As taken from Seahawks.com

Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu has released the following comments regarding the events of this past weeked.

"I want to apologize to my family, teammates, the Seahawks ownership and organization, and the fans for making a poor decision and putting myself in a bad situation. I take seriously my role as a leader on this team, and in the community, and because of that I'm disappointed and embarrassed by the level of poor judgment I used last weekend. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. This will never happen again, and I hope through hard work on and off the field to begin earning your respect and trust again."

I believe this may end up having a positive effect on the entire team.  Lofa knows he is in the doghouse with the coaching staff, management, and especially the fans.  I bet he's really ashamed of himself right now.  What better way to put this behind him than to redouble his efforts and put even more focus into football.

I'm almost hoping he has to miss a game for this.  This is a serious problem, and we cannot have public figures and role models for young athletes going out and making these kind of mistakes.  I would like to see Lofa talking to children about the dangers of drinking and driving in the future.  A single game suspension would send a clear signal as to the gravity of his mistake. 

Maybe D.D. can have one start this season...

I can't find many details on this yet.  There's no confirmation so it's just a rumor at this point, but apparently Lofa was arrested on a DUI .

He apparently blew a .15.

This would be a pretty terrible situation.  Goodell is getting rough on players who are violating rules.  Especially rules that have a system in place where they should never happen.  Teams have drivers available to all the players.  Maybe it's just something I will never understand.

Anyone else have anymore details about the arrest?

I am really excited about the upcoming season because I think baseball sucks and I don't really care who I offend when I say that.  (No offense)

I don't like the fact that we let DJ Hackett get away.  With Branch recovering from a major knee operation, I think we are too thin at wide receiver.  We are one more injured receiver away from a disaster that could derail our season.   But....who really knows if Hackett could "hack-it" and stay healthy for an entire season. 

Many were upset and frustrated when Ruskell traded D Jax to the San Francisco From Behinders, but now he looks pretty smart for doing so.  Hopefully he'll look smart again, though I wish D.J. the best.

On to my point.  I think this year has the potential to be the most exciting year on offensive that we will ever see during the Holmgren era in Seattle.  The reasons are simple.  We will see the most complete version of the West Coast Offense since Holmgren arrived here.

Reason #1.

Our offensive line has improved drastically in both guard positions by only adding 1 player in Mike Wahle.  He is a big upgrade at LG, while Simms replacing Gray is addition by subtraction.  I like Chris Gray and appreciate what he's done for this team, but he just isn't quick enough and doesn't have a good burst anymore. 

Reason #2.

We have a player at the running back position who is a legitimate receiving threat out of the backfield.  This is why Julius Jones was really signed, in my opinion.  I don't think people realize how many more offensive plays and options we now have because we have a guy with reliable hands in the backfield.  Teams didn't have to scheme against that when Shaun Alexander was in the game, the way teams would have to if they were playing against someone like a Michael Westbrook of the Eagles.  Julius Jones probably won't run great between the tackles, but if we can throw the ball to him in the open field in a one-on-one situation, I like the odds of him making his defender miss and turning it into a big play.  I imagine he can probably block better than Shaun Alexander....shoot, I'm pretty sure he can block better than Shaun Alexander.  We will also be able to run more screen plays.  T.J. Duckett can run between the tackles when needed.

Reason #3.

Our tight-end position is hopefully taken care of for the next 10 years now.  I believe John Carlson will be the real deal.  I truly trust the coaching staff and the front office with this pick.  If he is as good as the coaches think he'll be, teams better look out.  Why? BECAUSE IF TEAMS ARE FORCED TO DEFEND THE FLAT AGAINST JULIUS JONES, WE WILL BEGIN TO SEE THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD OPEN UP....completed passes to the tight-end for 18 yards.....I love the thought of that.

Reason #4

Though I have my doubts, I hope Holmgren will take more chances since this is his last hurrah.  He has nothing to lose.  I have to give Mike credit though, as he has gambled on a lot more 4th and short type plays than he used to....and I have to say I pretty much agree with almost every gamble he made.  It's just too bad our rushing attack for the last 3 years has been such a joke.  Our crappy line play and just as crappy rushing desire made Holmgren's decisions look bad.  (See playoff loss to the Bears because we can't convert 1 yard plays.)  My beef with Holmgren has always been that he can be too predictable and conservative with his play calling.  Now that he has some more viable options, perhaps that will change.

