Wedding bells, cash register ringing for Seahawks' Trufant

KIRKLAND -- It's not every day that a player signs a six-year, $50.2 million contract. Even more rare is the occasion when that career-defining accomplishment plays second fiddle to another event in the same week.

But that's what happened to Marcus Trufant on Wednesday.

Yes, the Seahawks' Pro Bowl cornerback put his signature on a new deal -- one that includes a $10 million signing bonus, $20 million in guarantees and the likelihood of pocketing a cool $28 million in the first three years.

Even the significance of that deal, however, paled when compared to what awaits Trufant on Saturday -- his marriage to girlfriend Jessica Rankin.

"It's an all-around good week, and it's a great feeling," Trufant said in the hallway of the team's headquarters after the news conference to announce his new deal.

Trufant, 27, has had this feeling before. It was in January of 2006, when the Seahawks were advancing to their first Super Bowl and his daughter was born.

"It seems like every time something good happens I've kind of got a double thing going on," he said.

"I'm just going to enjoy it and I'm very excited for me and my family."

In addition to his fiancée, Trufant was accompanied by his parents, Constance and Lloyd, and his grandfather, Frederick Johnson.

It was fitting that Trufant chose to make remaining a member of the Seahawks family a Trufant family affair. After all, he grew up in Tacoma, played his college football at Washington State and spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Seahawks.

"I never envisioned anything like this when Marcus was growing up," Constance Trufant said. "It's a blessing. It was meant to be. It's God-given. We accept it, and we're loving it."

So were the Seahawks, who were pushing to sign Trufant to a long-term deal to decrease the amount of money he would count against the salary cap this season.

The club had used its franchise tag on Trufant in February to prevent the former first-round draft choice from becoming an unrestricted free agent. But with the tag came a $9.465 million tender that was prohibitive for the cap-strapped Seahawks.

The new contract reduced Trufant's cap hit to roughly $2.8 million, but don't expect the team to go on a free-agent signing binge with the nearly $7 million it just gained.

Instead, club president Tim Ruskell plans to use $3 million-$4 million for the rookie pool that will be needed to sign the players selected in the April draft, sock away another $2 million in an injury-protection fund to sign players when others are lost for the season and sign a veteran kicker.

"We're not really focused on that many more moves," Ruskell said.

Without the new Trufant deal, the team would have had to release players or restructure contracts to create the cash needed for the rookie and injury-protection funds.

Trufant, the 11th pick overall in the 2003 draft, picked a prudent time to turn in his best season. He had a career-high seven interceptions in 2007, added an eighth in the playoff victory over the Washington Redskins and was voted to his first Pro Bowl.

But his breakout season also made negotiations on the long-term deal difficult, because his agents were originally seeking a contract that averaged $10 million.

What got it done?

"We just kept pushing," Ruskell said. "For the longest time it seemed to be, 'We're staying here,' and 'We're staying here.' No one was really talking about the middle ground.

"We started talking about the middle ground and what we like to call the zone of acceptance. We both got in there, and that's when the deal got done."

Trufant's deal also includes base salaries of $1 million in 2008 and 2009 before jumping to $5.7 million in 2010. There are roster bonuses of $7 million in 2009 and $3 million in 2010, as well as $100,000 workout bonuses in each of the six years.

But neither Trufant's wedding nor the team's inability to make up for lost time in free agency could dampen the impact of getting Trufant signed to another "Seahawks for life" contract, as Ruskell called it.

Again. He said the same thing last week when middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu signed a six-year contract extension with money freed from four teammates restructuring their deals.

"It speaks high volumes about this team and what kind of guys we have on this team," Trufant said. "They're team players and guys who do things for the good of the team. So I just think that's really big, and I'm proud to be on a team like this."

For six more seasons.