Veteran Seahawks assistant coach quits his job to join the ministry

Mostly, football coaches stay in the business until they can’t land another job and have no choice but to go into another field.

Sometimes you’ll hear about a coach giving it up to find a new career. But Seattle Seahawks assistant coach Rocky Seto has an unusual tale.

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Seto, who has been on Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll’s staff since 2001, has decided to quit his coaching job to join the ministry, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reported. That’s quite a dramatic career change.

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Seto was Seattle’s assistant head coach for the defense the last two seasons. He was quality control coach/defense his first Seattle season of 2010, assistant defensive backs coach in 2011 and defensive passing game coordinator in the three years that followed. Although he was working his way up the ladder with the Seahawks, and was with Carroll at USC from 2001-09 as well, the 42-year-old wanted to do something else.

A source told Condotta that Seto’s decision was entirely his own and he long had a desire to join the ministry.

The life of an NFL assistant isn’t always glamorous, but hardly anyone leaves it voluntarily. After 16 seasons of coaching at USC and with the Seahawks, Seto found a different calling.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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