New York's Isaiah Trufant Associated Press

In Seattle next month, three brothers named Trufant will participate in a gridiron coincidence of Twilight-Zone proportions: They will play the same position for three different teams in the same stadium over the same weekend.

"That would make a good documentary," said NFL analyst Rod Woodson, the Hall of Fame defensive back.

To make things odder, the most celebrated Trufant at the moment is the least advanced. A senior cornerback at the University of Washington, Desmond Trufant made the game-sealing interception in last week's Huskies' upset of No. 8 Stanford. Washington climbed to No. 23 in the polls and faces No. 2 Oregon on Saturday.

If Desmond were to be selected in the draft next spring, as analysts expect, the Trufants would become the first cornerback brother trio in NFL history. Cornerbacks Marcus and Isaiah Trufant—of the Seattle Seahawks and New York Jets, respectively—are the oldest and second-oldest in a family of three boys.

Seattle's Marcus Trufant Zuma Press

On Nov. 11, the older brothers will square off when the Jets visit Seattle's CenturyLink Field. That game will come one day after Washington hosts Utah at CenturyLink, which this season is serving as home field for the Huskies while their stadium undergoes renovations.

Surely, that will constitute extraordinary convenience for their parents, Lloyd and Constance Trufant, who live in nearby Tacoma, Wash.

"I was pretty excited to see that the three of them were going to be there the same weekend," said Lloyd Trufant. For Sunday's game, Mom and Dad are in the process of creating split jerseys—half Jets, half Seahawks. The Trufants rent a suite at CenturyLink that this season they can use for both Seahawks and Huskies games. The suite holds about 25 people and will be full that weekend.

That particular positions seem to run in families was clear long before siblings Eli and Peyton Manning became starting NFL quarterbacks. Two brothers, in fact, is no big deal.

In the history of professional football, there have been five sibling trios playing the same position. To cite a couple of examples, Marty, Carl and Dick Zoll all played guard in the 1920s and '30s; the wide-receiving Richardson brothers—Gloster, Tom and Willie—played in the 1960s and '70s and had three Super Bowl appearances among them; and most recently Derrick, Kevin and Ronnie Harmon played halfback in the 1980s and '90s. If Desmond is drafted, he and his cornerback brothers will bring that number to six.

Washington's Desmond Trufant Cal Sport Media/Zuma Press

Desmond would start his NFL career a full decade after his oldest brother Marcus did. Marcus was an all-Pacific-12 Conference player at Washington State and the No. 11 overall pick, by the Seahawks, in the 2003 NFL draft. He made the Pro Bowl in 2008 and bought his parents a house on a lake near the brothers' childhood home in Tacoma.

Isaiah played at lower-division Eastern Washington before going undrafted and ignored by the Canadian Football League. He got his break with the Spokane Shock of Arena League II—basically the back alley behind the greenroom of the NFL—then clambered through the Arena League and United Football League before reaching the Jets in 2010. He played in his first NFL game at age 28. Desmond played several positions in high school but decided that cornerback was his calling. "I'd rather hit somebody than have other people hit me," he said.

The Trufants credit their genes not only for their talent but also for how they all arrived at playing defensive back. They all played multiple positions in high school…then stopped growing. Middle brother Isaiah is 5-foot-8 and nicknamed "Smurf" because of his stature and childhood affection for the cartoon. Marcus, the oldest, is 5-foot-11. And Desmond—or "Young Des"—is listed at 6 feet. "I always tell people that the position kind of chose me," Marcus said

Isaiah said the brothers talk almost daily by phone, occasionally about strategy—a big advantage, said Archie Manning, father of NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli. "What better source than somebody who's been playing the position in the league for five years?" Manning said.

The boys were always competitive with one another, except the time when their in-house wrestling resulted in a broken bathroom door. Then, it was "all the boys working together, getting the glue out of the garage," Marcus said. One advantage of playing the same position is that the brothers don't have to go head-to-head on the field, blocking or tackling someone they used to live with.

Write to Rachel Bachman at