Deon Butler's Rookie Diary

Deon Butler didn't catch a pass for the second straight week last Sunday, but he's not complaining. The Seahawks returned to the good side of the won-lost column, and he enjoyed a fun weekend with two good friends and his mother visiting. Butler is also learning to appreciate how a bench player prepares for competition and makes the most of limited opportunities.

In this installment of his weekly rookie diary, Butler explains what it's like to watch from the sideline, how his mother has overtaken his bathroom and the difficulty he has had switching from the Eastern time zone to Pacific Time.

But first, he has a message for all the people who read and comment on his diary.

'Keep writing in'

"I read the comments online. I really do read those. I got a lot of good ideas, like taking my family and friends on the ferry to Bainbridge Island and things to do downtown, to buy rice cookers and slow cookers and all of that stuff. To the people, I'd like to say, 'Keep writing in. I definitely read it.' I'm really amazed at people's kindness and how much they care about me, how much they care about the Seahawks overall. So, thank you, and we'll try to have a little more interaction. Love the ideas."

'Girls, man!'

"I had a really good time last weekend seeing my two female friends and my mom. The thing I couldn't factor in, though, is they came up here to visit, and right after the game, they were still on East Coast time. They hadn't adjusted. About 2 ½ hours after the game, they were asleep. So, that new couch came in handy. Everybody was laid out on the couch, and I was getting ready, wondering what we were going to do that night to celebrate a win. They were already out of it. They were gone.

"My mom is still here. She'll be here through Sunday's game with Arizona. She's been cooking a whole bunch, so I've got me some good meals. She's really made herself comfortable. She took over my bathroom, man. That's got to go, though. Girls, man! Girls have so much on the sink, it's ridiculous. Curling irons and just hair and oh, my gosh, man. I can't do that. She's taken over my sink."

'I can kind of slow my way into the mix'

"Obviously, right now, I'm not really in the rotation at receiver, but whenever an opportunity arises, I need to be able to take advantage of it. The biggest part is in practice. I try to work hard in practice. I'm running a lot of scout-team reps. I'm just going out there like it's a game, pretty much. And I'm going out there to get better. So in practice, every practice, I go hard. And I think it's good that I'm getting the scout-team reps because I get a lot of catches in practice, and I get to run a lot of routes. So it's good for me instead of standing around and taking every fourth play because I'm waiting for Nate (Burleson) to get tired or something like that. As long as we're winning, it's good. I'm a sore loser, so it's good that we won last week. Whatever I can do to help, I'll do. The biggest thing that's keeping my morale up is practice.

"It's something new. Definitely, you want to feel like you contributed. Then again, coming in, I have to be realistic with myself. I know that there are three great veterans in front of me, guys that are doing a good job and have been in the league a long time. T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Deion Branch, Nate Burleson — they're not staying in the league just because someone likes their names. They've proven it on the field. I take it as an opportunity to learn from them. Obviously, I do want to be out there, but life is going to throw curveballs at you. Not everybody is going to get to come in right away and play. I think I'm in a fortunate situation where I can kind of slow my way into the mix. I'm not really thrown into the fire. I just know the situation that's at hand."

'I'm getting good at being a cheerleader'

"I'm a football fan, so even when I'm not playing, I enjoy the games. When I'm watching from the sidelines and I'm seeing plays work out the way we practice them during the week, it's a great feeling. I was happy for those guys. It was good for them to come out and make a statement at home and really get the passing game going. It was good with Matt (Hasselbeck) back. I was excited. You see me, and I'm running out on the field to congratulate guys. I know how hard we all work. For anybody to have success in that wideout crew, it was good. I'm getting good at being a cheerleader.

"Hey, I'm on the bench now. My friends call me from home and joke (with) me: 'Yeah, I saw. I told my mom I saw you on the sideline.' But, hey, I just laugh about it, and now I know how those guys who waited behind me when I was in college felt. It's a learning opportunity. Right me, me and Obo — Ben Obomanu — we're over there trying to make some plays on special teams. We sit over there, and T.J. is talking about things that are happening in the game, and I'm like, 'Well, Obo on special teams, you see how I was down there? You see how I almost made that tackle?'

"Obo made the big tackle last week, and I was down there taking on the wedge. So it wasn't my week. We were laughing about that on the film."

'What's going on?'

"Getting back to my mom, it's really good having her here. I'm always up to see her. We'll talk about anything. About practice. About family. What's going on back home. She'll tell me a lot about her work friends that she talks to all the time. She's a well-rounded person. She knows a lot about sports. So she'll talk about other NFL teams or Penn State. I talk to her like she's my homey. We can joke, and I can clown on her and call her names. She'll call me names back. We have a great relationship.

"I'm still teasing her about that sink, though. C'mon, my sink was clean a couple of days ago, and now you have your shower cap hanging over the little faucet. What's going on? It's different, but I'm glad she's up here, and she's enjoying herself, and she likes my place, and she's helping me get it together. But it's definitely new with it being my place. Every now and then, she'll say something, and I'll be like, 'Hey, this is my place. I'm going to do what I want to do. OK?' So I have to let her know."

'What you mean? It's, like, 8 o'clock here?'

"I've had a little trouble with the time zone. My body's adjusted to it. I know I'm not on Eastern time anymore, but I really have to think about when I call my friends back on the East Coast. So much of my life is back there, even though I'm happy with the life I have here. It's difficult. It's definitely difficult. Because by the time you settle in and get into the mode where you have some down time, it's probably like 6 or 7 p.m. here, and my friends that are working back home, they've got to go to sleep and get ready for their jobs in the morning.

"So I'm calling people late, and they're like, 'What are you doing?' I'm like, 'What you mean? It's, like, 8 o'clock here?' It's difficult, but I've gotten adjusted to it. I do a lot more text-messaging earlier in the day to keep up without having as many real, in-depth conversations. A lot of people text me about the games, so I know that they're watching. So we still have a connection despite the distance."

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com, Twitter: @Jerry_Brewer