Bruce Irvin changes tune: "I would love to be in Seattle"

Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin made some headlines last month when he told BSO's Samuel Logan that "I'm going to be in Atlanta next season. I'm ready," in reference to the Atlanta Falcons. When asked if he would consider Seattle if they offered him a big contract extension, Irvin replied "Atlanta is where I want to be. Believe that."

Well, it looks like Bruce has backed off of those comments just a little bit. As he told NFL Media's Tony Garcia from Bobby Wagner's football camp,

"I have one year left. I would love to be in Seattle. That was the team that gave me a chance when nobody else did. A lot of people told me I wasn't a first-round pick, but Pete (Carroll) and (general manager) John (Schneider) took a chance on me, so like I said I would love to be there, but I'm just going to go out here, I've been working my butt off, I'm going to go out here and have the biggest year of my career next year."

Based purely on Irvin's snicker prior to his comments (video on the link above), I think he realizes he just needs to stick to script a little bit prior to his contract talks next year. This statement would indicate as much -- and he rolls out the platitudes -- "I would love to be in Seattle," "I'm working my tail off," "it's going to be the biggest year of my career." Good, good, and good. Now we can move on for the time being.

Irvin's comments from last month, which came at an Atlanta Hawks playoff game, were likely a bit reactionary to the Seahawks' decision not to pick up his fifth-year option. Of course, Pete Carroll downplayed Irvin's comments shortly after when he was asked about them at his USC Hall of Fame enshrinement.

"I'm really glad you asked me that, because he didn't say that," Carroll said. "We've been talking all along. He has been working out in Atlanta for these three weeks, and he said (that) in response to the question 'Do you want to come back home?' He said everybody likes to come back home, and it's a dream to come back home. It wasn't in reference to leaving us and coming back (to the Falcons). He was really adamant about it, and I asked him to leave it and not go at it anymore."

Irvin's been away from Twitter for a few weeks since that time, and recently just began commenting again, apparently respecting Carroll's wishes to "leave it and not go at it anymore."

Regardless, as is common for these types of things, this is much ado about nothing until next year when the Seahawks start looking to either re-up him to a long term contract or decide to let him test the free agent market.