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October 14, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Seahawks got a kick start from Del Rio

OTTO GREULE JR / GETTY IMAGES

You mess with the bull, sometimes you get the horns. Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio takes an eyeful of the scoreboard after giving some Seahawks an earful before the game.

Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio is a pretty intense dude. He once benched safety Deon Grant for the second half of a game against Texans. The indiscretion? Grant talked to his teammates at halftime. Del Rio had said no talking, and when Del Rio says no talking he means no talking.

Del Rio once brought an ax into his team's locker room as a visual aide. He wanted the team to keep chopping wood. Of course, the wisdom of bringing an ax into the locker room is questionable. After all, you never know when somebody (cough, cough, Owen Schmitt, cough, cough) is going to start head-butting things. Or maybe the punter will hurt himself like Jacksonville's Chris Hanson did, suffering a serious cut to his leg.

So maybe it shouldn't be a shock Del Rio was spitting fire on the field before Sunday's game against the Seahawks. We now turn it on over to T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

"It was just kind of crazy, man. Jon Ryan was out there punting, and I guess he may have been in Jacksonville's area. And he (Del Rio) just grabbed the ball and threw it and was like, 'Get the [expletive] on your side of the field.' "

Now, this didn't make for a grudge match or anything like that. Houshmandzadeh was clear about that.

"I think he was just trying to get his guys pumped up. It didn't work," Houshmandzadeh said. "I like Jack Del Rio, though. He's a former player. I like him as a coach. Those are the type of guys that wish they were still playing and wish his guys had the intensity that he played with. He was just trying to get them fired up. It's not a big deal. I thought it was kind of funny, disrespectful, but a lot of coaches do a lot of different things to get their guys pumped up. "

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Seahawks got a kick start from Del Rio

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