I would still feel better if the Seahawks could pick up a solid veteran Wide Receiver before the season starts.  That would remove practically any doubts I have about the success of our offense this year.    

The sky is the limit Seahawk fans.  What do you think?

For anyone who hasn't read it yet, this is an old article about Paul Allen from a Sports Illustrated issue from last year that I thought was pretty cool. It basically just talks about the crazy rich guy that is our beloved owner.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/the_bonus/11/27/paul.allen1203/index.html

And this may or may not be news to some people, but SI.com's Seahawks page is nice if you're looking for up-to-date articles about the Hawks from different news sources. Let me know if anyone has any better sites.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/seahawks/

So I'm curious.  For many, many years my sports allegiance ran first and foremost to baseball, and the Seattle Mariners.  I lived and died with baseball, and the thing I wanted more than anything in the sporting world was a World Series victory.

I've by no means given up on the Mariners as a franchise, I love baseball, and I'll never stop pulling for them.  But over the last few years, watching a shrewd and resourceful front office like the Seahawks possess artfully construct a competitive team, I've really come to love and watch football with a much greater passion than I ever thought possible.

This isn't all about winning and making the playoffs, though I'll readily admit that that plays a part.  But I'm so tired of the horrid steps and jumps backwards that the evil and charismatic Mr. Bavasi makes as a matter of course.  With this Mariner season already likely on the skids, I find myself still watching and following the team, but already shifting a little interest over to football.  I'm anticipating the 'Hawks so early this year....

I guess I'm just slowly shifting priorities.  I'll never abandon either franchise, I'm not saying that at all.  I'm just looking forward to the Seahawks so much more than the Mariners that it isn't really even a competition anymore.  Is anybody else going through this transformation?   Obviously we're all Seahawks fans (seattlesucks notwithstanding!), but I'm curious how passionately people follow one sport or the other, and how that might be different than 5 years ago.  Do we have any other converts from die-hard baseball fans to revelers of the fusball?

Damn, I just can't wait to watch our defense this year....

Just like the title says, our boy with the Mohawk will be one of the cover athletes for this year's game.

Pretty awesome, and only another notch to add to the belt of the growing legend of Owen Schmitt. Haha..

Here is a link with the press release and the picture of him

http://psp.ign.com/articles/871/871827p1.html

Gotta add some filler to this to make it the correct length so here it is.

Frank Hughes is reporting that Bobby Engram held out of minicamp yesterday because he's unhappy with his contract.  It's the last year of his deal (he's making 1.7m in salary).

I'm a little surprised but I guess that's mainly the fannish knee-jerk reaction of "how could you do this to us?!" when he's a 35 year old wide receiver who was the leading receiver at his position on the team last year... and who is on a team that is pretty much counting on him to contribute heavily again this year.

I hope this is worked out for both parties.  It seems like the sort of thing that Ruskell wouldn't jive with... and with a new head coach coming in next year... 

Good thing we didn't draft Davis.  He missed the third day of camp.  He apparantly missed the third day's practice because he over slept .  They had send security to go find for him.  I don't know how someone could miss something that is so life changing by over-sleeping.  All I can say is good thing Ruskell didn't draft him.  

Zorn is also having some trouble with Shaun Spring too because of some on the field antics.  I wish Zorn some good luck because it sounds like he is going to need it.

From the story "Alexander to visit ":

Alexander, who turns 31 after the last preseason game, isn't the same back that led the Seahawks to the Super Bowl a few years ago and any deal would be contingent on a physical. He broke his wrist in last season's opener and after he twisted his knee and ankle in Week 9 he finished with 716 yards rushing on 3.5 per carry. He became the eighth player in history to rush for 100 career touchdowns in the season finale.

His strengths are that he's a solid guy, adds another dimension in the passing game with terrific hands, has had tremendous production in the past, and his wrist is apparently healed.

!!!

The new numbers are here !! The new numbers are here!!1!

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