Seahawks sign TE Carlson

KIRKLAND, Wash. – John Carlson had great reasons to sign a multiyear contract with the Seahawks on Saturday morning after missing the first day of training camp.

It wasn’t just that the rookie tight end from Notre Dame was becoming conspicuous by being the last player absent from Seattle’s initial practices, or that coach Mike Holmgren thought Carlson needed to get in because the team expects the man it traded up in the second round to draft in April to start this season in a complicated offense.

No, Carlson needed to get away from an unhappy mother-in-law.

“I got married two weeks ago, and my mother-in-law flew in yesterday because she was going to come stay with my wife and help set up our apartment – because I assumed that I would be in camp,” Carlson said after his first practice. “So she wasn’t real happy to see me. She wanted me working.”

Carlson married Danielle Herndon, a fellow 2007 graduate of Notre Dame who was the captain of the Fighting Irish’s volleyball team. Carlson spent a long Friday inside his Renton, Wash., apartment anxiously waiting for his contract to be set while his new teammates practiced twice without him.

The NFL Network reported the deal was for four years and potentially $4.52 million with $2.5 million guaranteed.

The team released fullback Zac Alcorn to make room.