That “shot” - the chance to earn a starting spot in the National Football League - never really came for Szalay, a Whitefish native who was an All-America offensive lineman for the Montana Grizzlies in 2000-01.
Asked about the high point of being in the NFL, Szalay says, “I never got a high point.” He worked his behind off for five years, “brought it” to every practice, and never conquered a depth chart.
So after spending last season on Seattle's practice squad, he told the Seahawks thanks but no thanks to an offer to sign for 2007. Szalay has retired.
“I told them, ‘It's been five years, and I'm sick of getting beat out by politics,' ” he recalled. “They said, ‘We hope you change your mind.' So I watched the draft. They picked up a few offensive linemen.”
The Seahawks took guards Mansfield Wrotto of Georgia Tech and Steve Vallos of Wake Forest in the fourth and seventh rounds. They'll have a much better chance of making the team than any of the Seahawk free agents (Portland State running back Joe Rubin among them).
It was against such odds that Szalay made the Cincinnati Bengals in 2002. He never saw any regular-season action for them, then was released and picked up by the Baltimore Ravens in 2005.
He went to training camp with the Ravens in 2006, and played extensively in their final preseason game. Hoping for the best and fearing the worst, Szalay put forth what he felt was a supreme effort - the kind he felt, that all those defensive linemen and linebackers would still be paying for the next day, when they watched film.
In Baltimore, the next day was cut day. Szalay went to the training facility, and was pleased to have the “grim reaper” - the guy who made the cuts that season for Baltimore - smile as he walked past.
The team chef, a friend who had received a “Rock Creek Lodge Testy Festy” T-shirt from Szalay, confirmed that he was on the team; he'd talked to the reaper himself.
Forty-five minutes later, just as Szalay was about to shake hands with another former Griz, fullback Justin Green, the reaper reappeared.
It's a last-minute decision, he said.
Szalay related that story not to tug your heartstrings, but to show the lot of most free agents. Szalay had the pedigree - several UM offensive linemen have made the NFL. He had the size (6-foot-4, 303 pounds) and the strength (he benched 225 pounds 34 times).
One thing he didn't have was a contract that comes with being an NFL draft pick. The year the Ravens signed him, they drafted a center in the fourth round.
“Throughout the whole preseason I started above him,” he said. “He made it; I ended up getting cut.”
The closest he came to that starting spot was in 2004 in Cincy. He'd played well against the Patriots in a preseason game in place of the veteran center. The next practice he broke his wrist. Two days after that the center went down for six weeks.
Szalay does have good memories and several friendships. Former teammates flock to the annual Doug Betters Winter Classic in Whitefish. He liked his time in Seattle, especially the beginning.
“I ended up getting cut by Baltimore, and I was in Missoula about a week and Seattle called,” Szalay said. “I get to Seattle, and everyone in the locker room was, ‘Hey, Thatcher Szalay! The Mountain Man is back!'
“I had no idea I was so popular.”
These days, Szalay is back in Missoula. His wife Katy is a sixth-grade teacher at C.S. Porter. He's working the job he had in college, working for Grizzly Security Armored Express. He guesses he's already dropped around 40 pounds.
And he wants to put his education degree to work, as a teacher and coach. It's a natural fit for a native Montanan who became a Griz team captain and All-America, and then stuck around the NFL for five years, albeit with a total of five games played.
If nothing in the pros matched his memories at UM, which culminated with the 2001 I-AA national title, so be it.
“I will be attacking this new chapter in my life with the same passion, desire and enthusiasm that I have done for the last 14fi years,” Szalay said. “I am currently applying. Football's given me a lot and I'm ready to give back to it.”
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 523-5247, or by e-mail at fneighbor@missoulian.com.
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