Seattle Seahawks Rumors: Could Team Lose Draft Pick For Not Disclosing Richard Sherman Injury?

Seattle Seahawks rumors about Pete Carroll not disclosing an injury that Richard Sherman suffered have created quite a controversy on social media. An opinion piece by NFL analyst Mike Florio explored what took place, shining some very negative light on the situation. It boils down to Sherman injuring his MCL at some point during the 2016 NFL season and the Seahawks’ head coach failing to report it to the league or media. This is something that the NFL can punish, possibly choosing to use the Seahawks as an example with so much evidence at hand.

The worst part about these Seattle Seahawks rumors is that Pete Carroll is already on record admitting to the mistake. The typical practice is for coaches to immediately report any injuries that their players are going through, no matter how minor it ends up being. That did not happen with Richard Sherman, who is a main component of the secondary and one of the team leaders on defense.

“I didn’t realize that we hadn’t even revealed it. I don’t even remember what game it was, it was somewhere in the middle, he was fine about it, he didn’t miss anything. Same with Russell [Wilson], he was fine about it. I don’t know how they do that, but they did. He never missed anything, just like Russell [Wilson], Russell never missed anything and Tyler [Lockett], they all had it during the course of the season and they just made it through it.”

This is where it would be bad timing for a Seattle Seahawks fan to ask a fan of the New England Patriots how they feel about the situation. Social media has already been extremely unkind to the Seahawks, Pete Carroll, and Richard Sherman, with a public call for suspensions, fines, and the loss of draft picks already taking place. Fresh after Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady got suspended for knowing that footballs had been deflated, NFL fans are calling for Sherman to get suspended because he knew that he was injured.

Patriots fans may be particularly upset about this Seahawks news due to the how close it has taken place to “Deflategate.” What some Patriots fans may forget, though, is that the franchise did roughly the same thing with a Randy Moss injury during the 2009 NFL season. As a report by NESN lays out, Moss suffered a separated shoulder early in the campaign, but Patriots head coach Bill Belichick never actually reported the injury. The “excuse” at the time was that Moss had suffered an injury that “could heal on its own.”

Another example of an unreported injury took place during the 2008 NFL season with the New York Jets. Quarterback Brett Favre suffered a torn biceps later in the season and never found himself listed on the Jets’ injury report. An investigation was conducted on the situation, with several severe fines handed out. Head coach Eric Mangini and general manager Mike Tannenbaum were each fined $25,000, and the New York Jets got fined $75,000. The Jets also used the “excuse” that Favre’s injury wasn’t severe enough to put his playing ability in doubt.

So what happens next? If there is enough backlash on social media and within the press, then the NFL may open a formal investigation into the situation. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is already on the record admitting that he may have withheld information from the media and the league. That’s a bad sign, especially because the player involved (Richard Sherman) is seen to have an adversarial relationship with many players and members of the media. It goes back to what Mike Florio said in his opinion piece for NBC Sports.

“Carroll seems to believe that, because Carroll never missed practice or game time due to the injury, the injury didn’t need to be disclosed.”

For its role in the “Deflategate” controversy, the New England Patriots forfeited a first- and fourth-round draft pick, had to pay a $1 million fine, and lost Tom Brady to a four-game suspension. The debate will now become whether the Seahawks deserve a similar punishment for not publically disclosing that one of its star players was injured. This is a situation that could drag on for most of the NFL offseason, with many Seattle Seahawks rumors still to come out about possible consequences and punishments.

[Featured Image by Rob Carr/Getty Images]