The Seahawks will add an almost-new weapon for the Super Bowl: Percy Harvin.
“He’ll be ready — he’s fine,” said coach Pete Carroll Monday morning on his weekly ESPN 710 radio show. Harvin missed Sunday’s game against the 49ers after a concussion a week earlier against New Orleans. He didn’t pass the NFL’s concussion protocol and was held out.
Since two weeks separate the conference title games and the Super Bowl, Harvin has extra time to recover.
At his press conference Monday afternoon, Carroll said Harvin will be examined again and “there is an expectation” that he will be available for the Feb. 2 game, but the first step is being cleared for practice Wednesday.
“We are kind of counting on him to be ready,” he said. “We think he should be. He has a very good chance to practice based on how he was on the weekend.”
Harvin, acquired by the Seahawks during the last offseason at a cost of three draft choices and a $67 million contract, underwent hip surgery Aug. 1 and didn’t play until Nov. 17 against Minnesota. He caught one pass and returned one kickoff in that game.
But with his hip still bothering him, Harvin didn’t play again until the first half against the Saints when he caught three passes. He suffered a pair of head blows, one on a tackle that drew a personal foul penalty and second from striking his head on the ground after a failed reception.
Sherman apologizes
After thinking about it overnight and talking with Carroll, Richard Sherman has some morning-after regrets about his post-game TV rant against 49ers WR Michael Crabtree that received considerable social media attention/criticism.
“He caused a stir that took away from the team,” Carroll said, “We talked. He didn’t feel right about that.”
In a text to ESPN’s Ed Werder, Sherman wrote, “I apologize for attacking an individual and taking the attention away from the fantastic game by my teammates . . . That was not my intent.”
Sherman’s deflection of an end-zone pass intended for Crabtree, which bounced into the hands of teammate Malcolm Smith, closed the 23-17 win.
On ESPN radio, Sherman said, “Obviously, I could have worded things better, and could obviously have had a better reaction and done things differently. But it is what it is now, and people’s reactions are what they are.”
After the interception, Sherman ran over to Crabtree and gave him a pat on the butt and appeared to extend his arm for a handshake. Crabtree gave an open-handed shove to Sherman’s face mask.
Sherman also directed a choke sign at QB Colin Kaepernick, who had a fumble and two interceptions in San Francisco’s final three possessions. Sherman was hit with a personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“I was making sure everyone knew Crabtree was a mediocre receiver,” Sherman said in his post-game news conference. “And when you try the best corner in the game with a mediocre receiver, that’s what happens. I appreciate that he knows that now. There has been a lot of talk from him running his mouth about me.”
Sherman was also upset with some derogatory racial tweets, and fired back:
Last night shows that racism is still alive and well… And that’s so sad…. At Least some people respect MLKs dream
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 20, 2014
“To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field — don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines,” Sherman wrote in his column posted on mmqb.com. “Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.
“But people find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you’ll see from me. It’s sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it.”
Sideline knockdown irks Carroll
Carroll said he was “very disappointed” there was no penalty called on a non-uniformed member of the 49ers sideline who deliberately knocked down Seahawks punt-team gunner Jeremy Lane, who was attempting to cover a punt and was forced out along the sideline.
Carroll filed a report with league officials, but has heard no response.
Injuries minor
Doug Baldwin has a hip pointer after a hard landing following his 51-yard reception in the second quarter, Carroll said. He will be limited in practice but should be fine by the game. DT Brandon Mebane has a sore ankle and RB Marshawn Lynch will need rest after his big game.
K.J. Wright came off the bench and played well at strongside linebacker, Carroll said, despite missing the previous five weeks after surgery to fix a bone broken in his right foot. No word yet on whether he will return to his starting job.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2176443 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2176443">25 Comments
Just keep Wes Welker away from him!
I think Sherman has much respect for Welker.
Our Amazing WWII general George Patton often got in trouble for saying what was on his mind and was often visited by his superiors for a tone it down pep talk….
But they loved the fact that when he was called to win on the battlefield he delivered in dramatic fashion.
Sherman delivers in dramatic fashion.
I am betting Rich will deliver on the big stage and pick off Peyton…perhaps to preserve a win. Glad he is on our side. Here’s to a better SB than the 2006 game. Go Hawks!
The NFL and its partner networks aren’t big on honesty.
If Sherman starts slapping soldiers with PTSD then I’d have a problem with him. Until then play on.
Didn’t Patton do it with a tank named Sherman? As in Sherman tank?
that is freakin funny…yes he had a whole company of richard Shermans
this seems like a good time to delve deeper into nfl concussion protocol and policy. who decides if and when a player like harvin is ready to return to the field of play? what are harvin’s issues? did anyone else on denver or seattle suffer a concussion i the title games? and so on.
Probably a lot of discussion awaits at the Super Bowl.
Discussion concussion Thiel you’re a pro showing great resistant.
