DETROIT, Jan. 31 — Joe Jurevicius was pumping gas at a station somewhere in eastern Washington two years ago when the call came. His wife's obstetrician was on the phone from Tampa, Fla.

Jurevicius, a Seattle Seahawks wide receiver, has two of the surest hands in the N.F.L., but he said you never would have known it by the way they were shaking. Neither of his two Super Bowl experiences could compare to the anxiety he felt at that moment.

"Yeah, my heart stopped," he said Tuesday, five days before he was scheduled to play in the third Super Bowl of his eight-year pro career. "Absolutely."

Meagan Jurevicius, his wife, was nearing the end of the first trimester of her second pregnancy. The couple's first child, Michael William, had been born a month premature in January 2003, with a rare inherited disease.

Doctors did not expect him to live more than 72 hours, but he died two months later, in March. He survived long enough to inspire Jurevicius to clutch performances in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' victories against Philadelphia in the National Football Conference championship game and against Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVII.

After Meagan became pregnant again, a thought kept intruding on the couple's happiness. "I hope this doesn't happen again," Jurevicius remembered thinking.

The fetus was tested for sialidosis, the disease that had doomed Michael William. Sialidosis affects the body's ability to break down fats and carbohydrates. According to the National Institutes of Health, when both parents carry the defective gene, each of their children has a 1 in 4 chance of developing the disease.

After a doctor delivered the news that the results were negative, Jurevicius celebrated by sprinting around the gas station, slapping high-fives with perfect strangers.

"A lot of tears were shed," he said. "A lot of things could happen, but we knew it was going to be a normal pregnancy."

His joy was tenfold on Aug. 9, 2004, when Meagan gave birth to a healthy daughter, Caroline Elizabeth. She will not be at Ford Field for the Seahawks' game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I wish she could be here," Jurevicius said. "But it's kind of hard handling a 17-month-old baby at a football game."

"I call her Little Monkey," he added, conveying some sense of her activity level.

When she calls him Daddy "or gives you a kiss or something, if you're the sorest you can ever be from playing a football game, it sure as hell makes you feel better," Jurevicius said.

Whereas he was consumed by grief at his last Super Bowl, in 2003 in San Diego, he is filled with gratitude here. (His first appearance in a Super Bowl, as a member of the Giants team that lost to the Baltimore Ravens in 2001, came before Michael William arrived and changed everything.)

"The last one, I played with a heavy heart," Jurevicius said. "I'm able to enjoy this one."

Laughing, he added, "I'm actually enjoying media day, and I'm usually a guy that tries to hide in the locker room."

Jurevicius missed the Tuesday news-media session in San Diego because he was in a Tampa hospital, keeping a vigil for his infant son. He took a flight to California that night and met with reporters in a hotel ballroom the next day.

For one day, at least, the 37th Super Bowl was a secondary story to one father's pain. Jurevicius talked about being "tormented with emotion."

He spoke about not being able to cuddle his son because of all the tubes connected to his body and how "once he finally starts to comprehend what life's all about, I'm going to tell him how special he is."

That Sunday, he went out and caught four passes against the Raiders in a 48-21 Tampa Bay victory.

"It was a tough time," Jurevicius said. "But I was able to learn a lot of things from that time. I became a stronger person. I realized that such a little package can make such a better person out of me, and that's what it did. I'm able to just handle things better."

Jurevicius signed with the Seahawks as a free agent last March after knee and back injuries affected his play for Tampa Bay in 2003 and 2004. He had 55 receptions for 694 yards and 10 touchdowns this season.

"I feel blessed," Jurevicius said. "It's not to say that I don't have my weak points. I cry just like the next guy. I still have my share."

One of Jurevicius' best friends on the Seahawks is his former Penn State teammate Bobby Engram. Jurevicius invited Engram, also a receiver, to his house to watch the telecast of Penn State's victory against Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

"It was the first time I really got to see him interact with his wife and his daughter," Engram said. "If he picked her up 10 times, he picked her up 100. He kept kissing her, and they had all these code sayings and words. It was good, man. He's a good father and a good man."

After the Super Bowl, Jurevicius will spend some time in Cleveland, where he grew up and where his parents still live. Every morning and every night while he is there, he said, he will go to the cemetery where Michael William is buried and, true to his word, tell him how special he is.

"I've got a little X factor right now that is watching down on me," Jurevicius said. "I think of him every second. I use him as my motivation."