Profile: Hard-driving Scobey thankful for good fortune

Long before he even thought about a future as a professional football player, Josh Scobey had already found his chosen path.

He became a Buddhist at age five.

The faith's belief system and chanting has been a driving force in Scobey's life, and has kept him grounded and humble beyond the football field.

"We all need some type of higher being," the Seahawks kick returner and special-teams standout said. "We chant for world peace and individual happiness. It's really a great practice. I'm always around positive people, and a lot of positive things have happened for me and this team."

Scobey also chants for good fortune, and his friends at the Seattle Cultural Center, where he practices his faith, have welcomed him with open arms. They chant for Scobey's success as well as the Seahawks' success. And when Scobey is not around them, teammates continue his upbeat attitude, especially with the team sporting an 11-2 record.

"I enjoy this organization and everything they're about as far as the business-type atmosphere," Scobey said.

He came to Seattle from Arizona just after training camp ended when the Cardinals placed him on waivers and the Seahawks, in need of a proven quality kick returner, claimed him.

"When I first got here, it was perfect because I'm about business," Scobey said. "This team had a direction and that was just what I was looking for."

Buddhism — Scobey practices its Nichiren Daishonin form — is often associated with enlightenment. Tranquility. Meditation. Calmness.

Scobey is far from those things when playing football. His head-down, ramrod, aggressive style of play has energized the Seahawks.

The contradiction is enough to make even Scobey laugh when he thinks about it.

"When I'm on the field and I'm in the thick of things, that's what's required on the field for me," Scobey said. "I do those things out of passion. This game is about being physical and being up in your man's face and letting him know 'You can't beat me.' But off the field it's totally different. I can control it because [football] is my job."

Indeed, Scobey isn't mean-spirited. He's just a 6-foot, muscular 220-pound bundle of energy who enjoys collisions when running back kicks or defending them.

Maybe that's why he has 18 total special-teams tackles, second-most on the team.

"He's so fast and he runs so hard on kickoffs, you don't know how devastating the impact is when people just take him head on," said kicker Josh Brown, a fellow Oklahoman, who has played against Scobey in high school all-star games and in the NFL. "If you want to take him on one-on-one and he's got the ball in his hand, you're going to come up hurting.

"I have kicked to him and he has shook me out of my shoes."

More than once, and especially against his former team, Scobey has had a few words for his opponent. His 23.3 yards-per-return average is the best the Seahawks have had since the 2002 season, and he relishes the role of gunner on punt coverage and outside cover man on kickoff coverage because the positions allow him to use his speed and strength to make downfield tackles.

"There is not a lot of wiggle to him when he runs. He's just a missile," coach Mike Holmgren said. "And he covers kicks that way, too. It's an unusual combination because he is a valuable guy on our coverage teams, too. It was a nice pickup for us because he has a big role on both teams."

Scobey, 26, credits a lot of his success to a couple of coaches who believed in him and acted as father figures when he was growing up near Oklahoma City, and when he went to junior college after failing to qualify academically for a scholarship from Kansas State. Henry Manning, Scobey's Del City, Okla., high-school coach, knew Scobey had it in him to make it to the NFL and be successful.

"He had his goals set early," Manning said. "I've had a lot of good players go through, but they didn't have that extra work ethic."

Though faith came first, fortune and fame soon followed.

"Scobey plays the game the way it's meant to be played," Seahawks special-teams coach Bob Casullo said. "He's a real quiet guy, a polite guy. I'm sure glad we have him."

Note

• The Seahawks' regular-season finale in Green Bay Jan. 1, 2006, has been moved ahead from a 1:15 p.m. kickoff to 10:00 a.m. Seattle time, the NFL announced.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com