07/26/2008

By GREGG BELL  / Associated Press

Lofa Tatupu was noticeably nervous while fielding questions about pleading guilty earlier this month to drunken driving.

And he wasn't eager to elaborate Friday on his experience as a three-time Pro Bowl linebacker serving a one-day sentence recently among other inmates at a jail near the team's headquarters.

"It was 24 hours, just like anyone else does if they have that offense," said Tatupu, who signed a six-year, $42 million contract extension in March, six weeks before Kirkland police arrested him.

He registered 0.155 and 0.158 in breath test readings, nearly twice the Washington state intoxication threshold of 0.08, according to an arrest report. He was also fined $1,255.

"I want to apologize ... to anyone I have let down, especially the kids out there. It's not the right thing to do. You shouldn't drink and drive," Tatupu said. "I'll never forget about it. I'm just glad no one was injured. I think I'll be a better person for it. I already know I have taken great strides."

Tatupu, lauded by team executives as the player all Seahawks should emulate, said he doesn't believe his leadership status has changed on the team.

"I'm still the same guy," he said.

"Not necessarily something you want to have associated with your name, as I've worked so hard to have my name in a good light. I'm going to do everything I can to earn the trust and respect back, to restore it."

Starting defensive tackle Rocky Bernard was less revealing while addressing for the first time his offseason domestic violence arrest. Bernard, entering the final year of $13 million, three-year contract, pleaded not guilty to a domestic violence assault charge. He was accused of hitting his girlfriend in the head at a Seattle nightclub in April.

Bernard, who is back on the field after surgery for a double hernia, will have the domestic violence charge erased from his record if he complies with a series of stipulations over the next two years.

"I'm just glad it's over with," Bernard said. "It's over and done with, so I'm just glad to put that past me and move forward, really."

Someone asked how much of a "distraction" the case was for him in the offseason.

"Not really. It wasn't much for me, you know what I mean?" he said. "It happened. It got over with, you know. And that's pretty much all I have to say about it, really."

Both Tatupu and Bernard could face league discipline for their arrests.

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CO-STARTING RBs: Coach Mike Holmgren said Julius Jones, signed as a free agent from Dallas in the offseason, and Maurice Morris, Seattle's longtime backup to former league MVP Shaun Alexander, are the team's co-starting running backs entering the season.

"Both Julius and Mo will both play. I'm looking at it right now as if we have two starters at that position. And that's how I talk to the players about it and that's how I'm going to kind of approach it during the season," Holmgren said after beginning his 10th and final season as Seahawks coach Friday.

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QUICK HITS: WR Deion Branch was catching passes out of a machine off to the side of the practice field, but he remains in rehabilitation following reconstructive knee surgery in late January. Holmgren said the team is "hopeful" to have Branch back for the opener Sept. 7 at Buffalo. ... All-Pro LT Walter Jones was on the side working on conditioning drills with a trainer. Holmgren said the 34-year-old mainstay will get much of camp off following offseason shoulder surgery. "You know, Walt, there were years where he didn't come to training camp at all and played fine during the regular season," Holmgren said, referring to Jones holding out of camps earlier this decade over contract disputes. ... DE Patrick Kerney, OT Ray Willis, DT Marcus Tubbs and P Ryan Plackemeier are going to be limited early in camp following surgeries. ... Reserve LB and special-team contributor Will Herring, who has been hampered by muscle pulls in his two seasons with the team, is out indefinitely while getting evaluated for recurring joint inflammation. "He's got a little bit of a sickness that we have to do some more work on. It's causing some of the things that are plaguing him right now, the pulls and different things," Holmgren said.