Seahawks Won’t Lose Draft Pick for Richard Sherman Injury Controversy
By Paul Taylor
According to a report, the Seattle Seahawks won’t be penalized heavily — if at all — for not disclosing Richard Sherman’s MCL injury.
Nothing will replace not playing in Super Bowl LI, but the Seattle Seahawks are still enjoying a decent weekend. First off, there was the announcement that their former All-Pro strong safety Kenny Easley had been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If that’s not enough, the Seahawks will now apparently not lose a draft pick for their failure to disclose Richard Sherman‘s MCL injury during the season. The report comes from NFL Network insider, Ian Rapport.
Rapport sent out a tweet early this morning, saying: “Seahawks can breathe easier. Sources say they’re not expected to be penalized heavily – if at all – for not disclosing Sherman’s MCL injury.”
Rapport followed this up with a second tweet, which said: “Sherman injury materials were provided to the league. As the inquiry wraps up, it’s clear it was not an egregious rule violation.”
More from Seattle Seahawks
- Seattle Seahawks: To rest or not to rest, that is the question
- Seattle Seahawks: 12s still waiting to exhale
- Seattle Seahawks: 4 Takeaways from 26-23 Loss to the 49ers
- Seattle Seahawks: Four Takeaways from Week 14 21-7 victory
- Seattle Seahawks: Three Takeaways from the Week 13 43-16 victory
Assuming this is correct, it’s good to see common sense prevail (as with the decision to enshrine Easley in Canton). At one point, speculation was rife that the Seahawks could potentially lose a second round pick in this year’s draft.
This in itself was ridiculous, in part because Sherman never missed any playing time. What made it more frustrating, was the Seahawks weren’t the only team that ever failed to include an injured player on the weekly report.
Ironically, the only reason an investigation even took place at all, was because head coach Pete Carroll made a passing reference to his star cornerback playing hurt this past season. The “revelation” came during an appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle.
Speaking to “Brock and Salk”, Carroll said: “I had a big meeting with Richard going out. He has some regrets that this season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.
“You don’t know that he dealt with a significant knee the whole second half of the season and it was stressful to him to try to get out there. He had an MCL problem that he could play with.”
The media followed this up by asking Carroll about the injury during his end-of-season press conference: “Honestly, I didn’t realize we hadn’t revealed it.
“I don’t even remember what game it was. It was somewhere in the middle … I don’t know. He was fine about it, he didn’t miss anything.”
Next thing you know, the NFL decided to look into the matter, to see if any foul play was afoot. This led to disbelief on the part of the Seahawks’ organization, who were adamant they did nothing wrong.
Discussing the situation with Mark Dominik on SiriusXM NFL Radio, general manager John Schneider said: “Obviously, it’s something I can’t really get into, but we feel like we didn’t do anything that was out of the norm or trying to avoid any rules by any stretch of the imagination.
“All (orthopedists) would tell you, you have to manage the player, not the MRI, the patient, not the MRI, and that’s what we did. He never missed (any game time).”
Fortunately, the league has seemingly come to a smart conclusion. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if the fallout from this incident results in more extensive injury reports being submitted by teams next season.
Next: Sanity Prevails with Kenny Easley Election to Hall
We’ll throw this question out to everyone, because we already know the response if only Seattle Seahawks’ fans answer – Do you agree with the NFL’s apparent decision not to heavily penalize the team? Whether yes or no, explain why. Share your thoughts in the comments section.