Seattle Seahawks: The dud and stud of game 4 – Arizona
By Ed Stein
Dud of the Week
2nd dishonorable mention – Seahawks Management. This is related to the Earl Thomas situation, which I’ll get more specific about further down. In short, did they handle Thomas as well as they could have? No. When the acrimony gets to the point where ET3 felt like he had to express himself the way he did, many things could have been done differently, without signing him to a new contract.
1st dishonorable mention – Defense. Overall they had a decent game, but if they play the same way next week, Los Angeles will kill them. Cardinals rookie quarterback Josh Rosen had too much time in the pocket.
The Dud – Earl Thomas. We all know why. Let me say a few things before I get to his specific avian actions. If you are going open your mouth and talk the talk about why you should get a new contract, you had better walk the walk. Before he got hurt Sunday, Thomas played nowhere near the level he had the previous three weeks.
Now on to the big bird in the room. I understand that Earl Thomas was physically hurt, and mentally frustrated by what was happening to him. Even so, there is absolutely no excuse for him flipping off his own sideline while being carted off. His gesture was not only a shot at the team’s coach and management, but it was also a huge sign of disrespect to all the 12s that have supported him for nine seasons.
Also for a guy who said that he was coming back to the team because he wanted to be there for his teammates, to flip off the sideline that they were standing on, was absolutely inconceivable.
These are same teammates who circled around him, holding hands in prayer while the doctors were working on his broken leg. The same teammates who said they understood why he missed days of practice, while they were out their busting their butts. Finally, the same teammates who had to go back out on the field to win the game after the man Thomas was covering caught a touchdown pass to tie the score in the fourth quarter.
Earl Thomas is the Dud of Week.