RENTON, Wash. — The names and faces at the VMAC have changed, but the reputation remains, as Laken Tomlinson was pleased to discover. He hopes to bring his guidance to a new-look Seattle Seahawks offense as their projected starting left guard.

"I heard a lot about the culture here and it just goes to show that all those things I've heard over the years — they're true, man," Tomlinson said this week at the Seahawks' mandatory minicamp. "I'm excited to get this season rolling."

Despite being a newcomer, the veteran is being asked to help shape the Seahawks' locker-room culture. Coach Mike Macdonald confirmed that Tomlinson, 32, is one of nine members of the leadership team.

"[He] kind of hits you right between the eyes, communication-wise, which is what we're asking for," Macdonald said.

Macdonald described the leadership team as a "conduit" channeling messages from the coaches to the team, and vice versa. It's already working — perhaps a little too well. Macdonald lightheartedly suggested that the group might have been the source of a leak that Thursday's practice, the last one of minicamp, had been canceled and summer break would begin early.

Players who have seen many winters and "have a lot of respect" from teammates and coaches make up the leadership team. Tomlinson — encouraging and dancing his way through this week's practices like he was already perfectly comfortable at the VMAC — fit the bill.

"(Tomlinson) brings a veteran presence through the offensive line, some poise," Macdonald said. "A guy that has seen a lot of ball, been in a lot of different systems."

When he retires he wants to embrace another calling. Tomlinson graduated from Duke with degrees in evolutionary anthropology and psychology and shadowed former Blue Devils linebacker Carlos Bagley, who became a neurosurgeon. After his playing career Tomlinson intends to attend medical school.

"It's been my dream. It's always been my dream," he said of resuming his studies. "Build a hospital in Jamaica. That's part of the process for myself, to get that done, and that's something that's truly a part of me."

Ten-year-old Tomlinson moved to the U.S. in 2003 from Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica. He joined his grandparents, who had a vision for their 10 kids and extended family and had relocated to Chicago's Rogers Park area. Now listed at 6-foot-3 and 323 pounds, Tomlinson was a small kid at the time.

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