With 3:01 left in Sunday’s Seahawks game, Myles Gaskin ran onto the field to help close out a 26-0 victory over the Minnesota Vikings and, in the process, he created a historical moment with a local bent.
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Gaskin became the first football player to go from a Seattle high school in O’Dea to the University of Washington to play in a game for Seattle’s NFL franchise.
There have been plenty of others to pull this feat by coming from other statewide cities such as Ellensburg, Gig Harbor, Pasco, Puyallup, Tacoma and others — with Paul Skansi, Michael Jackson, Brian Habib, Brock Huard and Lawyer Milloy coming to mind — but Gaskin was the first from a Seattle inner-city school to do this.
Against the Vikings, the Huskies’ all-time leading rusher carried the ball on three consecutive plays for 3, 0 and 3 yards in his Seahawks debut.
It has been an arduous season for Gaskin, now in his seventh NFL year and earning a spot on his fourth active roster.
Myles Gaskin (37) runs the ball against the Philadelphia Eagles for Minnesota in 2023. / Caean Couto-Imagn Images
After he was cut in training camp by the Baltimore Ravens, the local running back came home and was signed three times by the Seahawks and released twice.
Ironically, Gaskin drew his Sunday snaps against the team he had played for in the previous two seasons, appearing in seven games for the Vikings in 2023 and 2024. He had just 3 carries for minus 1 yard for Minnesota.
Gaskin, after piling up a record 5,323 rushing yards at the UW, was drafted in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins in 2019 and became a starter in his second and third seasons in 2020 and 2021, opening 17 of 27 games, while battling his way through the COVID pandemic.
He played parts of four seasons for Miami before beginning a long trek through the NFL, getting into games for the Los Angeles Rams, the Vikings and the Seahawks. He also went to camp with the Jacksonville Jaguars and again the Ravens.
His 3 yards on Sunday gave him 1,360 in the NFL on 367 rushing carries.
Proving how resilient one must be to pursue an NFL career, Gaskin has been released or waived no less than 11 times, including getting let go by the Seahawks on October 29 and again on November 20.
But on Sunday, he was in uniform, in the game, drawing handoffs and drawing a paycheck as the only kid with a dream to go from a Seattle high school proper to the UW to the Seahawks.
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