Mark Seay has a special appreciation for every catch he makes and every breath he takes.
Seriously wounded in an inner-city shooting four years ago, Seay came back from a year-long layoff to play two more seasons at Long Beach State. Now he's keeping his football hopes alive as an undrafted free agent receiver in the San Francisco 49ers training camp."It's just amazing, with what he went through, that he's still able to play football," receivers coach Ray Sherman said. "You pull for a guy like that because you want to see someone like that have success, and I believe he's going to have success, whether it's football or something else."
Seay, 25, was shot in October 1988 as he shielded his 3-year-old niece from gang gunfire. A .38-caliber bullet entered his side, bounced off his hip bone, tore through his right kidney, destroying it, before coming to rest three inches from his heart, where it remains.
"It's just sitting there. It won't move. (The doctors) said I can live normally with it in me, so why even take it out," Seay said.
"I'm the same person as I've always been. It's just that I know I have one less organ," added Seay, who wears a flak jacket to protect his remaining kidney. "It's not a big deal."
The shooting involved four gang members firing from the street into his sister's Long Beach apartment, where the family was having a Halloween party for their younger children. The incident apparently was triggered by an innocent remark Seay's brother had made earlier in the day but which one of the gang members took offense to.
"I was on the phone and all of a sudden I hear this pow, pow, pow!" Seay recalled. "I called 911 and told everybody to get down until the police could come."
The shooting stopped and started several times. At one point, Seay saw his niece Tashawnda standing in the middle of the living room. He ran over to her and got her out of harm's way.
"You could hear the bullets, zip, zip, zip," said Seay, who hustled his niece to the safety of a hallway. "I didn't even know I'd been hit until I got to the hospital." No one else was hurt in the shooting.
Seay was initially told by doctors that he shouldn't play football again.
Long Beach State, fearing liability problems, also told Seay he couldn't play.
Other doctors Seay consulted told him he could resume his career provided he took some precautions, such as extra padding and watching his diet.
Seay had to fight the school to let him play again. They eventually reached an out-of-court settlement in which he signed a liability waiver. He resumed playing in 1990.
For his part, Seay said he never doubted he would be able to come back.
"I always believed," he said. "I always believed in God, you know, because God would never forsake you. Man will. That's just the nature of man."
In his junior season at Long Beach State, Seay caught 48 passes for 771 yards. He had 39 receptions for 592 yards as a senior. He earned second-team All-Big West Conference honors both seasons and believes he was passed over in the NFL draft because of concerns over his medical condition.
But he passed the 49ers' physical, and Sherman said he sees Seay getting better every day.
Realistically, though, Seay's chances of making the team are slim. The team has 12 wide receivers on the roster and will take only four or five of them into the regular season. With John Taylor and Jerry Rice on the roster, two of those spots are already locked up.
Seay said he'll work hard and hope for the best. But he said he'll also keep a sense of perspective.
"I realize life is more important than anything," he said. "I've learned to appreciate the little things, things that you sometimes take for granted, like eating, walking, talking, hearing and seeing.
"You're rich when you have these things."