Simply put, Chancellor was one of the most important players during the best era in franchise history. A fifth-round pick thought by many to be too big and too slow to play safety in the NFL, Chancellor thrived in Seattle as part of the Legion of Boom defense, setting the tone with his intimidating, physical play. The author of some of the most memorable hits in franchise history, Chancellor was THE alpha in a locker room full of them, and one of the few players who Pete Carroll said ever maxed out on the “competitor scale” he and John Schneider used to help evaluate players.
“There’s great players, then there’s guys who tip the field through their presence,” said former News Tribune Seahawks beat reporter Mike Sando, who is now an NFL senior writer for The Athletic. “They have a presence that’s different than just being excellent at their position, and Kam Chancellor was one of those guys… To be 6-4, 220, to be the leader that he was, the voice that he was where you were kind of afraid of him, short list of players like that.”
After playing a reserve role as a rookie, Chancellor became a starter in 2011 and quickly established himself as a franchise icon for his physicality and playmaking ability on the field. Chancellor was a four-time Pro-Bowler and a two-time second-team All-Pro during his eight seasons with the Seahawks, piling up 606 career tackles, 12 interceptions, nine forced fumbles and 44 passes defensed. And there surely would have been more accolades and impressive numbers had his career not been cut short by a 2017 neck injury.
Chancellor saved some of his best performances for the biggest games, including Seattle's dominant Super Bowl XLVIII victory in which he recorded nine tackles, an interception, two passes defensed and a huge tone-setting hit on Demaryius Thomas on Denver's third offensive play. A year later in a playoff win over Carolina, Chancellor recorded 10 tackles, returned an interception 90 yards for a touchdown, and twice hurdled Carolina's line trying to block field-goal attempts.
With Chancellor helping anchor Seattle's secondary, the Seahawks had one of the best defenses in NFL history, a unit that led the NFL in total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and takeaways, and that held the highest scoring offense of all time to a single score in Super Bowl XLVIII. From 2012-2015, the Seahawks led the NFL in scoring defense four straight times, something no team had previously accomplished during the Super Bowl era.
"This is a great kid, he's a great leader, he's a tough guy, he's a heart-and-soul guy," Carroll said when Chancellor signed a contract extension in 2017. "He's a fifth-round draft pick who broke all the way through from that to become a great football player and leader in our program."
The honors and numbers, however, don't tell the full story of Chancellor's Seahawks career, impressive as they may be. What really made Chancellor stand out was the way he set a tone, both with his presence on his own team, and with his jarring hits on opponents—he got his nickname, Bam Bam, tattooed on his shoulders so he could "stamp" opponents with his big hits.
"First off, there's his physical nature on the football field, his physical presence," receiver Doug Baldwin once said of Chancellor. "He kind of brings a swagger to the defense, and to the whole team really. There aren't many people who can go up against Kam and win that battle, so he kind of brings the hammer for the whole team. Then obviously his leadership in the locker room, he's just one of those guys who is down to earth. He can talk to anybody, have a conversation with anybody, cares genuinely about everybody, and he brings everybody together."
Chancellor's teammates elected him as a team captain three times, and twice made him the team's Steve Largent Award winner, and he also proved his value in the community both in the Puget Sound region and his hometown of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Chancellor's Kam Cares Foundation helps "equip children from underserved communities in Hampton Roads and Seattle areas with educational, health, and wellness tools and resources to position students for greater academic success."
