Seahawks vs. Bobby Wagner different from last reunion against another ex-franchise pillar

They were lined up deep to greet Bobby Wagner.

Minutes after his Los Angeles Rams almost beat his former Seahawks Sunday, after Geno Smith and Seattle rallied to a 27-23 victory, Wagner had a conga line of Seahawks players, coaches and staffers waiting to greet him in the center of SoFi Stadium’s turf field.

Darrell Taylor. Bryan Mone. Marquise Goodwin. Poona Ford. Uchenna Nwosu. Justin Coleman. Quandre Diggs.

“OG Bobby!” one of the Seahawks yelled.

Tyler Lockett playfully charged at the former Seahawks six-time All-Pro linebacker, then hugged him.

Bruce Irvin also hugged the linebacker he won a Super Bowl playing next to on Seattle’s defense at the end of the 2013 season.

A few minutes later in the Seahawks’ locker room, Irvin proudly displayed Wagner’s blue, Rams 45 game jersey Wagner had given him, signed, in a postgame swap.

The inscription, per Jake Garcia from KING-5 television:

“BI,

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Really my brother forever. I always have your back.

“Much love,

“Bobby Wagner”

Not like the Russell Wilson reunion

This wasn’t like it was when the Seahawks played against Russell Wilson in Seattle’s opening game this season.

Seahawks including Lockett greeted and hugged Wilson at midfield, and vice versa, immediately after that game at Lumen Field three months ago.

But Sunday’s game was on Wagner’s home field, not the Seahawks’. Fans weren’t booing the former Seattle star, as they did lustily Wilson Sept. 12 in Seattle. Wagner didn’t have a team bus to catch to an airport after the game.

Time — three months more since Wilson’s and Wagner’s exits from Seattle — also made the two reunions different.

Plus, the fact is Wilson asked to leave the Seahawks. Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider granted him that wish with a trade to Denver March 8. That same day, Carroll and Schneider cut Wagner. It was a cost-saving, and another franchise-shaking, move. It was one Wagner didn’t ask for.

When the Seahawks narrowly beat his Broncos Sept. 12, Wilson was the foe.

When the Seahawks narrowly beat his Rams Sunday, Wagner was the friend.

That was obvious about an after Sunday’s game ended. Wagner walked around the south end zone concourse beneath the palatial stadium. He went from the home-team locker room, of his Rams, and entered the visiting one.

By then, many Seahawks were already on the team’s buses headed to the airport and the flight home.

Carroll was waiting for him.

The coach drafted Wagner in 2012. He made the supposedly too-short-for-the-NFL linebacker from Utah State into a six-time All-Pro and Super Bowl champion in the middle of his Seahawks defense.

Then in March he cut him. Carroll and Schneider released Wagner months before his 32nd birthday, to save Seattle $16 million in salary-cap space for 2022.

Sunday, when he got into his former’s team’s locker room, he found Carroll. They sat in talked in a back room.

Wagner and Carroll hugged. It was an embrace between friends.

“I felt really grateful that I had a chance to sit down with Bobby for a while and hang out,” Carroll said. “That’s just kind of what we did.

“It was a really meaningful exchange. I saw him with a few of the guys that were in my room back there and had passed by late. Every exchange was exactly as you would think it would be. It was heartfelt. It was warm. It was close.”

And, true to Wagner’s competitiveness and the Seahawks in their Super Bowls, Legion of Boom heyday, there was trash talk.

Of course there was.

During the game, Wagner was chirping like a bird. Lockett and other Seahawks were giving it right back.

Carroll said it reminded him of the ultra-competitive Wagner, Irvin, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor used to have with Wilson, Doug Baldwin, Marshawn Lynch and the Seahawks offense during their Super Bowl years of 2013 and ‘14.

After Sunday’s game in Inglewood, the ribbing continued. The fact Wagner isn’t as young as he used to be may have come up.

“There was a good level of kidding going around,” Carroll said. “They were poking and all of that kind of stuff, which was part of the competition and the competitiveness of it all.”

Bobby Wagner balled out

As for how Wagner played Sunday, the Seahawks were wowed.

Wagner did everything but turn off the scoreboard to prevent Los Angeles losing.

Wearing number 45 instead of his Seahawks legendary 54, Wagner played one of the best games of his brilliant career. He was everywhere for his 3-9 Rams. He tied his career high from Jan. 1, 2017, with two sacks — before halftime. He had two hits on Smith. He had three tackles for losses. He broke up a pass. He intercepted a pass, stealing the ball from Tony Jones as Seattle’s running back hit the ground with his knees in the third quarter.

“He gets a pick on the play that I’m still arguing about,” Carroll said. “And I can’t wait to see him so I can argue to him, too, ‘cause I’ll tell him he didn’t catch it and he’s going to tell me he did.”

Wagner played like he was 22.

So much for saying this past week this was just another game.

“I’m a master of controlling my emotions and I controlled them very well during the week and the game,” Wagner said. “Honestly, I felt like we had a lot of guys out. I wanted to try to provide a spark for the team and help us find a win.

“I’m a winner and I want to win and so it didn’t happen, so it’s never really a good thing,” Wagner said. “This is a game you should have won and you allowed a good team to make plays.

“And they did.”

Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf considers Wagner a mentor. He said he left Sunday’s game, after he caught the winning touchdown pass from Geno Smith in the final minute, even more impressed with Wagner than he already was after three years as his teammate in Seattle.

“He’s one hell of a linebacker, hell of a competitor, and just great to go against him,” Metcalf said. “He has all my respect coming into this game — but after this game, I’ve got much more respect for him.”

Carroll said: “To rise up like that and to play like that is something he’s going to remember. And it was notable.

“What else is he going to do? Of course he’s going to do something like that.

“So hats off to him.”

Before the game started, Wagner shared smiled at hugs at midfield with Bellore plus Seattle defensive captains Al Woods and Quandre Diggs.

“He played great. He’s a Hall of Famer,” said Bellore, Wagner’s backup and co-captain for years in Seattle.

“We knew it was going to be a battle going against him.”

Ultimately, the Seahawks won that battle.

Wagner won even more admiration from his former Seattle teammates than he already had, and always will have.

“I’m really proud to tell you he was a great player in our program for all those years,” Carroll said.

“He’ll always be one of our guys.”