Max Unger

Seattle Seahawks center Max Unger jogs on the field against Minnesota in 2013. The sixth-year pro and former Duck has been focused on Seattle's encore season despite a heavy amount of attention since winning the Super Bowl in February.

(The Associated Press)

EUGENE -- The Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl title will likely be remembered as the defining day of Max Unger's professional career.

Even the two-time Pro Bowl center, who isn't much for hyperbole, calls it a "cornerstone" moment in his life.

That might explain why the former Oregon Duck entering his sixth season in the NFL is a bit sheepish discussing the particulars of Seattle's 43-8 victory against Denver last February. Other than the celebratory confetti and being handed the Lombardi Trophy, he doesn't remember much from it.

"The Super Bowl was a blur, I don't even remember a lot of it to be honest with you," said Unger by phone this week, as Seattle convened for the start of training camp. "The whole thing happened so fast."

That's OK. During his sometimes-surreal offseason, Unger found plenty of fans ranging from Hawaii to the United Kingdom who were more than willing to relive their own memories of Feb. 2 with him, even as he and the Seahawks have tried to move on in preparation for their encore.

But even in places where Unger, 28, expected adulation, the level of outpouring was surprising.

Max Unger (top row, with yellow tie) listens to President Barack Obama congratulate the NFL champion Seattle Seahawks in May during a visit to the White House.

When the Hawaii native returned to the Big Island for his customary February-May stay, he found out his high school, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, would retire his No. 77 jersey on the south wall of its gymnasium. No Hawaii Prep athlete, in any sport, can now wear that number.

He also discovered that April 2, the day of his jersey retirement, would be known as "Super Bowl Champion Max Unger Day."

"It was pretty ridiculous," said Unger, the 49th pick in the 2009 NFL draft after he started for four years on Oregon's offensive line. "I was on the front page of the newspaper more than a couple times when I was back in Kona."

Even his July vacation to the U.K. with his wife, Leah, brought gawking.

Somewhere between golfing on Scotland's west coast and watching Wimbledon near London, the Ungers ran into a Seattle fan who "freaked out he was so stoked" to meet a champion Seahawk.

It was yet another reminder, in an unlikely place, of the reach of the title's significance and the difference it's brought to fans in the Pacific Northwest. It even brought some reflected glory to Eugene, where Unger and cornerback Walter Thurmond brought the total of Super Bowl rings won by UO alumni to 30.

What it hasn't changed much is Unger.

Other than being the owner of a Super Bowl ring with 183 diamonds and a "12th Man" flag designed into the side – he called the June ring ceremony his official start of the new season -- not much is different.

"He returns your calls, you can text him and he'll shoot you a message right back and he says it's great to hear from you," said Tom Goodspeed, the former Hawaii Prep head football coach who's known Unger since he was a freshman who'd never played the game before. "He's the same guy."

Unger's still happy to discuss the magic of last winter's playoff, of course. But he'd rather think about the upcoming fall and how his success is anchored on what hasn't changed. And why deviate from the plan, anyway? Ten years after he departed Hawaii as a three-star prep recruit he returned this winter two years into a four-year, reportedly $25 million extension, one of the most lucrative contracts for an NFL center.

Oregon Ducks Max Unge (left) and Jeremiah Johnson lift the Holiday Bowl trophy after beating Oklahoma State in 2008, the final game of Unger's Oregon career.

"The funny thing about the Super Bowl is people forget there's life after the Super Bowl," Unger said. "Every team in the NFL is gunning for it. It's a new team. We lost quite a few guys to free agency and we're kind of figuring it out a little bit more.

"The question of being easy or hard to motivate yourself is the root of our whole team. We hang our hats on being self-motivated. ... Getting back into football mode really wasn't hard. That's just part of being a pro. No one is going to hold a gun to your head and tell you what to do."

The consistent approach fits his even-keel personality and was drilled by mentors like high school line coach Bern Brostek, a former NFL lineman, as well as Oregon line coach Steve Greatwood and strength guru Jim Radcliffe.

Goodspeed, now a high school athletic director south of Los Angeles, saw it on display when he flew in February to surprise Unger at his jersey retirement. He wasn't much surprised, however, by Unger's plain-spoken message to the school after the ceremony.

"He got up and spoke in front of the whole school and he just said it's all about hard work, old-fashioned hard work," Goodspeed said. "He talked to the kids about getting involved in other sports and not getting focused on just one. I think that's a great message for kids right now as they specialize and try to get into college on one sport."

Consistency is the same message Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says on repeat, Unger says. The 2014 training camp is barely a week old in Renton, Wash., yet Unger has already heard the message several times. And after the wildly successful dividends the message has paid out to both Unger and Seattle, there's no reason not to believe you can get better by staying the same.

"You play to put yourself in these positions to win these huge games," Unger said. "We preach this a lot that when you get to the big game, don't change anything that you do so when you get there it isn't a shock and you kind of used to performing at that stage and at that level."

It's a level he, and a world full of Seahawks fans, want to return to in order to make some new memories.

"People come up to us and say, '(the Super Bowl) was the happiest day of my life," Unger said. "I can't tell you how many times someone has said that to me.

"And I say, 'That makes two of us.'"

-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreif