Hawk Punter Is No Turkey -- Bootin' Or Shootin', Tuten On Mark

KIRKLAND - If you thought Brian Bosworth's movie "Stone Cold" was a turkey, wait until you see punter Rick "Bootin' " Tuten's upcoming video.

Violent? Hey, Tuten carries a shotgun and shoots to kill.

With perfect Thanksgiving timing, Tuten casually mentioned yesterday that he will be in an upcoming video about wild-turkey hunting.

The video, backed by Quaker Boy Turkey Calls near Buffalo, N.Y., is coming to a sporting-goods store near you next year.

In the how-to film, Tuten goes turkey hunting in his native Florida. Does the avid hunter shoot a turkey? Hey, nobody likes movie reviewers who give away the plot. Let's just say Tuten is happier than one particular bird at the end of the video.

Buckshot flies straighter than footballs, and the ball has taken some strange career bounces for Tuten.

He started punting at age 5 in his back yard with his father, Lamar, a former Florida punter. Tuten, 26, has kicked in a national-title college game and a Super Bowl. He also has been cut six times by five teams.

"That's part of it, part of the job," he said. "The ups are way up and the downs are way down."

Last year at this time, Tuten was punting for the AFC champion Buffalo Bills.

In the Super Bowl, he averaged 37.9 yards on six punts and forced New York Giants returner Dave Meggett to make three fair catches.

In training camp, the booter got booted. Coach Marv Levy of the Bills replaced Tuten with Chris Mohr, Montreal Machine punter from the World League of American Football.

Tuten had superior statistics and was surprised to be cut. Still, it wasn't exactly a new experience.

He was cut as a rookie in the San Diego camp in 1988, released by Washington in preseason in 1989, cut after playing three games for Philadelphia in 1989, and cut by Buffalo in camp in 1990 before being brought back.

After being released by the Bills this fall, Tuten spent less than a week with Green Bay, where he didn't get in a game.

The Seahawks signed Tuten Oct. 9 after a tryout. He replaced struggling Alex Waits, who had been cut in camp and brought back to replace Rick Donnelly, who had reinjured his back. Donnelly recently underwent back surgery in Atlanta. The veteran is gone for the season and his career is in jeopardy.

Tuten has averaged 42.3 yards on 31 punts for the Seahawks (he averaged 39.8 last season with Buffalo). However, that isn't the statistic that matters to special-teams coach Rusty Tillman.

Tillman is obsessed with net average (punt minus return) and wants an average of at least 36 yards. Tuten's average has dipped recently to 35.8, but it is above Donnelly's net of 33.8 and Waits' 33.6.

Tillman is among the most emotional and demanding NFL special-teams coaches, and Tuten says he likes working for him.

"I've had some coaches before that you had to guess what they felt," he said. "But if Rusty thinks it, you'll know it; and I think that's a positive thing."

Under Tillman, the Seahawks have had only one punt blocked in the past decade.

Tuten was a star high-school quarterback and punter in Ocala, Fla. He was recruited to Miami as a punter by Coach Howard Schnellenberger. Tulane wanted him as a quarterback-punter but finished as a recruiting runner-up.

Schnellenberger left Miami after Tuten's freshman year, in which the Hurricanes won the 1984 Orange Bowl with a 31-30 victory over Nebraska.

Tuten stayed for only one year under Jimmy Johnson. He obviously soured on Miami but is tight-lipped about his reasons. He tried to rejoin Schnellenberger, by then at Louisville (after the United States Football League folded), but was too late in presenting his transfer papers.

Tuten then chose Florida State and Coach Bobby Bowden.

"Coach Bowden was as good a man as Schnellenberger, the same type of coach - very respectable," he said. "I decided to transfer."

With the Seahawks, Tuten got off to a fast start, thumping the ball 67 yards on his debut punt against the Los Angeles Raiders at the Kingdome on Oct. 13.

The punt he would most like to have back was the 26-yarder against Denver last week. However, fans might want back his 57-yarder at San Diego where the hang time was only 4.3 seconds and he outkicked the coverage. Kitrick Taylor, a former Washington State Cougar, returned that punt 33 yards to set up John Carney's 54-yard winning field goal.

Tillman wants 4.3-second hang time on a 40-yard punt and one-tenth of a second added for each additional two yards.

Tuten knows how to fix bad punts, but he can't fix cars even though his family operates a service station in Ocala, Fla.

"I'm just a gas jockey," he said. "We had certified mechanics. If I was back there with them, I was more in the way than helping out."

Waits' short tenure as a Seahawk showed that when a punter gets in the way of winning, a change is made. Tuten needs no reminding that the NFL is hardly a turkey shoot.

Notes

-- Rookie David Daniels has been named special-teams captain for Sunday's game against Kansas City.

-- Defensive end Tony Woods (strained hamstring) didn't practice, and his playing status remains highly questionable for Sunday. "It doesn't really look very good right now," Knox said, regarding Woods' chances of playing.

-- Fullback John L. Williams (injured groin) was held out of part of yesterday's practice for the second straight day. -- Chris Mohr, who replaced Tuten at Buffalo, is last in the AFC with a 37.9-yard punting average. Tuten is eighth at 42.3.

However, Buffalo leads the NFL by allowing an average return of only 3.9 yards. The Seahawks are giving up 7.9, which is below the league average of 8.9. -- Injured Seahawk punter Rick Donnelly grew up on Long Island, N.Y., and played college football in distant Wyoming. When Donnelly showed up in Wyoming, a teammate figured he was a gullible Easterner and said:

"See that bull over there? Noise comes out of its horns."