Deon Butler's Rookie Diary

After a better-than-expected exhibition season, Seahawks rookie wide receiver Deon Butler had one reception for 7 yards — a catch for a first down — in his first NFL game during last Sunday's 28-0 victory over the St. Louis Rams.

Now comes another debut.

Starting today, Butler, the former Penn State star, will provide insight each week on life as an NFL player in our Rookie Diary. In this first installment, he covers his adjustment to professional football, the arduous process of decorating his apartment and his welcome-to-the-NFL moment.

On the preseason season:

"It was a lot to handle. I think the toughest part about it was learning the playbook. It's been awhile since I really had to study a playbook because, in college, you get into a system for so many years, and you start knowing it, and it's second nature to you. So now, it's kind of like starting from ground zero again. They're not really waiting for you here, either. You've got to get on the ship. And that was the toughest part about it. Everything else was pretty good. I think the speed was a little bit faster, but I'm comfortable out there. My fellow wideouts definitely made it comfortable for me, talking through things and helping me out.

I think probably middle to the end of training camp is when I felt really comfortable going out there and starting to play like myself and letting my natural ability come out and not running around thinking, 'What play do I have?' A lot of it came from studying and meetings, and that was another big part of training camp — the amount of time that you spend here in the building. In college, you have classes and stuff like that, but here, it's just football. We're getting here early, leaving late and getting here again in the morning. It's just a lot of dedication. So it's a big adjustment. About midway through, though, I felt comfortable getting out there and just making plays."

On bonding with his teammates:

"It's different because a lot of guys have families, wives and kids. Right now, I would say I'm closest with the wide receivers. Those are the guys I spend the most time with. Besides that, I would say Aaron Curry and Courtney Greene, those are the two guys in the rookie class I hang out with all the time. If you see me outside of this building, I'm going to be with Aaron Curry or Courtney Greene. But when I'm here, T.J. [Houshmandzadeh] has really taken me under his wing. We talk a lot off the field as far as what to expect and how to do things a little differently. He's helped me out tremendously. And even Nate [Burleson] and Deion [Branch], those two guys — it's really been the wide receiver corps helping me out here and on the field."

On what he does during his free time:

"Now when I have some free time, I'm building Ikea stuff. I'm just moving in, and this is the first time I've really had to move with my own stuff. Everyone who's moved before knows what I mean, but you never know how much starting from scratch it involves until you do it. All the little stuff — the toiletries, the sheets, the paper towels. I thought I was just going to have a bed and a TV, and I'd be fine and get a couch later. Oh, man, I was so off. I've been running through Bed, Bath & Beyond like nobody's business.

I'm renting a place in the Bellevue area. I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on a house just yet, but hopefully in a year or two, I'll do that. But right, I'm just renting a place. So I don't have to worry about yard work or anything like that. I can just wake up and go to practice."

On his first game:

"It was actually kind of weird. I'm a real mellow guy. We got an early wake-up call. There's brunch. Church. And then it's to the stadium. I woke up, and to me it was like another preseason game. In preseason, I approached every game the same way — that it's the most important game — so there really wasn't a difference this first game. Everything felt good. I felt comfortable. I got to the stadium, and I could obviously tell there was a difference by the crowd that it was a regular-season game. But everything up until the game felt like a preseason game to me. That's how important every game is to me.

During the game, I was out there as the gunner one time, on the punt team, and one guy said, 'All right, you little scrawny ... ' I really wasn't listening to him, but he was talking a lot of noise to me. That was about the only thing that came close to a welcome-to-the-NFL moment against St. Louis. My real welcome-to-the-NFL moment came in the preseason in San Diego when I almost got my helmet knocked off [by Chargers safety Steve Gregory]. I think I'm good right there. I think I can take an NFL hit.

Then I was watching the Raiders-San Diego game on Monday, and I actually saw that [Gregory] got knocked out in the Raiders game by Darren McFadden on a crackback block. McFadden actually knocked him out of the game. I was like, 'OK, I got my payback.' "

On the mental transition from Week 1 to Week 2:

"I see that everyone is focused here. I think the big difference for me, as far as getting adjusted to this is, in college, early in the season is — not that every game doesn't matter — but those are the least important ones. Right here, we're jumping straight into it, and the coaches are talking about trying to be in the driver's seat in the division, and that's never really been something I've had to deal with. In college, those are the out-of-conference games early in the year. Now, starting out and talking about what we do now can control home-field advantage in the playoffs and stuff like that, it's definitely different. But it's good to see how we're going about it. I think we'll be ready on Sunday."