KIRKLAND — As Marcus Trufant sat in his secluded corner of the Seattle Seahawks locker room on Wednesday afternoon, humbly answering questions from reporters, a teammate walked by and unleashed the kind of bravado for which many other NFL cornerbacks are known.
“Pro Bowl corner,” linebacker Kevin Bentley shouted as he passed the group gathered around Trufant’s locker. “Across the water! Going to be a crime if he don’t go!”
Somebody had to say it, because the modest Trufant will not. When it comes to the 2008 Pro Bowl, Trufant is hopeful but not boastful.
“Stuff like that’s always in the back of your mind, but you try not to focus on that,” the 26-year-old cornerback said Wednesday. “It’s a team game, and I’m here to help my team win ball games. As long as we keep doing that, I’ll be all right.”
For now, the book is closed on Trufant’s Pro Bowl resume. Fan voting ended Tuesday, and opposing coaches and players have until Friday to turn in their selections for who earns a trip to Hawaii. Trufant made quite a lasting impression, intercepting three passes in Sunday’s win over Arizona to bring his season total to an NFC high of seven.
Is it enough to send Trufant to his first Pro Bowl? Time will tell.
“I don’t know what Pro Bowl level means,” defensive backs coach Jim Mora said when that question was posed to him on Wednesday. “Every year, there are guys that get voted in that surprise me, and every year there are guys who don’t get voted in who you thought would.
“I think he’s certainly playing very well. It’s fun to see him out there playing with confidence and playing with a little swagger.”
That confidence might be what separates the 2007 version of Trufant from previous seasons. Defensive coordinator John Marshall noticed a different attitude in Trufant last August, saying then that the cornerback looked like he was walking around “with a friggin’ rock in his shoe.”
That attitude has carried Trufant to what has been his best NFL season.
“I needed to make some strides and get better,” Trufant said Wednesday. “I didn’t feel like I was playing to my potential. I still feel like I’ve got room to improve, and I’m working hard to get better every day at practice.
“But this offseason, I really trained hard because I wanted to come in and have a good year.”
Two areas of Trufant’s game that needed the most work were his overall confidence and his play-making skills when passes came his direction. Mora helped Trufant on both fronts, urging the soft-spoken cornerback to be more aggressive.
“You heard that he was there a lot but didn’t make the play,” Mora said Wednesday. “That’s what I had heard. And when I watched the film, I saw glimpses of that.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m taking all the credit, but I just said, ‘Just go make the play. Make it. No worries.’”
More often than not, Trufant has. After putting up a four-year total of nine interceptions in his first few NFL seasons, Trufant has nearly matched that total through 13 games. He had three interceptions in Sunday’s win over Arizona, one of which he returned for his first NFL touchdown.
But he wasn’t doing any boasting afterward.
“I’m just out there having fun,” Trufant said Wednesday when presented with the theory that his laid-back personality is rare for an NFL cornerback. “I don’t have to do any of that flashy type of stuff. I’m just out there trying to take care of business.”
Trufant doesn’t push himself onto others, so his credo is best expressed by the tattoo across his left forearm. “What don’t kill me makes me stronger,” reads the permanent ink that he had made after his rookie year in 2003.
“I’ve always been a hard-working guy,” he said, “and I just live by that. Hard work pays off.”
This year, it has certainly been paying off for Trufant. And it comes at a good time. A free agent-to-be, Trufant might be in for a big payday after the season.
“I’d say the timing of it is pretty good,” he said with a sly grin. “It just happened to work out that way.”
The first step toward big dollars could come with a trip to the Pro Bowl. Trufant would love to go there, but he’s not lobbying for it.
That’s best left to others.
“I’ll fight someone if he doesn’t make it,” defensive lineman Darryl Tapp said. “But I don’t know who to fight.
“Tru’s doing a heck of a job this year. He’s always been a great player, and a great guy to learn from, but I’d really like to see it work out for him by getting (to Hawaii).”
Who are the other Seahawks who might make the Pro Bowl? Check today’s Herald sports section.
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