Andre Hines was taken with the 16th pick (44th overall) of the 2nd round in 1980. The 6'6, 275 lb offensive tackle out of Stanford was supposed to come in be a stalwart on the line for the next ten years, but that was not quite destined to pan out.
Hines signed a 5 year, $450,000 contract and was ready to start his career in the NFL when something struck him: he didn't want to play football. In a recent interview, he said:
I didn't like football, it was such a gruff sport. I wasn't excited by the roughness of the game. I just tried to do what I could do when the Seahawks had an interest in me. It wasn't enough.
Not exactly what you'd hope to hear from a starting offensive tackle. He arrived to camp 20 pounds overweight and his coach at the time didn't really like it that much, and offered this glowing review:
"He was absolutely terrible," former Seahawks coach Jack Patera said. "Our scouting department said this was a guy that was going to play 10 years. He had no intestinal fortitude. He couldn't push himself to do anything. I don't know if he could run down the field and throw a block, because he never did. He was in worse shape than I was."
After that, he 'held out' in a different way than most high draft pick players would hold out - with a fake sickness - designed to keep himself off the field. He took part in nine games but never started one and was out of the league after one season.
Hopefully that "scouting department" Coach Patera was referencing is not still in charge.
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