The Earl Thomas saga continues to drag on, and opinions remain divided regarding the Seattle Seahawks’ disgruntled star free safety.
This week’s Seattle Sidelines poll revisited Thomas’ situation following last Sunday’s game, when Thomas played a big role in the Seahawks’ 24-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys by intercepting two passes, then reiterated his dissatisfaction with the situation, essentially saying he was boycotting practice until he’s traded or given a contract extension.
Therefore, this week’s poll asked readers to weigh in once more on what the Seahawks should do about Thomas. I was curious to see whether opinions had changed based on Thomas ending his holdout, playing like his usual self, but continuing to agitate. Here’s how you voted:
POLL: What should the Seahawks do about Earl Thomas? Full context, as well as a look at where the rift stands between Thomas and the team, here: https://t.co/xcLT0r0vlK
— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) September 24, 2018
Add the two together and the votes are all over the map. It was nearly an even split between giving Thomas his contract extension (32 percent), trading him (31 percent) and keeping him and playing him (27 percent). Another 10 percent voted for sanctioning Thomas in some manner.
Another way of looking at it is it’s about a 60-40 split of voters saying Thomas is worth the distraction versus not worth it, as the combined keep him/pay him vote equals 59 percent while the combined trade him/sanction him vote is 41 percent.
All of which says the Seattle fan base remains conflicted about Thomas.
This isn’t the first time I’ve posed the Earl Thomas question to the readers. Back in June Thomas announced he was holding out from minicamp, and his holdout lasted right up until the regular season began. I asked readers at the time how they thought the Seahawks should handle the situation. In that poll 35 percent voted to trade Thomas, 33 percent voted to have him play out his contract, and 32 percent voted to give him a contract extension.
So more than three months have transpired, with Thomas’ story taking several twists and turns between then and now, but based on these poll results it seems Seahawks fans haven’t changed their minds that much about what should happen. There’s no telling if people have switched where they stand on the position, but the relative raw totals are about the same.
It doesn’t seem like Thomas has changed his mind about practice. He missed two practices last week for non-injury related reasons, and he again sat out Wednesday’s practice with what was listed as a non-injury related reason. Meanwhile, trade rumors continue to circulate, though every time a team is connected with Thomas someone from that team’s organization responds by throwing cold water on the rumor.
In the meantime, with Thomas likely to keep skipping practices but play in games, we’re going to find out just how important practicing is for a veteran NFL player.
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