Pete Carroll: Earl Thomas was ‘concerned about Seahawks’ fans’ after comments to Jason Garrett
Dec 26, 2017, 10:52 AM | Updated: 11:05 am
The Seahawks are mostly healthy heading into their regular season finale against the Arizona Cardinals, head coach Pete Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock and Salk during his weekly radio show. Left guard Luke Joeckel, who suffered an injury to his foot, was the team’s only injury in their win over the Cowboys.
“Luke Joeckel hurt his foot a little bit, but other than that we got out clean. We were very, very fortunate so we’ll go into the last game healthy for the most part and raring to go.”
Running back Chris Carson (ankle) isn’t likely to return to practice this week, however.
“He’s not quite there. Didn’t get it, unfortuantely.”
Moore: Earl Thomas stole Seahawks’ thunder with postgame antics
The team’s health, though, wasn’t the biggest story Sunday. All eyes were instead on Seahawks’ safety Earl Thomas, who after the game told Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett: “If y’all got the chance to come get me, come get me.”
“I sat with Earl afterwards and he was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He didn’t think he did anything wrong at all, he didn’t know,” Carroll said. “He was just having fun and he was really excited about the game, he was, you know, rubbing it in a little bit and having a good time with it. And then he just said something into the future. When you read it, it comes across bad.
“He was really concerned about our fans,” Carroll continued. “You know, that was his first thought, ‘Geez, I don’t want to make them think that I don’t love being here,’ and all that, so he said what he could say to try to clear it up.”
When asked about the interaction after the game, Thomas told reporters he was happy in Seattle and only meant that he’d like to return to Texas and play for Dallas should the Seahawks choose to part ways.
“I love being here,” he said. “This is where I started. I’ve built my résumé here. I’ve got Kam (Chancellor) and Sherm (Richard Sherman), coach (Kris) Richard. I don’t want to leave.”
The Seahawks (9-6) kept themselves in the NFC playoff hunt with their win over Dallas, but will need to beat the Cardinals Sunday and will need the Panthers to beat the Falcons to secure the sixth Wild Card spot.
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said of the upcoming matchup: “We know that that’s our homefield. We’re going up there and kicking a**.”
“Bruce gets to say whatever he wants, man” Carroll said with a laugh after hearing the audio. “He can say whatever he wants. I don’t care, bring it on. We’ll go play some football Sunday and figure it out.”
Does it motivate Seattle’s players?
“They might have fun with that.”