Back when the Washington Commanders were still the Redskins and the fullback position was not limited to a few key players in the NFL as it is now, Mike Sellers was one of the most remembered players for any DC fan over the last few decades.
Sellers became the youngest athlete to sign a professional football contract in 1995, when he joined the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos.
He was 19 years old and had recently graduated from Walla Walla Community College in Washington.
Sellers caught the attention of Redskins scouts while in Canada, and he joined the team in 1998. He would have a solid nine-year NFL career, spending all but one of those seasons (2001) with the Redskins.
There were some hard spots in Cleveland in 2001, and he returned to the CFL in the middle of his career. But from, the 6-3, 284-pound fullback. However, from 2004 until 2011, the main physical force found a long-term career with the Washington Commanders.
He was an instant fan favorite on teams that featured Sean Taylor, Clinton Portis and Santana Moss.
While Mike Sellers was never known as a flashy glamorous player, he came up in huge moments when it mattered the most, thriving as a blocker, ball-carrier and receiver.
Portis said he considered Sellers to be one of the top players in the game when the 33-year-old earned his first Pro Bowl honor in 2010, just one season before he hung up his cleats.
“He deserves it,” Portis said. “You’re talking about a guy who comes to work every day, he never misses practice, gives it all he has, and bangs his body all day to protect me.”
Mike Sellers didn’t take that honor lightly, as he joined rare company as he was the first Redskins fullback to make the Pro Bowl since Rob Goode in 1954. Him and Portis became the first fullback/running back combo to get voted to the Pro Bowl in Washington Commanders history.
“It has been a long time coming. This was one of my lifelong goals. I’m grateful for everybody and what they have helped me achieve.”
“Because of the ride it took, from going to high school, not going to [a four-year] college, then going to the NFL,” he said. “Then from being released in Cleveland to thinking I might not play again, to coming back here [to the Redskins] and reviving my career. It’s the road I took. It’s a good feeling.”
Mike Sellers is no stranger to adversity and recently opened up about losing his son in an interview to discuss the Washington Commanders newfound energy when Dan Snyder finally agreed to sell the team.
Sellers hadn’t been back since 2017, saying he didn’t feel alumni were appreciated the way they should’ve been, and that’s why many have chosen to stay away.
“Nobody wanted to be around that negativity and type of atmosphere – but one of the main reasons I came back it because it changed,” Sellers said, before breaking down on air: “I sacrificed a lot. I played through a death of my child because I owed it to the team, but you never got that reciprocation back from ownership. I know we had a job, but at the end of the day, we never felt appreciated. Now, the tide has turned and he’s gone, and I feel like a weight has been lifted.”
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