Just Ask Skansi How To Silence 71,000 K.C. Fans

Most NFL receivers enjoyed more impressive physical gifts than Paul Skansi.

And it seemed that no one ever really let him forget it.

Nearly every season, the Seattle Seahawks brought in a couple of burners to upgrade the position and replace Skansi.

But he always battled onto the roster. And when the critical third down arose and opposing secondaries ganged up on Steve Largent, Skansi invariably was there to make the clutch catch.

Tough, durable, reliable beyond all reasonable expectations of a smallish kid from Gig Harbor, Skansi came up with 163 career catches for the Seahawks.

By now, 162 of those catches are forgotten by most Seahawk fans, as one stands above all others - the catch that silenced 71,000 people in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 11, 1990.

Seattle had gone 10 years prior to that without a win in K.C., and has lost four more since then.

But with a berth in the playoffs at stake this time around, the Seahawks might wish to evoke the spirit of Skansi’s last-second, game-winning catch to help them out.

“I don’t really think about it too often, only when people ask about it,” said Skansi, now receivers coach at the University of Idaho. “But yeah, I do remember it.”

The catch, and the win, by a 17-16 count, were made more remarkable by the circumstances of the game.

“We had never won there in the span of my career,” Skansi recalled. “And Derrick Thomas was all over Dave (Krieg) all day.”

Thomas, a blur at the pass-rushing linebacker position, was in the middle of his second season, and was facing off against second-year Hawk tackle Andy Heck.

Heck was helpless against Thomas’ blazing rushes around the outside, and as the game wore on, Thomas set an NFL record by sacking Krieg seven times.

Despite being sacked a total of nine times, Krieg kept the Hawks in the game, finishing with 16 completions in 23 attempts for 306 yards.

The Hawk defense, meanwhile, had held K.C. to just three Nick Lowery field goals, with the lone Chief touchdown coming on a Dan Saleaumua fumble recovery in the end zone in the third quarter.

That left Seattle still hoping for the upset on the final possession, trailing only 16-10.

At the Chief 25, with time for only one play, Krieg dropped back again and appeared to be in Thomas’ sights for sack No. 8.

“It came down to one play and either we scored and won or else we lost to them again,” Skansi said.

This time, Krieg ducked under Thomas.

“He just missed Dave and Dave kind of stepped around him and threw the ball up,” Skansi said. “We had four wide receivers and we all ran vertical routes into the seams of the zone. They were in three-deep and we split their coverage.”

Skansi was an inside receiver, and when he reached the end zone, he saw that the ball was headed his way.

“I had time to see it coming and had time to feel the free safety (Deron Cherry) coming over to try to make a play for it.”

Cherry didn’t get to it, though, and the sure-handed Skansi pulled down one of the biggest catches in franchise history.

“With the whole situation of the day, and with the big crowd, it totally took them out of it,” Skansi said.

“The one thing I really remember was seeing all those fans screaming in the end zone and then all of a sudden, once the ball was caught, it was nothing - absolute silence.”

The reserved Skansi was caught up by the immensity of the moment and allowed himself a brief display of emotion.

He spiked the ball.

“I spiked it, but it wasn’t very good,” he said. “It was my only spike - ever - and I wasn’t very good at it.”

Skansi was waived after the following season and played in Canada for a year before trying his hand at mortgage banking.

But “I kind of got antsy to get back in the game,” he said of his reason for joining the coaching ranks.

And if Vandal receivers ever need instruction on what to do in critical situations, Skansi is one coach who can tell them about it from first-hand experience.

He can tell them about the power of making a single great play, about how it can instantly silence 71,000 fans.

“Dave and I kind of walked off the field looking at each other,” Skansi said. “We just said to each other, ‘what a great deal, what a great win.’ And it was. It sure was.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo