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12 year playoff drought over for Seau

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. courtesy NE Patriots -- Junior Seau was hurt. The cart came out to take him off the field. Would the inspirational leader return?

Seau was with San Diego then and Rodney Harrison figured his teammate was finished.

"I thought he was probably lost for the season," said Harrison, now in his second year playing with Seau on the Patriots. "He comes back five plays later. First play back, he goes and gets a sack and he gets up and he's cheering. He's pumping that arm and it was pretty amazing.

"That just sums up Junior right there. You can never count him out."

Not when he finished the 2004 and 2005 seasons on injured reserve with Miami. Not when he announced his retirement after that. Not even when he reversed that decision four days later to play for New England in 2006.

And not when he ended that season early with more pain -- a broken arm sidelined him after the 11th game.

So on Saturday night, Seau will use his energy and ability to try to extend the Patriots' unbeaten season in a divisional playoff game against Jacksonville.

Just seven days before his 39th birthday, one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history will be back in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.

Others may have wondered why Seau kept coming back. He listened only to himself.

"I never doubt myself playing the game of football. One thing I've always said to not only myself, but people around and in the locker room," he said Wednesday, "is never allow the world to put barriers on you as a person, or as a player, or as a human being, as to what you should be doing, what you should be saying at any age you may be.

"And I never allowed that to happen."