SAN DIEGO—Junior Seau looks longingly at the waves on the Pacific Ocean, yet can't go surfing.
He's organizing his annual charity golf tournament, which he's not going to be able to play in.
Seau had arthroscopic surgery on his left rotator cuff not long after his New England Patriots were upset by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, leaving the linebacker to ponder whether to try to play a 19th NFL season or retire -- again.
With free agency set to begin first thing Friday, Seau is more worried about getting healthy and catching up on his offseason pursuits than where, or if, he might play again.
It sounds as if he'll be happy, even if this is the end of his career.
"I have a choice of playing or a choice of surfing. Those are great choices to have," Seau said by phone Thursday from his home in suburban Oceanside.
Seau said he was hurt in the fourth game of the season but was able to play through the pain as the Patriots went 18-0 before losing to the Giants on Feb. 3.
"There's no grace time there," he said. "I was caught in a wrong position. I just fell on it awkwardly. I felt it and it didn't recover. So I had to deal with it. Every player has an injury during the course of the year. In order to get through it, you have to persevere. No 1, you have to make sure you're not a liability. Obviously that was not the case."
The Patriots, known not to be forthcoming with injury news, didn't announce that Seau had surgery.
The surgery could have a bearing on whether the Patriots or any other teams offer Seau a contract.
"Wanting and needing are two different things," Seau said about his prospects for returning for a third season with New England. "It's basically looking at every situation. I know that it's a structure of what coach (Bill) Belichick and the Kraft family have to partake in, to put together a great team that can follow up what we did last year. That takes time. There really isn't anything on the table for me to look at except me getting healthy and being ready to go whenever anything that is a liking to me surfaces.
"I'm enjoying this," he said.
While decompressing from the stunning end to the Patriots' quest for a perfect season, Seau is catching up with his non-football pursuits. He still owns a restaurant in San Diego and he's preparing for his 16th annual Junior Seau
In conjunction with the tournament, Seau will honor former NFL and San Diego State running back Marshall Faulk.
"He still supports youth here in San Diego even though his hometown is New Orleans," Seau said. "He does a lot of things."
After 13 seasons with his hometown Chargers and three with Miami, Seau retired on Aug. 15, 2006, although he said he was "graduating" from the NFL.
Belichick soon called to see if Seau wanted to keep playing, and the linebacker joined the Patriots four days later.
Seau hopes to be back surfing in about three weeks.
And if a team calls, "They know what I bring to the table. They know where I am. I'm going to be on a surfboard. If a situation arrives, I'll look at it. Meanwhile, I'm not going to sit and wait and not enjoy what's here today. I'm relaxing and enjoying my kids and the business and the foundation and things that are in the present."
