John Carlson is the Seahawks 2008 second round draft choice this season out of Notre Dame. He is a 6-5, 251-pound native of Litchfield, Minn., and vying for the starting tight end spot. Carlson was married three weeks ago in Tampa to the former Danielle Herndon, who was the captain of the volleyball team at Notre Dame. He will periodically blog on Seahawks.com during the course of training camp.
The changes just keep coming, don't they?
I saw this (Virginia Mason Athletic Center), probably two months ago and I could tell it was going to be something special back then. But to practice here today and see the finished product is just incredible. I'm just fortunate to have the opportunity to use this facility and be part of this team.
And now I'm going home to Minnesota. It's funny how things work out. I never thought I'd have this opportunity to go back to Minnesota and have my first real taste of a NFL game in the Metrodome in my home state. It's pretty exciting for everybody back there and for me.
I went there every now and then for games, but I wasn't a season ticket holder, or anything to that extreme. It's about 70 miles (from my hometown of Litchfield). I grew up a Vikings fan, but I was never a diehard. Being so close to Green Bay, I liked the Vikings-Packers rivalry a lot ... that was fun for me.
To be completely honest, I didn't have to take care of any tickets. My friends and family had their own way of getting tickets, so they did it themselves and that was really nice. They wanted me to be able to keep my mind on football. There will be a lot of people coming from (Litchfield). There's going to be a group of youth football players coming with my former head football coach in high school, he organized something for them to come. And there will also be a big group of family and friends.
But I'm more focused on playing the game than anything else. It just seems like as soon as I get a grasp on one concept or one idea, there's something else to move on to. This is a complicated offense and there is a reason for everything. There's always more to learn and it's an exciting challenge to take on every day.
I have friends who have already gone through this, and we talked about what all of these different experiences would be like. Anthony Fasano is a tight end for the Miami Dolphins now. He was drafted two years ago, so I got a little taste of what to expect from him. My roommate from my fourth year at Notre Dame was Ryan Harris, and he plays tackle for the Denver Broncos. We talked about things. And Brady Quinn also talked about what he went through. These are guys who gave me an idea of what to expect.
But you never fully understand what you're going to go through until you do it yourself. That's why I keep learning something new every day.
