National Football League

Richard Sherman was playing hurt, and the Seahawks never reported it

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:08 p.m. ET

Fansided, Keith Myers/FanSided via 12th Man Rising

Seattle Seahawks corner Richard Sherman has been playing with a torn MCL, and the team conveniently forgot to tell anyone about it.

Pete Carroll dropped a bombshell on his regular Monday radio appearance on 710 ESPN this morning. It turns out that cornerback Richard Sherman was playing with a significant injury for most of this season.

According to Carroll, Sherman was playing with the same knee injury that Russell Wilson earlier in the season. Wilson had a sprained MCL, so we can assume Sherman was also playing with a sprained MCL.

Carroll says Richard Sherman dealt with a ‘significant knee’ the entire season, says it was the same Russell had, was frustrating #Seahawks

— Jessamyn McIntyre (@JessamynMcIntyr) January 16, 2017

Playing with a significant knee injury isn’t easy for a QB. It’s downright impossible for a CB. That Sherman continued to play at a high level is pretty damn amazing.

The problem here is that the Seahawks kept this injury a secret until after the season was over. The NFL has rules about that, and they aren’t in the favor of the Seahawks here.

OK, RE: Richard Sherman.

First, this is the NFL’s practice report policy, for those interested. pic.twitter.com/nQNBuZ30Id

— Stephen Cohen (@scohenPI) January 16, 2017

Read the wording of the rule as posted by Stephen Cohen there. Significant injury? Yep. Key player? Yep. There isn’t much room for interpretation on this one.

The Seahawks listed Sherman on the injury report 11 times. Once was for an ankle. The other 10 were “not injury related.” The team never once disclosed that Sherman had a knee issue.

The best-case scenario here is probably a fine. The Seahawks don’t have a history of injury-report manipulation, so a loss of a draft pick shouldn’t be something even considered. Then again, with Roger Goodell in charge, that doesn’t mean anything.

Carroll said that the injury was very frustrating for Sherman. He also said that it was a factor in the blow-ups that occurred on the sidelines and with reporters.

Either way, this is an interesting piece of news for Seahawks fans. It appeared that Sherman wasn’t on top of his game recently. He was still incredible, but not as dominant as we’ve been used to seeing. At least now we know why.