How ‘King of Sevens’ Waisale Serevi helped the Seattle Seahawks win a Super Bowl
A new book tracking the life of the little master tells how his tackling expertise carried over to the American game
He wasn’t a renowned tackler during his illustrious rugby sevens career but Fijian great Waisale Serevi can take some credit for the Seattle Seahawks’ 2013 Super Bowl victory.
After moving to the United States at the end of his playing and coaching career and setting up a rugby coaching business, Serevi found himself front and centre as the Seahawks went about building the NFL’s tightest defence.
A new book tracking the life of the little master – Waisale Serevi, The King of Sevens – tells of how Seahawks’ defensive coordinator Rocky Seto reached out to Serevi to help improve the team’s tackling technique.
“In 2010, Pete Carroll’s Seahawks had drafted a pair of hard-hitting defensive backs to play the free and strong safety positions,” the book says. “In 2011, cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner were added to join Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas to form an intensely physical defensive backfield.
“Carroll had a vision for his defence but knew that the current climate of protecting player safety in the NFL meant that tackling aggressively risked giving away penalties.