A metallic growl _ low-pitched and frantic _ came from somewhere above him.
Rocky Seto was taking his morning run, jogging around a quiet lagoon, when he looked up to see a small plane tumble out of the sky and smash into the water not 50 yards away.
"Three people killed instantly," he recalls. "That got into my mind."
It wasn't the only time Seto figured God was sending him a message.
There were other, subtler instances to help explain his walking away from a career as a big-time NFL assistant coach, leaving behind a salary of almost seven figures and the adrenaline rush of 70,000 screaming fans.
"Rocky and I talked about this for years and years," says Pete Carroll, the head coach Seto followed from USC to the Seattle Seahawks. "He had an enormous decision to make."
The 41-year-old Seto now spends his Sundays far from the spotlight, standing in the pulpit of a San Gabriel Valley church, preaching to a hushed congregation of several hundred.
Though the work pays a fraction of the money and offers none of the glamour, he insists "I can't think of a place I would rather be."
The former linebacker has a way of talking fast when he grows excited, the words bumping into each other. His face is broad and friendly, framed by short, black hair. It is a face suitable for grinning, which he does often.
"I know people think this is crazy," he says.
