About 40 Seahawks took part in an informal (unofficial, players only), but organized team activity this morning at the University of Washinton's indoor facility. This was something in the works that Mike Williams had alluded to last week in a local radio interview and it's good to see the players are keeping at it in this lockout regardless of whether or not we will miss games this fall. Percy Allen put together a good piece about it over at the Seattle Times, but one important detail to note is that Charlie Whitehurst was in attendance.
Recently, John Clayton noted (and this was followed by many, many others saying "Hey, yeah he's right!") that Charlie has been missing a golden opportunity to take the reins of the team during the offseason by staying down in Georgia and working out there. Mostly instead, it's been free agent Matt Hasselbeck as the vocal and unquestioned offensive leader of the player-organized workouts during this lockout, and I'm sure the irony of this does not escape the players or Hasselbeck himself.
While it seems more likely lately that Hasselbeck will be back in Seattle in 2011, for all Charlie Whitehurst knows, the starting quarterback job is his this season so he's not endearing himself to many fans (or possibly coaches) by being so hands-off and seemingly aloof to leading this team. While we outsiders don't really know how vocal he's been or who really did organize this workout, it's good to see he's in town and hopefully he's here in Seattle to stay until the season (or at least will start to organize and participate in some more workouts every couple of weeks).
Because the QB is the de facto face of the franchise and the guy that every offensive player looks to for leadership, Charlie would be doing himself some good to be more visible as a leader during this lockout. While many players do not work out here or live in Seattle during the offseason, he has reason to be in the media more, if only to show the fans he's committed to it.
One post script: it should be noted that the idea of these informal player workouts were originally organized by running back Justin Forsett, per Percy Allen. Pretty impressive.