Published: November 01, 2009 10:49 am      

Hawthorne to play against childhood team, the Cowboys

Ex-Tiger will start at middle linebacker Sunday for Seattle

David Hawthorne returns home to Texas on Sunday as the starting middle linebacker of the Seattle Seahawks.

The ex-Tiger will be playing against his childhood favorite team, the Cowboys.In fact he played for a YMCA team in Corsicana when the team name the Cowboys in the fourth grade.

"It's a dream come true," Hawthorne said. "Everyone growing up from YMCA football wanted to play against the Cowboys. It's almost like a home game for me. I'll have a lot of people behind me."

Hawthorne saw some of his family Saturday night after the Seahawks arrived in Dallas. He has bought tickets for 40 family members for Sunday's game at new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. He's spending some big bucks, but this a homecoming to remember.

"It's all worth it to get the family out there," Hawthorne said.

Hawthorne, who played at TCU, will be having a double homecoming of sorts.

"A couple of my boys are coming in from TCU," Hawthorne said.

Hawthorne will be making his second consecutive start at middle linebacker since All-Pro player Lofa Tutupu went down for the season for the Seahawks. But he has the confidence of his first-year coach.

"David is a hitter, he'll smack you. He's the Heater," head coach Jim Mora told the Seattle Post-Intelligence on Friday. "He's really picked up this defense well. He plays with confidence. The players have confidence in him. He takes it very seriously, he studies his craft. He's a young, developing player so it'll be fun to see him develop the rest of this season."

"It's always a bad ordeal when one of your soldiers goes down," Hawthorne said. "It's sad it had to happen this way. He's behind me with what I'm trying to do."

Hawthorne said he won't have butterflies in his stomach when he takes the field for the first time Sunday.

"Those are all worked out," he said. "It will be a good feeling. I'll have to block all of that out and perform the way I can play."