RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks like to talk about how competitive their practices are. That got taken to a different level during Wednesday’s minicamp, when a fight broke out between cornerback Richard Sherman and receiver Phil Bates. ADVERTISING RENTON,
RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks like to talk about how competitive their practices are. That got taken to a different level during Wednesday’s minicamp, when a fight broke out between cornerback Richard Sherman and receiver Phil Bates.
The stage for the fight was set when receivers took exception at safety Earl Thomas going to the ground with receiver Bryan Walters along the sideline after Walters made a catch the play before.
Walters stayed down and eventually had his arm in a sling as he walked off the field.
That led to jawing between the receiving corps and the secondary, particularly between receiver Doug Baldwin and Sherman. On the next play, Bates and Sherman locked up while Bates was blocking Sherman down the field. Bates’ helmet eventually came off and punches were thrown as teammates rushed in to break it up.
“Guys here are different,” Thomas said. “We’re never satisfied. We’re always trying to prove who we are, and it always gets heated like this. And you love it because the whole competition of everybody is raised.”
He added, “We’re all so competitive, if you press one wrong button, everybody will clear the benches.”
The tension didn’t end there. Baldwin and receiver Percy Harvin, who stopped practicing a few plays before the fight, kept yelling at Sherman and Thomas as practice resumed.
The Seahawks had a team meeting in the middle of the field before returning to practice. Coach Pete Carroll didn’t talk to the media, as was planned before practice.
“It was just to keep focused,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “We let little things get out of hand a little bit, but it was just to remain focused and understand why we’re out here. We’re out here to get better. We did that. I feel like we got better.”
Later in the practice, Sherman picked off Russell Wilson deep down the sideline. He ran the ball back down the field and flipped it underhand to Wilson while yelling at him. An offensive player then tossed the ball at Sherman’s head as the two sides kept yelling.
By the end of practice, most of the players involved in the fight had talked to each other and were joking, and Bates and Sherman patted each other on the head. Harvin came over and spent the last part of practice standing along the sideline with the defensive backs.
“Really they are such a tight group of guys that they don’t want to give an inch sometimes, both offensively and defensively,” defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. “Most good teams are close and tight where they can practice like that. They were just having fun.”
Said cornerback Byron Maxwell, “That’s a beautiful thing right there, man. That’s just fun. That’s just us playing ball right there. Sometimes it goes and it gets physical, but we’re all brothers. We understand it’s just like that for that moment. It’s not really like that.”
