Spent an hour with Jim Zorn and took short tour of CLink

One of larger subcontractors that does work for my employer set up a really cool event tonight at the CLink. About 75 people were invited, took a quick tour of the stadium, then met back up at the large assembly hall on the south end (L5) for open bar and dinner.
Jim Zorn was the guest speaker and hung out for 45 minutes prior to addressing the group for a half hour. The guy really seems down to earth and loves football. He had some great insight to the 03 playoff game versus the Packers (We want the ball and were going to score! game). He swears MH made the correct read but the receiver didn't do his job. He also made a point of passing around two NFL game balls. He said MH hated the feel of the rubber deal that is used to allow pumping up footballs and wanted the center to hike the ball to him with it on the opposite side of his palm. He said did you ever notice how MH would flip the ball sometimes in his drop? That's why. He then talked about RW fumbling the ball out of bounds on the first play of SB48. The NFL changed up the balls and they had much more gold leaf and larger logo on them. Not all the balls had been scrubbed down with this special clay that is commonly used either. Balls that are rubbed down with the clay take the glazing off the balls as well as any plating / applied emblems, the clay also makes them much darker.

He then went on to say that deflate gate was a joke and tried to point out the PSI difference in the balls that were passed around. My hands are big enough to really grip an NFL ball and these things were hard as a rock, no way they only had 13 PSI in them. He said "you watch, tomorrow night the NFL will make a point of showing the game balls with a gauge stuck in them on the broadcast".

A couple other thing I took away from meeting JZ, he has huge hands and feet. The 2005 NFC Championship ring is freaqing huge, and JZ is well under 6' tall, I towered over him at 6'4"

I wouldnt mind seeing him as our offensive coordinator one day. :stirthepot:

nice post...thanks for the read.

Would have loved to been there for that

Not sure what his role is with the Hawks now but seems to still be employed by them. He was at practice today and talked about how competitive the practice was and how Sherman and Baldwin made sure they faced each other in one on one drills today. He said the ref they have at practice got tired of both of them bitching about each other and trying to get a flag so he started calling jump ball on each time the faced off.

He also said Lynch is going to go off this year, Pete has had him practice really hard this year and he has a burst he hasn't seen before. His quote was "for everyone worrying about the line, Lynch hasn't played but for a couple of plays in preseason, the line will look like grown men against the Rams with Lynch running the ball. He just runs viscously" His take on Fred Jackson is that he is a change of pace back that runs big but glides, really smooth runner that has great hands and still has deceptive speed and great blocker.

He said BJ Daniels switched numbers today and was wearing number 11. He hates that number because that's the number that beet him out and made him retire from playing.


The Redskins were mentioned a couple of times and he had a couple of snide remarks for that team / owner.

blue 22":3exdgld9 said:

I wouldnt mind seeing him as our offensive coordinator one day. :stirthepot:

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I wouldn't mind seeing that starting this Sunday! :stirthepot:

JZ was also asked about the impact of Kam not playing and would it effect outcomes of games. He said yes, his absence will have an impact then talked about how well Kam and Earl work together, cover each others deficiency's, compound each others strengths and how much they each bring to the table with leadership. He said the Dion Baily is a thumper but doesn't have the pass coverage ability that Kam does. That's not a knock on Baily because according to JZ Kam is a top 15 player in the NFL, he is a game changing player in the NFL. One of the few on defense.


I would love to watch a game with this guy.

Thanks for sharing. Jim Zorn is the reason I became a Seahawk fan. I had a HUGE crush on him when I was 10. Oh, heck..I still do. He has aged very well. I have a T-Shirt in Redskin colors that says "Horny For Zorny".

Refreshing read. Thanks for the post.
:{)

Seahwkgal":3lyedabj said:

Thanks for sharing. Jim Zorn is the reason I became a Seahawk fan. I had a HUGE crush on him when I was 10. Oh, heck..I still do. He has aged very well. I have a T-Shirt in Redskin colors that says "Horny For Zorny".

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Post of the day. :179417:

He was QB coach for Boise State before getting the UW....(Wachington Redskins) gig. I did not know this or I would have tried to go see him and get his perspective on our team at the time. Bout 6 or 7 years ago that would be.

Great post and follow ons. Thanks.

Meow.

Sports Hernia":2m7qsyy3 said:

blue 22":2m7qsyy3 said:

I wouldnt mind seeing him as our offensive coordinator one day. :stirthepot:

Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind seeing that starting this Sunday! :stirthepot:

Click to expand...

THIS:

Seahwkgal":27ym238i said:

Thanks for sharing. Jim Zorn is the reason I became a Seahawk fan. I had a HUGE crush on him when I was 10. Oh, heck..I still do. He has aged very well. I have a T-Shirt in Redskin colors that says "Horny For Zorny".

Click to expand...

LOL! That's cute, and one of the reasons I love this site, it's members are so real. Thank you for that :th2thumbs:

irocdave, thank you for the post, please keep adding stuff as you remember it

And I didn't quite understand what you mean about the ball PSI. Was the ball he handed you overinflated? Were you able to tell the difference?

Some fantastic stuff here, irocdave, thank you. Hearing about Lynch makes me feel better for Sunday.

...Sunday!!

In a our 1 movie theater on Vashon Island about 10-15 of us kids got to meet Jim Zorn and Steve Largent.They talked about life and god ect and signed anything we wanted.I never forgot how nice they was and realized later that they did this on their own time.As people those two are nothing but class.I'm not suprised at all Jim hasn't changed all these years

Remember way back when he kept his Yellow VW Bug even after he got a good contract, on top of that Steve in him would carpool in it as well.

Jim Z covered a lot of ground in the time we had with him, so as I remember tidbits I'll add them to the thread.

When he brought out the game balls he pointed out how you can tell they were in an actual game. The head ref uses a felt marker and puts a small symbol on the nose of the ball confirming that it has been checked and game used. At some point another person inspects the ball and puts another mark on it, the balls he passed around had a black cross on the nose and a small red line on the face of the first lace.


Regarding the two balls that were passed around, one was brand new and had not been rubbed down. It supposedly was a little under 13 psi. The one I got my hands on had been rubbed down and was supposed to be at 13 psi. I have strong hands and can still really chuck a football, like 40 yards on a rope kinda chucking. That ball I had in my hands was the hardest football I've ever had in my hand. I usually can get my thumb under the ball and the tips of my fingers just touching the threads. Couldn't do it with that ball unless my hand was so far back I wouldn't be able to have any accuracy. If that's what an NFL ball really feels like I have much more respect for receiver's, that ball would bring nothing but pain in cold weather.

Man, I wish I would have recorded that half hour! When JZ was talking about the play in the Packers game he prefaced it with something along the lines of " it's hard to know what went wrong or who was at fault on some plays unless you know everything that was supposed to happen. Just like the last offensive play in the last SB, I was so excited and had started running down to the field after Lynches run because I knew Lynch was getting the ball again and the game was over." He acted out taking the snap and handing it off to Lynch. "Then, well, we all know what happened. I couldn't believe what happened. Things happen and sometimes people don't do what there supposed to do, just like what happened in that playoff game with the packers. At first it looks like a poor play by the QB, but they were not. I wont mention the receivers name but..". He then went on to show how the D back lined up to the guys inside shoulder and the receivers didn't run right at the D back but instead went towards the sideline. Not what was he supposed to do on a hook route.