Much like Bonaparte, I’ve been exiled to an island in a foreign land. Well, sort of… we call ferrying over from Whidbey Island to the greater Seattle metro area “going to America.” Though we like it here, there’s one huge disadvantage: being constantly exposed to Settle Seahawks hype, televised Seahawks games, and – worst of all – insufferable Seahawks fans.
But even more insufferable are the Seahawks players and their role model, coach Pet Carroll.
After every loss, Carroll parades before the cameras and whines about some ref’s call or non-call that stole the game away. But he and his troops outdid themselves last Sunday.
It all went south in Jacksonville. QB Russell Wilson, who threw three interceptions, got completely upstaged by Blake Bortles. The fabled Seattle defense got torched for a 75-yard touchdown pass to a rookie named Keelan Cole. They gave up 21 points in the third quarter. Then, with a chance to get the ball back in the final two minutes, Leonard Fournette ran for a first down on a 3rd-and-11. Embarrassing.
It was all too much for the haughty Seahawks players. As the Jaguars ran off a “victory formation” play to run out the clock, bad boy lineman Michael Bennett dove at the knees of the Jaguars’ center, leading to several wrestling matches – and getting defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson ejected. After order was restored, the second kneel-down was pretty much a repeat – and this time defensive end Quinton Jefferson got tossed. After the second skirmish, Carroll came running out to midfield acting like a maniac, resulting in another flag.
Carroll later claimed, regarding Jefferson, that a fan “poured a beer on his head.” The film shows that some liquid was thrown from a fair distance away in Jefferson’s general direction, missing him by several feet. But it was enough to cause the 291-pounder to go berserk and repeatedly try to climb into the stands, fending off security personnel as he did so.
Retired QB Donovan McNabb later claimed that the fan could have “possibly knocked his eye out,” and blowhard commentator Stephen A. Smith added that the fan who “provoked” Jefferson needs to be arrested and charged.
The rage expressed by Jefferson was really just a sideshow. The real provocation took place on the field when the Seahawks twice crashed into the Jaguars’ kneel-down formation.
It’s pretty safe to assume the commish will slap some wrists, and maybe fine a few millionaires a few thousand dollars, but nothing more.
All I can add is this is not an aberration – it’s the way the Seahawks have behaved ever since Pete Carroll was named head coach in 2010. They’re sore losers.
And yes, going back further, it’s the same Pete Carroll who fled USC when the NCAA announced sanctions against that football program that included a two-year bowl ban, the loss of 30 football scholarships, and forfeiture of several football victories from 2004-05 and 2005-06; the latter team originally had gone undefeated.
The two things I enjoy the most about football: watching the Packers win and watching the Seahawks lose!