The Seahawks were stripped of two 2015 minicamp practices and the team and Pete Carroll were fine a total of more than $300,000 for “excessive levels of on-field physical contact” during a June minicamp.
A day later, Carroll spoke on the punishment, which he confirmed was related to the fight between Phil Bates and Richard Sherman on June 18.
“The first year they had some question with how we worked,” Carroll said, referencing when his team had practice days stripped in 2012, the first year under the league’s new CBA. “Then we had a great last year. We took from last year and tried to do things better than last year with the same tone and the same thought. They decided otherwise when they looked at the film or something that we had a couple incidents that they took note of.”
“In our minicamp there was an incident they took note to. I’m really disappointed, because we don’t want to be doing things wrong, we want to do things right, and I’d like to show exactly how to do it. When you’re competing like we do—we’re trying to do things the best you can possibly do it, so unfortunately this decision makes it look otherwise.”
Asked if he thought the punishment was fair, Carroll said, “I’m not making any statement about that.”
After if he thought the league was singling the Seahawks out, Carroll said, “I don’t feel like the victim, I don’t at all. I think we practice in a manner that draws attention, and we have for a long time. I go to a year ago, and halfway through this camp when they observed what was going on, they said everything was just fine, so we kept going and kept working, and I was really pleased with that. But unfortunately it went otherwise when we go to minicamp.”
And finally, when Carroll was asked about the explanation he got from the league, he said, “I haven’t read the letter yet, to tell you the truth, I didn’t get a chance to.”
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