Profile: If it's wins you're after, try ... Rodney Bailey?

Everywhere Rodney Bailey goes, wins follow. That's his luck, his pattern, his football fate.

His St. Edward High School teams near Cleveland never finished with a losing record. His Ohio State University Buckeyes never even came close. And while it isn't unusual for NFL players to dominate in high school and college, it is unusual to switch teams and win as much as Bailey has in the NFL.

He played three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, spent last season on New England's injured reserve and joined the Seahawks in the second week this season.

That means the Seahawks are 9-1 with Bailey on the roster. Which isn't all that unusual — the combined regular-season record of Bailey's NFL teams is 52-22, and only one, the 2003 Pittsburgh Steelers, failed to win a division title.

"I've been fortunate," Bailey said this week.

So go ahead. Call it quirky or coincidental. Note that Bailey, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound defensive end, owns 52 tackles in 51 NFL games played, how the Seahawks didn't activate him until three games ago, how he isn't a major force.

Just understand that winning football teams need guys like Rodney Bailey. Guys that round out the bottom of the roster, provide depth, stand on the sideline for seven weeks in street clothes and then force a fumble on a key drive in the fourth quarter of the first game they've played in a year and a half.

"He's doing a great job," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "Rodney has come in, and it's kind of like everyone [who] has funneled in this season — we've had an injury and guys step in. It's one of those years so far."

Then understand that Bailey, 26, almost never made it here, onto a football field period, or back on an NFL field after he ruptured an Achilles tendon on the first day of training camp in 2004.

Bailey never even thought about playing football. But he loomed large in his ninth grade religion class, portly, baby-faced, wearing size-15 clown shoes. The religion teacher also doubled as a football coach, and Bailey's moment of divine intervention happened on the first day of class.

"You should try football," his teacher told him.

That's when the winning started. At St. Edward. And later at Ohio State, where Bailey was voted the co-most inspirational player at the end of his senior year. That's when Bailey found his first common theme of teams that win.

"One of the biggest traits in this pattern has been camaraderie," Bailey said. "Everybody pulling for each other. Unselfishness holding the team together. Being patient and staying positive and everybody playing for a common goal."

The Steelers took Bailey in the sixth round of the 2001 draft. The winning never missed a beat — as the Steelers won two division titles, an AFC Central and an AFC North, in Bailey's first two seasons. His most productive season, statistically, came in 2002, when Bailey recorded 25 tackles and 5 ½ sacks.

Bailey left Pittsburgh for New England in 2004, but his luck took a turn for the worse. Coming off the ball in a scrimmage on the very first day of training camp, he planted his left foot and ruptured his Achilles.

The Patriots released Bailey earlier this season, and he was waiting at his home in Massachusetts when he received a phone call from the Seahawks. A few days after his tryout, the Seahawks signed Bailey. But while he joined the team in Week 2, he didn't play until three weeks ago, after Marcus Tubbs got hurt.

"I'm very appreciative," Bailey said. "That's the best way to put it. Very appreciative to put a uniform on again. It had been so long. You have to be patient, but man, I can't describe what it felt like to put that uniform on again."

Through all the wins and division titles, Bailey has noticed common themes. Working together. Getting into a rhythm. Being unselfish. Having a common goal.

They make Bailey sound like he's fluent in the language of cliché, but who's going to argue with the record?

"Winning is a contagious thing, man," Bailey said. "That's why I like this team. We're not looking back. And we have faith in one another."

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com