Aaron Curry may now be a rich man—his contract is reportedly worth $34 million in guaranteed money, and up to $60 million over six years—but doesn’t mean he’s not a rookie. Curry, who signed earlier today and came onto the field 30 minutes into practice, walked off the field carrying five helmets: his plus those of linebackers Lofa Tatupu, Leroy Hill, Lance Laury and David Hawthorne.
A bit of hazing aside, however, Hill was all smiles as he talked about getting on the field for the first time in training camp.
“It was cool to hear everybody cheer and be happy that I’m here, and I’m just as excited to be out here,” he said. “Just to see the emotion from the fans and to be back with my team is an amazing feeling.”
Curry said he spent the last week in Bellevue with his wife Jamila “doing household stuff,” but that it was hard to be away from his team. He even joked that he thought about trying to sneak into the practice facility to watch.
“It was very tough,” he said. “Just not being able to come out and participate and do what I love doing. Knowing that I should be out there, it was a long week, but it’s just the business part of the game that I think everybody understands.
Seahawks president Tim Ruskell said it was important to get Curry signed to a six-year deal—most rookie contracts for first round picks are five-year deals—because the team wants the linebacker to be a part of its long-term plans.
“We were adamant on the length of the deal, and that isn’t the way the other deals have been going, so once that was accepted I think that was the turning point,” Ruskell said. “These deals are so big, so we just wanted to get as much time as we can, have him be a Seahawk for a long time.”
Curry’s goal now—aside from dealing with some rookie hazing, is to make up for lost time after missing the first eight days of camp.
“Eight days and 12 practices, he’s got a lot of catching up to do,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said.
“I definitely spent this last week studying my playbook and going over the Xs and Os, but it’s so hard to really study when the Xs and Os aren’t moving, so I have a lot of catching up to do physically and mentally, and doing both at the same time,” Curry said.
But for those worried about Curry catching up, Curry’s fellow linebacker Lofa Tatupu says Curry will be fine.
“It’s not rocket science over here, you hit the man with the ball,” he said. “I mean, I don’t want to say our job is that easy, but it’s not like he’s playing quarterback or something.”
Adding Curry means somebody had to go, and receiver Billy McMullen was the unlucky one, being waived to make space on the roster.
As for the day’s practice, the team went without pads, presumably to give bodies a bit of a rest.
Marcus Trufant and Walter Jones continue to be out with back injuries. Grey Ruegamer started practice but left with an elbow injury. Cory Redding is still sore and sitting out, but should be back soon, Mora said. Center Chris Spencer, who went down with an ankle injury Friday morning that looked pretty bad, may return in the next few days as well.
“We dodged a bullet there,” Mora said.
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