That lil ratshrimp Welker better not mess with the LOB! If he knows whats best for him.
Why no press about the niners missing person at Seahawk stadium, Vernon Davis?
He was last seen with two men named Kam and Earl, last anybody saw of him.
Also a lost child was reported in the fourth quarter, boy named Colin.
Amber Alert is on for Davis.
Harvin to play? That would be a rare treat.
As for Sherman, he wears his heart on his sleeve. A little more decorum after the game would’ve been nice, but nothing he said to Erin Andrews was worth him being called a “thug” (and we all know what other word THAT one is code for). That’s lower than deplorable.
Reaction to Sherman’s rant is way overdone. I’ll take that over coach-speak any day.
Richard sherman = fred “the hammer” williamson
Carroll says Everson Walls of the Cowboys.
Noooooo, let’s not compare Rich with The Hammer. Fred was talking trash right up to the first Super Bowl against the Packers and it did not go well either for him or the Chiefs.
That Peyton Manning has two weeks to dissect film on how the Seattle defense works is a trifle worrisome. He hasn’t faced a defense like the Seahawks yet this season but, conversely, Seattle hasn’t faced a QB like Manning, either. It’ll be like watching open-heart surgery conducted in a war zone.
Go Hawks.
No, no, no, Fred “the hammer” Williamson got hammer in the Super Bowl game against the Packers.
If not for Sherman’s rant the National media would have nothing much to say about the Seahawks. As it is it’s 90% Manning’s legacy (excluding The Sherman Debate) on the NFL Network.
We are going to be portrayed as the villains trying to deny the hero, same as it was in’06 with Bettis. This team is strong enough to deal with it the animosity. It’ll just add to our “chip-on-the-shoulder” mentality.
Hell, the old Raiders thrived for decades in the bad guy role, we can too.
I’ve seen the refs not save Manning from his own interception barrages in the playoffs before. I don’t fear the fix as much as I did against Bettis and the Stealers. I think Paul Allen has earned a championship as an owner in two sports leagues, I think Pete Carroll is on the NFL’s good side and they would love the redemption story of him finally winning a Super Bowl, and I think Russell Wilson is just the kind of guy the NFL would love to market. Having one of the bright new stars of the league beat Ol’ Man Manning would be a great story for the NFL to build off of.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the game will be rigged. But the story the media (and the League) is spinning is so far is “How Great For Peyton to Prove He’s The Best Ever.” Which necessitates the Hawks being cast as the bad guys.
NFL refs may be often erroneous, but I’ve never considered them bias. When I come to that conclusion, I’ll stop watching.
BTW – The Weed bowl thing is funny, but you can bet the NFL will do everything to stop that from being a story.
Last night, the PBS New Hour’s 35-minute report on Sherman-Crabtree was the most comprehensive, informative reporting done on this issue I’ve come across. They apologized to viewers for not being able to devote more time to it, To make amends, they promised Part II will air tonight (6 pm, Channel 9). I can hardly wait.
Richard Sherman just made a sensational play on the biggest stage; an instant classic. It was the ‘anti-catch’.
His emotion was on full display and got caught up in the moment of just rebuking a rival of deep dislike. Nothing more. He slept on it and woke up the next day apologetic for the stir the media created. Should be end of story.
The fact that this is still in the infotainment mews cycle reeks of the common divisive racial stench the media stirs up on a near daily basis.
I’m delighted that the Hawks came out on top yesterday.
That said, I can’t help but comment on one call by the refs, namely the five-yard penalty and no automatic first down for SF assessed on a Hawk player for running into the kicker. (I’m not certain of his name, so I won’t try to guess.) During the broadcast, Mike Pereira, the former NFL official, stated that if a defender contacts the kicking leg, that constitutes running into the kicker, which was the penalty assessed. If the defender contacts the non-kicking leg, that constitutes roughing the kicker which results in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down for the kicking team. Slow motion replay showed that that’s what happened on that play, as Periera said. Thus, the Hawks got away with one. How or if the correct call would have affected the outcome of the game is among the things we will never know.
I realize that football plays are dynamic events that happen with lightning speed and the refs are only human and can’t always make the right call. That’s why we have instant replay. I believe the fault here is on the SF observers in the booth, who should have communicated with Harbaugh. Whether the play was challengable, I have no idea. In any event, it’s history now.
On the other hand it can be argued that the Hawks lost the 2006 SB thanks to a couple of bad calls, which the official ultimately owned up to. The fact that Jeremy Lane was tripped by a person on the SF bench was also a non-call. So maybe there is a such thing as karma.
Penalties are not reviewable. Generally bad calls even out though out the course of the game (the ’06 Super Bowl being an exception).
That the game has grown too fast for the refs on the field does seem obvious however. It’s something the NFL has to figure out before something really embarrassing happen on the the biggest stage… again.