The Seattle Seahawks are apparently going to avoid punishment for their decision to withhold information about Richard Sherman’s knee injury. Pete Carroll had informed the media at the end of the season that Sherman spent much of the second half of the 2016 season with an MCL sprain. However, he did not appear on the injury report, which is something the NFL frowns up.
Shortly after Carroll’s announcement, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the Seahawks could be docked as much as a second round pick for withholding the information. On Tuesday, NFL Network reporter Mike Garafolo reported that the NFL issued the Seahawks a warning, and there would be no further discipline.
Garafolo reported that the violation was deemed to result from a misinterpretation of league rules. While no punishment was handed down, the Sherman incident will be taken into account if any similar Seahawks violations are looked at by the league down the road.
When Carroll acknowledged the injury, he mentioned that he “screwed that up wth not telling you,” but he also said, “[Sherman] never missed anything I guess is probably why.”
It is amusing to note that when Sherman learned the Seahawks might lose a draft pick, he complained the league is too hard on Seattle. He talked about seeing what other teams had done and if they were docked in a fashion similar to what Schefter had reported.
Pro Football Talk took a look at the situation, and found an example where the league imposed discipline for a similar kind of thing. Per PFT, Brett Favre suffered a partially torn biceps tendon and finished the year with the injury. He was a full practice and game participant, and it was only revealed after the season when Favre was explaining some of his poor performance. The NF fined the Jets $75,000, and fined then-G.M. Mike Tannenbaum and head coach Eric Mangini $25,000 each.
PFT mentioned how the Seahawks might have faced a stiffer punishment given their violations of offseason workout policies. PFT suggested maybe the NFL fashioned it differently so as to avoid a bigger punishment. Whatever the case, I think Richard Sherman can stop complaining about equity of treatment.