The Seattle Seahawks have been fined $US400,000 ($A530,000) by the National Football League and will forfeit their fifth-round selection in the 2017 draft for violating off-season workout rules.
Advertisement
The decision was to discipline the team again came after the National Football League and the players union independently reviewed video of the June 6 practice and determined the club had violated the “no-live-contact” rule. The incident happened on June 6 during an OTA.
For the third time since 2012, the Seattle Seahawks have been penalized for violating the National Football League and NFLPA’s rules forbidding excessive contact in offseason workouts.
This is actually the third time the Seahawks have violated the CBA’s “no-contact” rules under Carroll. The draft choice could be particularly significant, given Seattle’s success of uncovering elite talent in the later rounds.
The NFL announced the sanctions Monday morning. Coach Pete Carroll has also been fined $200,000.
More notably among the Seahawks active fifth-round draft picks are safety Kam Chancellor, cornerback Richard Sherman, and tight end Luke Wilson.
Carroll said he believes the sanctions – the worst of which for Seattle was losing the draft pick – were tougher because the Seahawks are repeat offenders of this offseason-contact rule.
Advertisement
Carroll said the two players “both got banged in the head pretty good” on the play in question. Should Seattle try to play with fire and further allow players to participate in contract drills during OTAs, the league will come down hard on the organization. The team was fined an undisclosed amount in 2012 and had to forfeit two OTA sessions. We’ve had guys get suspended from practice, because of efforts that we thought were out of line and stuff like that.
