DETROIT — If you hang out with the Seattle Seahawks for a few days, you will be just as ready for SEC football as the Super Bowl.

Former SEC players are all over the place — on offense and defense, in the backfield and the line, on the active and inactive roster. Ten are on the Seahawks' active roster, and three more are on either injured reserve or the practice squad.

The Seattle offense is about as SEC as it gets in the NFL. You have a former Auburn guard (Chris Gray) and former Georgia fullback (Mack Strong) blocking for a former Alabama running back (Shaun Alexander).

Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who played college football at Boston College, sometimes must think he stepped into the wrong huddle at the Senior Bowl. If the native New Englander develops a drawl, you won't need DNA testing to find the source.

When Hasselbeck isn't handing the ball to a former Alabama running back, he's throwing to an ex-Florida wide receiver, Darrell Jackson. Two rungs down on the quarterback ladder is Georgia's David Greene.

Not only do you have a lot of SEC offense in Seattle. You have a lot of SEC history.

Alexander is Alabama's all-time leading rusher, Greene is Georgia's all-time winningest quarterback, and Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack, has — with apologies to Pig Prather — Mississippi State's all-time best nickname.

Womack, who is a backup offensive tackle for the Seahawks, already has gained nickname fame at the Super Bowl. Entertainment Weekly honored him for his appetizing nickname during Tuesday's media day.

First, Alexander is named the NFL's MVP. Then, Womack is honored as the "player most likely to promote pork chops at the Super Bowl." Awards just keep coming for the SEC.

It's not surprising that Womack and the rest of the southern Seahawks have gravitated toward one another in the Pacific Northwest. If they hadn't already met, they probably had heard of one another by reputation. When you carry the football like Alexander or carry a nickname like "Pork Chop," word gets around.

Not all of their shared experiences were mutually pleasant. For example, Tennessee wide receiver Tony Brown, who is on the Seahawks practice squad, doesn't feel all warm and fuzzy when he recalls his introduction to Greene in the fall of 2001.

Greene, who was a redshirt freshman, led the Bulldogs the length of the field for a last-minute, game-winning touchdown. He also won two of his other three starts against the Vols.

Despite their checkered past, the two have become fast friends as Seahawks rookies.

"We hang out together all the time," Brown said. "I still tell him how he killed us in 2001."

There's an up and a down side to these SEC connections in Seattle.

"We have a special bond from playing in the SEC," said Seattle rookie center Chris Spencer, who left Ole Miss after his junior year. "It's the best conference in the country."

But the connection becomes a rivalry when one player's school is pitted against the other's. Gray, a 13-year NFL veteran, hasn't been gone from college too long to forget the relevance of beating Alabama.

He reminded Alexander of that a couple of months ago.

"Auburn beat them pretty good this year," Gray said with a smile. "He kind of took it seriously, so I had to back off."

Good idea. In a quest for the Super Bowl, you have enough to overcome without letting old rivalries get in the way.