PHOENIX -- Let’s take a break from beating up the New England Patriots and go after the real villains in Super Bowl XLIX — the Seattle Seahawks. Pete Carroll is a more detestable coach than Bill Belichick. Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman and Doug Baldwin are more dislikable players than Tom Brady. Even the Seattle fans are more obnoxious than Patriots fans. Remember their crybabying after Super Bowl XL?
Doesn’t it just make you sick that one of the teams has to win the big game Sunday night?
It will be hard to watch Carroll hoist the Lombardi Trophy for the second consecutive season. A Seattle win would match the two national championships he won at Southern California in 2003 and 2004. That second title at USC has an asterisk, though. The NCAA vacated the Trojans’ final two wins in 2004 and their 12 wins in 2005 when it came down on the program for giving players improper benefits. That scandal led to star running back Reggie Bush giving back the Heisman Trophy he won in 2005.
And they say Belichick plays loose with the rules?
What’s most galling about Carroll is that he bailed out on USC to take the Seattle job and the millions that went with it in January 2010, about five months before the NCAA sanctions. Of course, he has said he never would have left if he knew the program was going to take such a hard hit. “I’m absolutely shocked and disappointed in the findings of the NCAA … I would have stayed there to do what we needed to do to resolve the problem.”
And they say Belichick plays loose with the truth?
Trouble seems to follow Carroll. In his tenure at Seattle, at least six players have had issues with performance-enhancing drugs or the NFL’s substance-abuse program. A seventh — Sherman — appealed the results of his test for PEDs in 2012 and beat the league. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the Seahawks have won so much.
Sherman is a terrific player, an All-Pro player three years running, the best cornerback in the league. Humility doesn’t prevent him from pointing that out. He is the face of the look-at-me NFL.
Sherman became famous last season after the NFC championship when he verbally attacked San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree after breaking up a game-saving pass for Crabtree in the end zone. “When you try that with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get,” he told Fox in an on-field interview. He was pretty disgusting.
Baldwin delivered the notable rant after the Seahawks came from way down to beat the Green Bay Packers in this season’s NFC championship. “Angry Doug Baldwin,” his teammates call him and think he’s amusing. First, he called out national broadcasters and Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Cris Carter for questioning the Seattle wide receivers, then he threw an X-rated tirade at media outside the Seahawks locker room for having the nerve to doubt the Seattle team. He was really disgusting.
But Sherman and Baldwin are sweet guys compared to Lynch. The NFL has threatened to penalize the Seahawks 15 yards if he scores a touchdown in the Super Bowl and celebrates by grabbing his crotch. The ever-diligent Carroll has promised to discuss the situation with Lynch. You can’t make up this stuff. The league fined Lynch $20,000 for grabbing his crotch after he scored a late touchdown against the Packers and fined him $11,050 for doing the same thing after a touchdown earlier this season. This seems to be a trend with the Seahawks. Wide receiver Chris Matthews also was fined $11,050 for grabbing his own crotch after Lynch’s touchdown against Green Bay. All of this is beyond disgusting.
Here’s the best part: The NFL started selling NFC championship posters for $150 after the Seattle win with Lynch’s crotch-grab as one of the featured pictures. Predictably and not for the first time, the league was accused of hypocrisy. It quickly pulled the poster, admitting it made “a mistake.”
Imagine that.
It has been some build-up to Super Bowl XLIX, right?
In a perverse way, the NFL probably is happy we’re talking so much about deflated footballs and crotch-grabbing. Otherwise, we would be talking about concussions and domestic abuse. Roger Goodell wants that?
Today is media day. Everyone will be watching Lynch. No, not for that. To see if he actually, you know, says something intelligent. He has been fined $100,000 for not meeting league-mandated media requirements.
“We do our talk with our play,” helpful teammate Russell Okung offered.
The Seahawks do that very well. No one will be surprised if Carroll, Lynch, Sherman and the others bring a second Super Bowl title back to Seattle. Seahawks fans figure they have that coming. They still are whining that their team should have won Super Bowl XL against the Steelers after the 2005 season. Mike Holmgren, the Seattle coach that day, summed up their feelings when he said, “We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn’t know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts, as well.”
Please.
And they say they’re poor losers in New England.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: January 27, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
