“Give me a helmet and let’s build a player that I can be this year. That’s all I ask.’’
Seau sampled a wide array of sporting experiences during his self-imposed exile from the league in taping his Versus TV show, “Sports Jobs with Junior Seau,’’ which will debut Dec. 2. He even survived a stomping by a 2,000-pound bull during his stint as a rodeo clown on the Pro Bull Riders tour.
Now the 12-time Pro Bowler will focus on bulldozing opposing ballcarriers for Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who declined to say whether he was planning to play Seau in Sunday’s home game against the Titans.
“It’s good to have Junior back,’’ Belichick said. “He brings a lot of energy and experience and toughness to our team. We’ve been talking about this for a little while and we’re glad we worked it out here in the last day or two and we’re glad to have him.
“We’ll just take it day to day. We don’t exactly know how things are going to work out this week, next week, or any other week.
“I’m sure he’ll contribute for us.’’
The team made room for Seau on the 53-man roster by releasing defensive lineman Terdell Sands.
“I trust the coach and the ownership and the coaches in this organization,’’ said Seau, “and I have a lot of love for the players in the locker room. That’s the reason why I wanted to come back to only one team.’’
Asked if he was concerned about his ability to perform at a high level, Seau said, “One thing I know is that you can’t coach courage - you can’t. I will go through the A and B gap until I break glass.
“I’m not afraid of whether or not I’m going to bring to the table a level that I had 20 years ago. That’s not going to happen. If I got to be a plumber today, I’ll be a plumber. Whatever Bill needs.
“I, basically in eight months, have been working out for a chance to make a choice, a chance I didn’t have control of; Bill had control of that. But the choice was to be prepared for that chance. So for eight months I have been training to receive a chance - and to have a choice - and here we are.’’
When Tom Brady showed up at the weight room at 6:45 a.m. yesterday, he found Seau already at work and in a full sweat.
