Deon Butler's Rookie Diary

In the second installment of his weekly rookie diary for The Seattle Times, Seahawks rookie wide receiver Deon Butler reflects on lessons learned from last week's 23-10 loss to San Francisco, reports on the progress of decorating his apartment and shares some hilarious stories about rookie hazing and being an anonymous NFL player.

On the past week:

"It went pretty well. Practice was going good. I got a lot of stuff done with my condo, so that was good news. I'm getting my dining room together, getting my bedroom together, so it's kind of looking like a home. Leading up to the trip, everything was good. Then we went out there, and obviously, it sucked that we lost. But I felt I had a little contribution in the game. I felt like I, at least, had an effort in trying to help the team win, so I felt good — kind of — about that."

Progress report on his apartment decorating:

"I'm almost there. I've got one thing — a couch — to go. I've ordered my couch. I actually went to Dania Furniture, but they told me it would be about four weeks, so my couch should be coming in about three weeks. I'm just kind of sitting in the living room with no couch. There's that bare space. But everything is good. I've got a TV in my room, with a TV stand that I built. Another TV with a stand that my parents built when they visited is in the living room. So I've got two TVs. They're up and ready to go. It's just that the living room is missing that couch, so right now, I've got to pull out a chair and sit in the living room and watch TV in the middle of that big space."

Feeling the agony of defeat:

"On the plane ride back, everyone was kind of to themselves. I think the biggest part is that guys didn't feel we played nearly as well as we could've played. We had a lot of injuries, obviously, but that's not an excuse. The hardest thing was that it wasn't like we felt like we really got beat; it was the fact that we didn't put our best game on going out there. So, we felt like, 'You know what? It's just something we can learn from as a team.' The older guys did a good job of letting us know this is a long season. This isn't like college anymore, where it's 12 games. This is 16 games, and it's hard to run the table in the NFL. So this is something you can learn from, and many good teams have lost early in the season. We can rebound from this and get back on the right track. So I think guys are back focused."

On the striking difference between losing a game in the NFL and in college:

"In college, you lose your chance at a [national] championship. It's different. For me, I'm never going to get used to losing, but coming out of college, I have to know that I can't be panicking after one loss. In college, after that first loss, it's like, 'Man, that was it. There goes the national championship. We can't do it.' But here, there have been teams that have lost five or six or seven games and gone to the Super Bowl. We don't want to lose that many, but the season is not over. It's a long way from being over. Being a rookie, that's a new adjustment."

On rookie hazing:

"I do a lot of pad carrying and helmet carrying coming in from the field. Actually, the guys are real good about it. It's not too bad. There are not that many wideouts, so I'm kind of lucky. They do regular stuff to me. I've got to stand up and sing in front of the team."

Can you sing?

"Nah, the point is, since I can't sing, you've got to sing a song that everybody knows. If you do that, they'll sing along with you, so they won't listen to you. That's the whole trick of the trade. So for any other rookie out there, you've got to sing a song they know, so they'll start singing and in their mind, they'll start reminiscing, and they're not paying attention to how you actually sound. The last song I did was Bell Biv Devoe's 'Poison.' All the guys knew that. So that took them back to their middle-school, lunchbox days.

"Other times, the guys might have me make a run down to The Landing [in Renton] and get some lotion or some toiletries for them. Something real simple. Or they'll tell me to go get some food. There's plenty of errands that I have to do as a rookie."

On being anonymous:

"On game day, when I'm around Qwest Field, the die-hard fans will notice me because they probably look in the program and remember my face. Outside of that, no, I don't get recognized. When I'm walking around, I don't look like a football player. Actually, it's kind of funny. I went to go get my chain fixed, and the lady asked me, 'Did you break it playing a sport?' And I was like, 'Yeah.' And she said, 'Oh, so you broke it playing basketball.' And I was like, 'No, football.' And she said, 'Oh, high school!'

"So it's like I'm a high-school football player! I don't look like anybody's NFL player. My face hasn't been out there enough, which is fine with me because during my last couple of years at Penn State, I was on the other end of the spectrum, being noticed everywhere. So it's cool to just walk around here and be a normal person. I just look like your average Joe Schmoe. Then, I'm with Aaron Curry a lot of times, so when I'm with Aaron, it doesn't even matter about me. It's all about Aaron Curry. And people ask him, 'Oh, is this your little friend? Oh, hey, how are you doing?' It's all about Aaron Curry."