RENTON — When it comes to the difficulties of a 2-11 season, the Seattle Seahawks are an open book. They’ll welcome questions about what has gone wrong, why, and how it feels.
But there is one subject that clamps up mouths like a goal-line defense: Richie Incognito.
“I’ve got to choose my words carefully,” defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said when asked about the St. Louis Rams’ controversial offensive lineman Wednesday.
Defensive back Jordan Babineaux gave a sheepish grin while taking about 10 seconds to think of how to respond.
“When you watch him on film,” Babineaux finally said Wednesday afternoon, “let’s just say he’s carrying his reputation.”
Incognito’s reputation precedes him. The 25-year-old guard has been flagged for several unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties during a four-year career, and Incognito hit a new low — or should we say high? — earlier this season when the NFL fined him $35,000 for three incidents in a win over Washington. He was also caught yelling at the hometown fans and making an obscene gesture to a television reporter during the course of this season.
“Does he go outside the box sometimes? Sure, who doesn’t?” Rams teammate Torry Holt said during a Wednesday conference call. “We don’t know from the outside, as a puny receiver and as sport writers, what is going on inside those trenches. We try to do the best job we can to calm him and keep everything in between the whistle.”
The Seahawks know about Incognito’s antics better than most. In a 2006 game against Seattle, he was flagged for a pair of costly penalties within a few minutes of each other to cost St. Louis a two-point conversion and give the Seahawks good field position in setting up the game-winning drive.
Seahawks linebacker Julian Peterson told reporters from The Associated Press and The Tacoma News Tribune on Wednesday that Incognito twisted a Seahawks player’s ankle in a pile.
“In the last game we played him, I thought he did a lot of dirty stuff,” Peterson said.
Bernard said this week that the Seahawks have to be careful not to get caught up in Incognito’s game.
“You’ve just got to be smart out there,” said Bernard, who accused Incognito of poking him in the eye during a 2007 game. “You don’t want to hurt your teammates, first of all. You go out there and try not to get involved in a lot of cheap shots. You just play the game as fairly as you can and try not to worry about it.”
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