Seay Perseveres, Makes Chargers’ Starting Lineup : Football: His most recent past is marked with tragedy, hardships.

SAN DIEGO —  In the cold, impersonal world of statistics, wide receiver Mark Seay has been a non-entity in two NFL seasons.

One game, no catches.

In reality, though, he’s been going over the middle, making the tough plays, for the last six years. It’s just that most of them weren’t on the football field.

Perhaps the biggest play of his life came Oct. 30, 1988, when he was shot while shielding his 3-year-old niece from gang gunfire and lost a kidney.

Fast forward to Sunday night in Denver, when Seay will line up as one of two new starting wide receivers for the San Diego Chargers.

“I felt that something would break one day. I just didn’t know when,” Seay said. “I wasn’t going to give up until something did. It wasn’t easy. Believe me.”

Seay persevered through the aftermath of that night six years ago when a .38 caliber bullet smashed through his right kidney and lodged about four inches from his heart, where it remains.

Seay, the leading receiver at Long Beach State at the time, was sharing an apartment with his sister, and the family was having a Halloween party.

The shooting apparently was triggered by an innocent remark Seay’s brother had made earlier in the day but which a gang member took offense to.

The gang came back, and one started firing through an open window.

Seay saw his niece, Tashawnda Roseborough, standing in the middle of the living room and hustled her to safety.

“I just went after her, not thinking I was going to get shot,” he said.

“I just reacted. Just like when you see a fumble, you don’t look to see how big the guy is about to land on you after you cover up the ball. You just react.”

But being a hero had a down side.

Long Beach State, fearing liability problems, told Seay he couldn’t play anymore. Seay sued to get his rights back, eventually agreeing to sign a liability waiver as part of an out-of-court settlement.

“That took a lot out of me,” he said.

So did other events--the death of Long Beach State Coach George Allen, not being drafted despite leading Long Beach State in receptions as a junior and senior, and being waived after spending the 1992 season on the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad.

Seay had grown close to Allen, who came out of retirement to coach Long Beach State in 1990, the year Seay returned.

When Long Beach State beat Pacific, 28-7, for Allen’s first victory after three losses, the former NFL coach declined the game ball, handing it to Seay.

“He’s inspired me,” said Allen, himself considered a master of motivation.

Allen, 72, died three months later.

“That killed me,” Seay said. “Once I came to know him as a person as well as a coach, I could understand why players did play for him the way they did.”

All those setbacks “just made me more determined and more hungry, and then once I did get an opportunity, I wasn’t going to let it get away from me,” Seay said.

The Chargers liked Seay in college, General Manager Bobby Beathard said. But when he was available as a free agent, team doctors had flunked him on a physical exam because of the shooting.

When the 49ers waived Seay in August, 1993, the Chargers signed him. This time he passed the physical.

Seay was on San Diego’s 53-man roster all last season but was activated only once. Since a May mini-camp, Seay has worked his way up from No. 3 on the depth chart to earn the starting spot opposite Shawn Jefferson.

Seay, 27, said he rebounded from the shooting by turning a negative situation into a positive one.

“I probably wouldn’t have the willpower that I have now, if those things wouldn’t have occurred,” he said. “I think I found something out about myself that I didn’t know even existed. A lot of people don’t even know what they have in themselves until something tragic happens or their life gets thrown off track.

“Some come back, some don’t. And I’m glad that I know myself enough to know what I can and can’t overcome. And I believe I can overcome anything that I put my mind to.”

Which is why Seay is not worried about his lack of experience.

“All I have to do is think about where I came from. Think about how hard it was to get to this point, and remember how badly it felt when you couldn’t play, no matter what the situation was.”