Inside The Huskies

Rogers and Tuputala Have to Start Over as Football Players

The former Huskies have been subjected to tryouts simply to try and earn an NFL trial.
Dan Raley|
Brennan Carroll and Will Rogers share a moment at Penn State.
Brennan Carroll and Will Rogers share a moment at Penn State. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The NFL can be a humbling place. Just ask Will Rogers and Alphonzo Tuputala, highly decorated college football players forced to prove themselves to the pros in what they bring to the game.

Over the past week, the former University of Washington leaders were revealed to be going through tryouts with the Seattle Seahawks to see if they simply can get a trial run.

They're not recent draft choices. They're not unsigned free agents, though that would be a goal for each of them. They're another rung below all of that.

Rogers and Tuputala have been wearing Seahawks jerseys and shorts as they run around the NFL complex bordering Lake Washington reminding everyone where they've been and what they've done for the past several football seasons.

It's nothing short of incredible that the 6-foot-2, 216-pound Rogers would literally have to hound the Seahawks for tryout.

Consider his career college numbers at Mississippi State and the UW combined: 14,733 yards passing, 108 TD passes, 54 games played with 51 starts.

Add in all-time SEC records for season completions (505) and career completions (1,301).

Rogers has played in the Big Ten and the SEC, the two most prestigious football conferences in the nation. And last season, he directed the Huskies to wins over Michigan and USC with a patched-together offense.

Yet here he goes through a tryout as if he's a sandlot player.

An ominous looking Alphonzo Tuputala stares down Penn State QB Drew Allar.
An ominous looking Alphonzo Tuputala stares down Penn State QB Drew Allar. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Tuputala was a three-year starter, with one of those seasons coming as a playmaker on a national championship runner-up team.

For the Huskies, he appeared in 53 games with 40 starts. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound local product finished with 234 career tackles. He'll live in infamy for his 76-yard interception return that should have gone 77, but he dropped the ball on the 1, thinking he had scored.

Yet he's dealing with the whims of the Seahawks franchise, trying to convince those guys that he can play, though his body of work is out there for everyone to see.

The NFL doesn't do anyone any favors. it doesn't build you up prematurely. Often times, it demands a piece of your soul.

To get the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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