After 2-Year Injury Layoff, Ex-Husky Burr-Kirven Returns to Seahawks

It was one of those questions you immediately wanted back, deleted from your journalistic history, removed with metaphysical whiteout.

While meeting a slender and slight of stature Ben Burr-Kirven for the first time as the 2018 season wound down, I asked the then University of Washington senior linebacker what was next for him?

Noting in his Husky bio that he was studying film-making, I off-handedly if not whimsically asked the California native if Hollywood was his next stop after graduation?

Burr-Kirven looked me straight in the eye and said he was going to play in the NFL, as if there was any question about it.

Yes, I know he ended up as a first-team All-America linebacker who led the nation in tackles that year, but he still looked so physically unimposing I wrongly assumed his football career was quickly coming to an end.

To continue to count out Burr-Kirven would still be foolish.

This week, he returned to the Seattle Seahawks after missing the past two NFL seasons once his left knee was destroyed on a kickoff in a 2021 preseason football game against Denver — when quarterback Russell Wilson was his teammate rather than the Broncos offensive leader.

Making matters worse, the former Husky suffered nerve damage with an injury that was so serious it led to multiple surgeries and him being told he likely would never play football again.

Yet on Thursday, Burr Kirven, 25, signed a contract with Seattle's NFL franchise for the upcoming season and returned to practice at the Seahawks training facility in Renton Washington, in pursuit of a roster spot as a special-teams player who provides linebacker depth.

“I just love football, man,” Burr-Kirven told reporters. “I’ve been playing football since I was 10 years old and you never wanted to stop. To have it taken away so early, it seemed like, and for a while it was like, ‘Man, am I going to be able to do this again?’ You miss it."

Nearly 2 years to the day he tore his ACL, damaged nerves, required 1st-of-its-kind surgery for a pro athlete, after being told he’d never play football again, ex-UW LB Ben Burr-Kirven practices today returning to Seahawks.

“Surreal,” he says.

Full story soon @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/PqvYP8xdgl
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) July 27, 2023

A fourth-round draft pick in 2019 after leading the NCAA in tackles with 176, Burr-Kirven was injured in the most mundane way after a Denver kickoff sailed into the end zone for a touchback.

He got shoved by a Broncos player and stepped awkwardly while losing his balance. His third NFL season was wiped out in an instance.

“I heard the whistle, just relaxed for a second and got pushed," he said. "Trying to keep [my] balance, I just stepped too far over the knee and straight out the back door.”

Multiple surgeries resulted, including a pair in 2022. The Seahawks waived him in March, but he told them he was coming back. He trained hard to get another chance.

"The hunger just never went away," he said, "and so as long as I was waking up and wanted to still do this it was easy to keep coming up and showing up.”

That film career can still wait. Or maybe somebody should train a camera on him and what he's doing.

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