Tyler Lockett: On the road to no fear
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett is playing through injury. His history and mentality tells us that doing so will only make him better.
What defines resilience?
Someone who has the capacity to recover quickly from the most difficult tasks, obstacles and showing the toughness during the challenges from whatever it may throw at you. Many people react to such circumstances with a flood of strong emotions.
Yet, some people generally adapt well in a short time span to life-changing situations and stressful conditions. How so? It involves an ongoing process that requires time, along with effort and engages in people taking a number of steps.
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One specific player stands out and fits that criteria: Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett. Lockett is dealing with an injury for the first time in his young professional career and it has him sidelined more than not.
During a Week 2 match-up agaisnt the Los Angeles Rams, Lockett sustained a knee injury in the second quarter that caused him to miss most of the game. The team has been quiet as to the extent of the injury, but teammate Doug Baldwin said on Sunday that Lockett has a sprained PCL.
However, he showed tremendous fight and ended up returning in the fourth making one of the biggest plays of that game. Hauling in a 53-yard pass from Russell Wilson getting them back into range of taking the lead in the final minutes of the game. He finished that game with a perfect catch-rate, going 4-4 with 99 receiving yards.
Pete Carroll went on and said how encouraged he was by how Lockett played through it. This wouldn’t be the first time he has shown adversity in his football career.
In 2013, going all the way back to his collegiate career at Kansas State, during his junior season, he suffered a hamstring injury on a kickoff return at No. 21 Oklahoma State, a 33-29 loss. He had two catches for six yards prior to the injury. He missed the next game against No. 15 Baylor, a 35-25 loss, due to the injury.
How did Lockett respond? He had 8 catches for 111 yards and a school record-tying three touchdowns in a 35-12 win against West Virginia. Three weeks after the initial he had 8 catches for 123 yards and 1 TD in a 33-31 win against TCU. The following weekend he had a school-record 278 receiving yards on 12 catches and 3 TDs against No. 22 Oklahoma, and his 440 all-purpose yards against the Sooners were fifth most in FBS history.
Another example occured during the NFL combine. During medical checks at the combine in 2015. Lockett learned that that his aorta was on the right side, according to ESPN’s Sheil Kapadia. Lockett said that for a brief period of time at the combine, he broke down, and the idea that he might never play a snap in the NFL crept into his mind.
More into Sheil’s story, Lockett’s dad Kevin Lockett, who is also a former Kansas State and NFL wide receiver, stated “What people don’t realize is he played his entire senior season in [high school] basketball with a broken wrist and led them to a state championship and won a state championship while he was the starting point guard.”
His string of success after battling back from the hamstring injury in 2013 and going through a health condition that could’ve ended his professional career before it even started is without comparison. I mean, he goes from sitting out a game to having 440 all-purpose yards, the fifth-most all-purpose yards in FBS history against Oklahoma.
Who does that? How can a player comeback like that and show no fear? I couldn’t find the answers within myself, so I dug around. I asked some who were close to Tyler Lockett during his time at Kansas State.
D. Scott Fritchen, a very talented writer who covers the Kansas State Wildcats, was kind enough to talk to me. How he talked about Tyler was full of passion and inspiration.
"He plays through pain and appreciates the bad times because the eternal optimist, he knows fully better things are ahead, and that any setback is actually a set up for a big comeback. He is a testament of that. “Outside of Bill Snyder, there is nobody I know that deals with adversity, the ‘hard times,’ and conquers adversity through grace MORE than Tyler."
Mr. Fritchen went on to tell me what Tyler Lockett told him after he dropped a routine touchdown pass that would’ve been big in a 20-14 loss to No. 5 Auburn early in his senior season. “It still sticks to me today, said Fritchen.” He told me, “as long as you keep on fighting and keep on fighting, adversity is going to leave and eventually it’s going to work out for your good.”
I agree with Mr. Fritchen by saying Tyler Lockett, through his faith, is without equal when it comes to taking any setback or adversity in life. Lockett is continuously dropping the negative and using the positive as seeds for victory. With him, any setback is truly a setup for greater things.
So before jumping into conclusions or using the phrase, “sophomore slump.” Don’t throw in the white towel on Tyler Lockett in 2016 or ever for that matter. Get to know his personality and his mentality because it’ll take a lot more than an knee injury to keep him from playing in a game.
"“I’m not going to stop fighting. I’m not going to [quit]. Like I said, I’ve got to be in a coffin in order not to come back because I can play with anything that I have, regardless of what it is. That’s just how it is for me.”"
Tyler Lockett uses a phrase, “Where I’m going, fear can’t come.” That positivity is just an example of why he will continue to overcome whatever is negative that may cross his path, there’s evidence of that.
Lockett is on the road to resilience and with resilience, comes no fear.