When news broke yesterday that Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks had been fined $300k for a violation of off-season non-contact rules, details on what caused the fine and sparked an NFLPA investigation were scarce.
Today, more information has started to come out on why exactly Seattle was being investigated in the first place. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, report of a fight between All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman and wide receiver Bryan Walters in June jump-started the investigation.
Coach Pete Carroll had to stop practice in order to restore order.
The NFLPA caught wind of the situation via TV reports of the altercation. At that point, the NFLPA asked the Seahawks to surrender the video of all offseason practices.
Inspection of the footage resulted in the union concluding that the practice was “way too aggressive,” per the source. Aggression was detected not simply on one or two plays but for the entire practice. While the penalties reportedly cover only the day of the fight evidence of excessive aggressiveness was spotted over multiple days of the minicamp.
Anyone who watched the Hawks rough up the Broncos during their Super Bowl win probably isn’t surprised that the team is overly-aggressive in practice. Too bad it cost the team a cool $300,000 though.