A little fighting won't hurt
It’s not quite the drama in the daytime that an afternoon of watching Turner Network Television, but you can’t help but wonder when it comes to some of the fighting that fans have seen on the Seattle Seahawks sidelines in the past year.
From Richard Sherman getting into it with teammates to Frank Clark punching a lineman during Thursday’s practices in Renton, things haven’t been that quiet in Hawkville lately.
DOES THAT mean that the players are drifting apart, and there’s some that can’t stand each other?
No way.
Since coach Pete Carroll arrived in Seattle, he’s preached to his players and the fans that each day is another chance to compete on the field.
Are you surprised that fights happen when players eventually start taking a swing at each other when they’ve been doing nothing but beating up on themselves? Absolutely not.
What does surprise me is that this doesn’t happen more often.
Football is an intense sport, something that isn’t something that you can just wake up one day and be good at. It takes work, whether that’s lifting weights after practice to get stronger, or working in practice to run a play perfectly on the day of a game.
Eventually, the games will begin next week, and the speculation can begin on who’s going to make the team and who’s going to be looking for work come September.
And once again, fans will actually have something to talk about other than who’s not talking to who.
EARLIER THIS week, Seattle and Kam Chancellor agreed to a contract extension that will keep him with the team for at least the 2020 season.
Some might say that it was a mistake, with Chancellor suffering some injuries the past couple of years.
But without him, as well as guys like Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner and Michael Bennett, chances are that the team doesn’t lead the NFL in scoring defense the past four years.
A few years ago, Chancellor held out for more money, didn’t get it, and arrived a few weeks into the season after the Seahawks had started 1-2 and helped them get back to the playoffs.
Last year, Thomas was injured late in the season, and the defense didn’t look like itself as the team advanced to the playoffs, but lost the Divisional round to eventual NFC champion Atlanta.
This year could be a large year when it comes to the Seahawks, whether that means they start to make some business decisions about players moving forward, and just where the team is heading in the future.
If the first week of training camp is any indication, this team is going to fight until they’re finished.
And apparently that extends to whoever is in the way.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.