KIRKLAND, WASH. - The Seattle Seahawks and the C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation will host the 2nd Annual Seattle Seahawks Fish and Feast Charity Fundraiser June 7, 2008, at Southport on Lake Washington (adjacent to Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park in Renton). All proceeds for the event will benefit the C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation, to provide recreational fishing opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged children.

“The Seattle Seahawks are proud to partner with C.A.S.T. for Kids and the Renton community to bring outdoors experiences to children with special needs,” said Vice President of Community Outreach Mike Flood. “Our players and coaches really enjoy the experience of fishing with the kids and competing to see who catches the largest bass. But the greatest reward is in knowing that C.A.S.T. will provide children with fishing and outdoors experiences throughout the year.”

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Surprisingly, the Seahawks' practice got started only about 15 minutes later than they said it would start (11) even though they had to get shipped over to UW's indoor practice facility on three buses. They brought all their own gear, including blocking dummies, so they weren't subjected to hitting purple and gold pads. (From what I could tell, the purple and gold pads had not gotten a lot of use. Read into that what you will.)

The most notable body on the field was that of Rocky Bernard, who missed all of the last mini-camp recovering from offseason foot surgery and who spent Monday morning in court defending himself from accusations that he has been trying to live up to the reputation of his namesake. Bernard took part in individual drills, but did not get involved in team drills. Still, it was a surprise to see him out there. Even more of a surprise, the PR staff didn't allow him to talk to us. Or didn't allow us to talk with him. I'm not sure which.

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The Seahawks just told us that because of the inclement weather today's mini-camp practice has been moved to the indoor practice facility at the University of Washington. It has been pushed back to 11. I would venture to say we will not get as many players available for interview purposes because everybody will be running for buses to shuttle back and forth. Also, things on the blog may be running late because my guess is there is no internet access over there, and we have to get back here to try to get guys in the locker room.

Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren addressed Deion Branch's injury situation during his news conference yesterday, and admitted that he really doesn't know when Branch is going to be able to return from his knee surgery.

Holmgren said that he thought Branch could come back early, but when pressed he admitted that the injury is generally a nine-month recovery -- which puts Branch's return in October. That is not to say he can't be on the field before that, but it is to say that he probably will not be 100 percent until then. (As an aside, I had contacted an orthopedic surgeon a few months ago, who said regardless of body type and being in shape, nine months is what it takes this injury to properly heal. There just has not been enough progress in medicine to increase the recovery time.)

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