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Seattle rolls the dice on linebacker Bruce Irvin

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The biggest shocker of the first round -- and probably of the NFL draft -- came when Seattle used the 15th pick on West Virginia linebacker Bruce Irvin, a player who almost nobody projected would go in the opening round.

Irvin, who played two years at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut before transferring to West Virginia, has had several run-ins with the law, most recently an arrest in March for disorderly conduct and destruction of property.

Irvin told reporters he was in court earlier this week, where the charges were dismissed.

“I went through a lot of stuff in my life. I’ve seen a lot of stuff and the average person who went through what I went through would not be on this phone with you right now,” Irvin told reporters. “I could have went the other way. I could have gone right but I chose to go left. When I chose to go left I told God I wasn’t going back to what was trying to suck me in and I surrounded myself with a lot of positive people.”

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A ferocious pass rusher who had 14 sacks as a junior and another 8 1/2 last season, Irvin joins a team where Chris Clemons had 11 last season but no one else had more than four.

Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll said Irvin “puts fear in offensive tackles.”

The coach added: “This is a rare guy and a rare chance to get a guy like this. You just don’t see many of them, so we’re really thrilled about this. Going in we knew we needed to up our pass rush and this was exactly what we were able to address. We’re really pumped about this.”

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Seattle rolls the dice on LB Bruce Irvin

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