Steve Hutchinson: From prep royalty to NFL trenches

DETROIT — Steve Hutchinson is dead serious.

He was a homecoming king at his Coral Springs, Fla., high school. Seriously.

It's hard to imagine, this 6-foot-5, 313-pound block of granite wearing a crown and walking down the velvet carpet. Maybe it's that don't-mess-with-me gaze. Or the imposing size. Or the image of Hutchinson pulling from his left guard spot and bearing down on a defensive back like a Mack truck with no brakes.

Then, Mr. Serious shows his funny side.

"You know what? Everybody says something about that," Hutchinson said. "I'm wondering if everyone on this team is so ugly that they couldn't even fathom [being homecoming king]. I'm surprised nobody else has been that, because every time they read something like that they're like, 'Oh my God! You were the homecoming king?' Am I the only one that was homecoming king around here? It's kind of funny."

Hutchinson is a study in contrasts. He can't stand to lose, even in Monopoly. Yet he goes about his business in a quiet and almost humble way, without the need for the glory and praise often reserved for some teammates.

Hutchinson wants to win so bad that when a protection or blocking scheme breaks down, he wants to know immediately what happened.

"He'll come off field and say, 'What happened here?' " Seahawks offensive-line coach Bill Laveroni said. "He's such an intense competitor that he's got the fire in him all the time. It's like 'Let's get this straight if we're not doing it right, right now.'

"So you love when you're coaching guys like that because you've got a guy who wants to be the very best on every snap, and when he's not, he is so upset that he wants to find a way to correct it quickly."

And yet there is Hutchinson — aka Big Hutch or Caveman — trading barbs with his teammates in the locker room.

"Oh, you have to roll with them," Hutchinson said. "It's a brutal locker room, and if you let them smell blood that something bothers you, it just keeps on going. They're like sharks. For every nickname I get, I probably dish out two, so that's how I deal with it."

The fifth-year pro out of Michigan has always been able to hold his own, be it in sports, everyday life or with the jokes.

His parents are Midwesterners — Fred Hutchinson is from Michigan's upper peninsula and Sandi Hutchinson from Chicago — who reared young Steven and nurtured his interest in sports. Hutchinson was dedicated to his favorite pastimes at an early age, learning to appreciate the outdoors.

He would come home from school and grab his fishing pole. But Steve also liked ball sports.

Sandi Hutchinson recalled a Little League game when Steve sat in the dugout and told jokes with his friend while waiting his turn to bat. But the dedication remained.

In high school, Hutchinson was so disciplined, coachable and hungry to be the best that his coach once asked Sandi if she had any more sons at home. Alas, Steve was an only child.

"His coaches always said he was the old man of the team," Sandi said. "He was mature beyond his years."

Hutchinson chose Michigan over Notre Dame and Florida State. After five years with the Wolverines and five with the Seahawks, Hutchinson is back in Detroit and mere minutes away from Ann Arbor, where he spent his college days.

"It would be like my second home," said Hutchinson. "I've been here [in Seattle] just as long as I've been in Detroit, really, so I guess it's tied for my second home."

"It's a little bit more special to me than some of these other guys," he said. "Not that the game isn't going to make it special in itself."

Save for a broken leg that cut short his 2002 season, Hutchinson has done pretty much everything an offensive lineman can do in his Seahawks career. He's a two-time first-team All-Pro and a three-time Pro Bowler. He's half of the best left offensive line in football that plowed the field for running back Shaun Alexander to win the NFL's rushing title and the MVP award. He blocked for the NFC's starting quarterback in the Pro Bowl, Matt Hasselbeck, while also earning a starting spot, too.

"In such a short time, I've been able to get a pretty good reputation and it's pretty satisfying," Hutchinson said.

He's set to become a free agent at the end of the season, but it would be a shock if the Seahawks didn't re-sign the 28-year-old. Hutchinson said Monday that he'd like to be back with the Seahawks and that he and his wife, Landyn, love the Seattle area. But a new contract was never an issue for Hutchinson this season, as he decided he'd wait until the season was over before giving it serious thought.

Still, the jokes keep coming at Hutchinson's expense.

"I know he went through this phase where he was slicking his hair back like he was some kind of movie star or sex symbol or something," fullback Mack Strong said. "That was pretty funny. He was putting that Vitalis in his hair to make it lay down."

But seriously, folks.

"I have a pretty good ability to turn it on when I step on the field," Hutchinson said. "When you get off the field, you have to be able to have fun and kind of let loose a little bit, because I think this game is so stressful that you can blow up inside if you hold that all in."

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com