Gold Jacket Spotlight: Kenny Easley played with ‘F5’ intensity

“I’ll see you at halftime.”

Tommy Rhodes, head football coach at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, Va., offered those words to Kenny Easley before his star player took the field.

“He kicked off, played quarterback, he kicked the extra points, he kickoff returned, he punted, he punt returned and he played defensive back,” Rhodes said. “He didn’t come off the field unless it was halftime or the end of the game.”

In 2017, Rhodes presented his former multitasking student-athlete for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This week, Kenny steps into the Gold Jacket Spotlight.

“The Enforcer,” an aptly assigned nickname for Kenny, believed, “If you’re not going to be the biggest force on the field today, don’t put that helmet on.”

As a reminder to always be that “biggest force,” Kenny added a decal to his UCLA college helmet that simply read, “F5,” a reference to the tornado rating system describing the most forceful storms. 

“You can’t teach somebody to be a hitter,” Kenny once said. “It’s a matter of desire and wanting to. I wanted to make every single tackle whenever the ball was snapped.”

When Kenny did make the tackle, he confirmed his desire to be impactful to the opposition.

“Kenny Easley puts the impact in ‘Impact Player,’ ” Dan Whitford of Sport Magazine wrote. “Every coach would love to have him. No opponent wants any part of him.”

Former New England personnel director Dick Steinberger confirmed teams’ desire to locate a player like Kenny when he observed, “Yeah, we’re looking, but we don’t find him too often.” 

While reviewing Kenny's success Rhodes articulated, “His desire was to be a defensive back. He wanted to hit people. He’s gonna get there, and he’s gonna get there in a hurry, and he’s gonna get there in a bad mood. He was going to hit people hard, he’s going to cause fumbles, he’s gonna intercept balls … he’s gonna be around the ball.”

Add “intense” when describing Kenny’s effort and, in fact, his Seattle Seahawks coaching staff considered him, “the most intense practice player on the team. He keeps a notebook on his own performances, recording the mistakes he thinks he makes,” according to Whitford’s article.

Another helmet “add-on” motivator Kenny utilized was a small piece of leather attached to his facemask. He considered it a symbol of strength.

“Leather is strong under all circumstances, Kenny explained in a “Force 5KE” video. “My leather piece was an instant reminder of its toughness. When it was the fourth quarter … and you’re dead tired, all I had to do was reach up and pull on that leather piece to remind myself I could go longer and harder and tougher than anyone else. I was as strong as leather.”

Opponents quickly recognized those attributes.

“If you don’t handle him, you’re in for a long afternoon,” said Dan Reeves, at the time coaching the division rival Denver Broncos.

Drafted by the Seahawks in 1981, Kenny’s value to the Seattle defense was immediate. He was named AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. Before his seven-season NFL career concluded, Kenny would be selected to five Pro Bowls, be recognized as the AP Defensive Player of the Year in 1984 and be added to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s.

During Week 10 of the 1984 season, Kenny and his defensive backfield teammates Dave Brown and Keith Simpson combined to set a still-standing record for most interceptions returned for touchdowns in a game.

The trio of Seahawks intercepted three Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks for touchdown returns a total of four times during a 45-0 romp over their division rival. Each of the “pick-six” plays exceed 50 yards.

Rhodes appropriately described Kenny’s football-playing ability by simply stating: “Kenny Easley was a game-changer.”