Hawks | Josh Wilson's father etched into his heart

RENTON — The tattoo hurt.

"That's why I only got one," cornerback Josh Wilson said.

Besides, he's not much for needles anyway. But for about 45 minutes he lay on his back and gritted his teeth to get his father's image inked onto his chest. The pain was sharpest closest to the collarbone.

"I just wanted to have something to know that he was always there," Wilson said.

He was a freshman at Maryland at the time, attending the same school to play the same sport as his dad once did.

"Forever in my heart."

That's what Wilson had written below a portrait of Tim Wilson that is modeled after the football card Josh still carries in his wallet.

Tim Wilson played eight years in the NFL, a fullback who hit as hard as he lived and blocked for Earl Campbell with the Oilers. Wilson retired the year Josh was born. He died of a heart attack when Josh was 11, which was just about the time Josh started playing football.

The pedigree helps explain how Wilson ended up in the end zone with the game-turning touchdown last week, because Wilson's got plenty of heart. He has to in order to play cornerback in the NFL at 5 feet 9 and take the lumps that come with being a first-year starter opposite a Pro Bowler like Marcus Trufant.

Teams are going to target Wilson. San Francisco did. Isaac Bruce caught a 33-yard pass behind Wilson in Week 2. So did the New York Giants three weeks later, when New York picked on Wilson so often he ended up with 11 tackles.

But Tim Wilson's son isn't the kind of guy to back down because he was beaten a few times. He's gotten a good dose of toughness from the man who cleared the way so effectively for Campbell that the two became friends close enough to be mistaken for family.

"My Uncle Earl, he's a hard runner," Josh said. "To block for him, you've got to be hard-nosed and ready to knock somebody out of the hole, too."

Josh is not as big as his dad. Josh is about 5 inches shorter and a good 30 pounds lighter, but he comes equipped with the same kind of hard drive.

"They both had the same aggressiveness and desire to succeed," said Ralph Friedgen, Maryland coach.

Friedgen was the Terrapins' graduate assistant for Tim's first year on campus, and he was the head coach who recruited Josh to the school where he developed into a second-round pick by Seattle in 2007.

Wilson arrived as the little brother in the Seahawks' locker room, the one everyone pushed around. He got evicted from his locker space last year in Kirkland for being too messy, and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard made a habit of dumping his hanging clothes onto the floor of the locker. Wilson once carried around a 10-pound plate from the weight room in his bag, not realizing a teammate had slipped it in there. He carried it all the way to Philadelphia before he found out.

"My bag was a little heavy," Wilson said. "The airport security told me it was in there, but I didn't pay attention."

Silence is not one of his virtues in the locker room or a conversation.

"You've interviewed Josh," coach Mike Holmgren said. "A lot of times you run out of tape."

He's hardly quiet these days. But the volume is monitored by Seattle's veteran safeties, Deon Grant and Brian Russell.

"They get on his case," said Jim Mora, the team's secondary coach. "So ink that's really helped him. He's learned how to be a pro."

And Wilson's mouth isn't the only thing that runs. He's fast, and over the past two weeks he has shown the kind of catch-up speed to outrun some of those early mistakes.

In Tampa Bay, he had a fumble return that could have resulted in a touchdown nullified because the play was whistled dead. Last week in San Francisco, he returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half. The 49ers went from being in position to cut into Seattle's 10-point lead to trailing by 17 at the half.

"I've had a lot of opportunities that just haven't gone all the way this year," he said. "Hopefully, this is the spark."

The start of something big from a player who followed some sizable footsteps from Maryland into the NFL, the father whose image is forever on his heart.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com