end to McDonald’s best season as a pro, a season he almost didn’t get to play. McDonald was cut from the team after Seattle’s final preseason game. After the New England Patriots showed interest in signing McDonald, Seattle general manager John Schneider called him at his parents’ home in Jacksonville and asked him to return for the team’s second game, the first of three big showdowns against division rival San Francisco.
McDonald is a fifth-year veteran with four as an active player. He spent one season on the Cincinnati practice squad after the Bengals drafted him in the seventh round. He made the active roster in year two before being traded to Seattle prior to the 2011 season. In three seasons, one in Cincinnati and two in Seattle, he recorded 64 tackles with no sacks, interceptions or forced fumbles in limited playing time.
But this year, after rejoining the team, and in just 15 games, he turned in a regular season that included 35 tackles with 5.5 sacks, one interception and two fumble recoveries.
Add to that his five tackles in the Super Bowl, plus one in each of the Seahawks other two playoff wins, and he finishes the 2013-14 season with 42 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Both numbers place him in the top four for nose tackles in the NFL this season.
As much for his athletic prowess, McDonald is remembered by former coaches as an outstanding person. His head football coach in high school, Johnny Watson, still thinks highly of his former linebacker.
“He was always a super young man,” said Watson. “He was dependable. You knew he was going to give you great effort all the time. He had a drive to work hard and a faith that if you work hard, good things will happen to you. He had a faith in God very early in life and didn’t mind showing it. He had a vision his senior year of getting to play college football and getting to the NFL, and he believed that if he worked hard it would happen for him.”
