Despite missing a couple of days of practice because of a sore hamstring, CB Richard Sherman was assessed as good to go for the Seahawks’ home opener at 1:25 p.m. Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, at least according to coach Pete Carroll. The NFL official injury report still lists him as questionable.
“He did well — practiced the whole practice today,” Carroll said after practice Friday. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow, and I’ll wait until game day, but he looked really good.”
He played the entire game Sunday in Green Bay, but Carroll said Sherman was playing through some pain in the 17-9 loss.
“He did have to play through some,” he said. “His attitude about being injured and whether he could play or not is so far off-the-charts courageous, determined and committed. He just won’t accept it.
“There’s always been people that heal better than others. We’ll see how this works out.”
After last season, Carroll found himself in a little trouble with the NFL when he disclosed that Sherman was playing with a leg injury for part of the season’s second half, but failed to add the problem to the weekly injury report.
Carroll brought up the injury as a partial explanation for Sherman’s surprisingly contentious relations with coaches and media, but instead raised the possibility of a punishment from the NFL, which later declined to act.
Sherman has never missed a game since he began with the Seahawks in 2011, a streak of 97 games, including 91 starts. The topic came up.
“He’s reminded me of that during the week,” Carroll said. “We haven’t missed him in a long time.”
The only player likely to miss the game is LB Terence Garvin, listed as doubtful with a shoulder injury. It’s possible that LB Michael Wilhoite, a former 49er who is recovering from a calf injury that kept him sidelined in Green Bay, could start in Garvin’s place.
“Mike got off to a great start with us and then a couple of little things kept him away for some time,” Carroll said. “He’s a very smart player, very savvy guy, he knows what he’s doing, and he’ll play good football for us.”
Other players who were limited earlier in the week — RB Thomas Rawls, CB Shaquill Griffin, LB K.J. Wright and rookie SS Delano Hill — fully participated. Rawls is expected to start after missing last week’s game to let a high ankle sprain heal further.
NFL declines to fine CB Lane after ejection
When the NFL discloses fines, the film-reviewed verdicts are usually taken as a final judgment on the severity — or the existence — of a foul. So the fact that CB Jeremy Lane was not fined Friday by the NFL lends much credence to the Seahawks’ belief that he did not throw a punch worthy of ejection in Green Bay.
Eight plays into the game, Lane was thrown out when he tangled with Packers WR Devante Adams during an interception return by DT Nazair Jones. Officials later said Lane threw a punch, but it was not visible on any TV replay. In fact, Adams could be seen pulling on Lane’s face mask.
Jones’ apparent touchdown was nullified and the ball brought back to the 50-yard line, from where the Seahawks went three-and-out. The loss of six points as well as a starting cornerback was a huge setback in a close game.
Carroll on Wednesday said he spoke with the NFL office but declined to offer details.
“I learned a lot,” Carroll said Wednesday. “I’m not going to share it with you because I can’t. That conversation about the specifics of it — I told you I thought the (TV) guys calling the game saw it pretty clearly. You can try, but I’m not going to go any farther than that, OK?”
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Pete Carroll: “During my conversation with the NFL, I learned that Michael Jordan was actually roughed up quite a bit while the Bulls were winning titles. At least according to our current officials in this league.”
When you have Luc Longley at your side, it makes all the difference.
Bit nervous about re-injury/aggravation with Sherm. Hammies can be tricky coming back too soon. The potential for a 6 week+ injury goes up considerably…
I’m a little surprised they don’t rest him Sunday for a tougher game next week in TEN. Still might . . .
Get out to a big lead early…and then sit him.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve lost some sleep, simmering over the officiating of the Seahawks-Packers game. The NFL is a somewhat repressive regime. They have significantly curtailed the players’, coaches’ and GMs’ First Amendment Rights.
Fortunately the NFL’s leverage over sportswriters approaches zero, so we can enjoy Art’s skillful, often humorous ways of speaking truth to power.
As far as I am concerned, the NFL’s decision to not fine Jeremy Lane, is a tacit admission that the officials got it wrong. Although the NFL would probably claim that completely error-free officiating is one of their goals, it is obvious that they have no intention of doing what it would take to come closer to achieving such a goal. It would require, among other things, allowing each team to have at least one of their challenges apply to ANY call made by the officials, including penalties or the absence thereof. One thing is for sure: This ain’t happening.
As far as I am concerned, the NFL’s decision to not fine Jeremy Lane is a tacit admission that the officials got it wrong. The bottom line is that we live in an imperfect world. Bad calls will continue to happen. It’s just part of the territory.
If you’re willing to lose sleep over injustice, your choices these days are many and varied. The Seahawks will get paid back sometime.
Lane’s ‘infraction’ by a seemingly blind ref has me once again calling for a review before any player is ejected from the game. Barring that, maybe a stiff fine levied upon the ref that makes a call that has a player ejected with no fine forthcoming is in order. One or the other is fine with me. I lean to the instant replay before ejecting a player option.
Since the ejection-worthy misdeed is often off-camera, not sure that your solution is fool-proof. And if referees were fined for missed calls, nobody would do the job.