RENTON, Wash. (AP) — Aaron Curry entered college wanting to go to law school and become a judge.

That goal changed two years ago. He came home to Fayetteville, N.C., the summer following his sophomore year at Wake Forest and found his mother evicted from her home.

His routine football workouts became fiendish. And life-changing.

"I worked until I could put myself in position to provide my mom a house to stay in," Curry said.

He's there now. The Seattle Seahawks selected the top-rated linebacker in the NFL draft fourth overall on Saturday to fill their most immediate need — and fulfill Curry's dream of a more lucrative career, one that secures his family financially for life.

Seattle's highest pick in a dozen years will replace the traded Julian Peterson. Franchise player Leroy Hill, the Seahawks' other starting outside linebacker, also could be gone next year as a free agent.

"It's a perfect fit," said the 23-year-old Curry, who never made a pre-draft visit to Seattle but said he knew the Seahawks had "just let go of Mr. Peterson."

Curry's head was bowed when his name was announced inside Radio City Music Hall in New York. He then hugged his mother, Chris, and wiped away tears.

"I was thinking just, 'Thank you, Mom, for everything you've done for me,'" Curry said in a telephone interview from a room just off the draft's main stage in New York.

"We were evicted from my house. We didn't have anywhere to stay that entire summer and for most of the season. I feel that experience made me a stronger person."

The speedy 2008 Butkus Award winner for being the nation's top linebacker joins Green Bay's A.J. Hawk as the only linebackers chosen in the top five since 2000.

Curry is expected to command at least $25 million in guarantees. Running back Darren McFadden got $26 million guaranteed from Oakland as the fourth overall pick last year.

Curry said he would buy back his mother's recently purchased house, "to make sure she doesn't have to worry about a bill ever again in her life."

Seattle traded out of and back into the second round, gaining Denver's No. 1 draft choice in 2010 and versatile, All-Pac-10 center Max Unger of Oregon.

The Seahawks gave Denver the No. 37 overall selection. Minutes later, Seattle sent its choices in Sunday's third round (68th overall) and fourth round (105th overall) to Chicago in order to take Unger at 49th overall.

That leaves the Seahawks with six picks in rounds five through seven on Sunday, plus two No. 1 picks in the first round next year.

When asked if he ever thought he'd gain a No. 1 pick in 2010 on Saturday, Seahawks president and general manager Tim Ruskell said, "No, I absolutely did not. Yeah, that kind of came out of the blue.

"To have two ones next year, you can do a lot of things. ... That's a nice option to have."

Seattle's defense now has one, too. It finished last in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game and 30th in total defense while sinking to 4-12 in 2008.

In their draft room at team headquarters, team executives exhaled when defensively desperate Kansas City took LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson at No. 3 instead of Curry. Ruskell said the Seahawks would have explored trading down to vacate the pick had the Chiefs selected Curry.

Curry, who will play next to star linebacker Lofa Tatupu, is Seattle's highest pick since Shawn Springs was its No. 3 choice in 1997.

"We were very intrigued by his character and his personality, the type of man he is," new Seahawks coach Jim Mora said. "We feel like we now have three good, young linebackers who are all impact-type players."

Ruskell said he considered drafting Southern California quarterback Mark Sanchez to eventually replace 33-year-old starter Matt Hasselbeck. But the Seahawks chose Curry because, unlike Sanchez, the linebacker would be able to start right away in Seattle. Hasselbeck has two years left on his contract.

Sanchez went next at No. 5 to the New York Jets, who traded up with Cleveland.

A few teams, including Denver, called to fish for trade-up possibilities minutes before Seattle took Curry, but none made a concrete offer.

Seattle may not have listened, anyway.

Ruskell likened Curry's skills to those of Derrick Brooks — an 11-time Pro Bowl linebacker and 2002 NFL Defensive Player of the Year whom Ruskell helped draft with Tampa Bay.

"He's the whole package for the linebacker position," Ruskell said of the 6-foot-1, 254-pound Curry.

Curry made would-be blockers look like turnstiles on his way to college ball carriers. Some criticized him for being a less-than-stellar pass rusher. But Ruskell said Wake Forest's defensive schemes did not ask Curry to rush quarterbacks all that much. Mora said Seattle will, on blitzes.

"Seattle is a great franchise and Aaron will really flourish in that system," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said from Winston-Salem, N.C. "The people in Seattle will be happy with Aaron in every way."

Alphonso Smith, a defensive back the Broncos took with the second-round pick they got from Seattle, calls his Demon Deacons teammate "special."

"The hardest-working kid I've ever seen," Smith said of Curry, "and he's one of the smartest kids."