National Football League

Seahawks should not lose a draft pick for Sherman injury report

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:45 p.m. ET

Fansided, Keith Myers/FanSided via 12th Man Rising

An examination of the facts shows that the Seattle Seahawks should not lose a 2nd round draft pick for failing to disclose an injury to Richard Sherman’s knee.

By now you’ve likely heard that the Seahawks are expected to lose their 2nd round pick because they failed to disclose that Richard Sherman had a knee injury this season. It hasn’t been announced, and likely won’t be until the compensatory picks and draft order are finalized during the NFL Combine next month.

Here’s the thing: the Seahawks should not lose a draft pick over this. It simply should not happen. It might, but it shouldn’t.

A look at the actual facts of the case tell a completely different story than the one that is being portrayed by most media outlets.

What supposedly happened:

Richard Sherman suffered a major MCL injury. It caused him to miss practice time for most of the season, and the Seahawks failed to list him on the injury report. Essentially, the Seahawks hid a major injury to a star player to try and gain a competitive advantage.

If all of that is true, than they deserve a severe punishment from the league for breaking the rules on injury disclosure. Here’s the thing: None of that above paragraph is actually true.

What really happened:

Impossible for any CB to play with significant MCL.
but any mild MCL is signifcant to CB performance.
Mild sprain = reporting loophole https://t.co/C3GaJG02sq

— David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) January 17, 2017

Why is there so much confusion?

The confusion here lays entirely at the feet of Pete Carroll. When talking to Bock&Salk on the Monday after the team’s loss to Atlanta in the playoffs, Pete brought up Sherman’s knee. He was trying to defend Sherman, and justify some of the sideline antics that happened this year.

Carroll exaggerated. He said that an insignificant issue was a “significant injury.” Given the wording of the NFL rules, people want to the book thrown at the Seahawks.

If the Seahawks are to be punished here, it should be because Sherman actually has a significant unreported injury. They should not be punish simply because of a Pete Carroll exaggeration after the season was over.

This is a homer opinion? Perhaps. I cannot deny that my own fandom clouds my neutrality here. I also don’t think that a full look at the facts in this case lead to the conclusion that the Seahawks broke the rule.

The only thing that happened was that Pete Carroll exaggerated in an effort to defend one of his guys. Is that really something that warrants a lost draft pick? I honestly do not think so.