RENTON — On Tuesday, the Seahawks opened their doors to the Marysville Pilchuck football team, letting the Tomahawks practice in their indoor facility. Now the Seahawks will honor Marysville Pilchuck High School during Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders.
Seahawks players will wear “MP” decals on their helmets to honor the school where a deadly shooting took place on Oct. 24. Coaches, staff and inactive players will wear “MP” lapel pins, and a moment of silence will take place prior to the national anthem.
Additionally, there will be oversized cards for fans to sign in Touchdown City and at the north end of the west plaza, then those cards will be delivered to Marysville Pilchuck next week.
Not only did the Tomahawks practice at Seahawks headquarters this week, but Oak Harbor is expected to do so next week. In a touching display of sportsmanship, the Wildcats offered to forfeit last week’s game against Marysville Pilchuck rather than making the Tomahawks reschedule it, and in doing so Oak Harbor gave up the top seed in the Wesco 3A North to Marysville Pilchuck.
“It does speak to the power of sport and how it is such a unifying element in our culture, and you can just see it in this local community,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said earlier in the week. “I know that (the Tomahawks) will be a big factor in how everybody comes back to normal life and all. It was very powerful.
“They have a lot of responsibility on them in that they’re kind of carrying the spirit for their area. They’re somewhat of a rallying point, I would think, and they’re really up for the challenge.”
Injury update
In case Seattle’s injury list wasn’t long enough, two more important names were added to it on Friday, with strong safety Kam Chancellor (groin) and left tackle Russell Okung (calf) both expected to be game-day decisions.
On Chancellor, who has already been dealing with hip and ankle injuries this season, Carroll said, “He’s banged up a little bit, we’ll see what happens. He’ll be worked out on game day to see if he can go.”
Carroll said Okung will also be evaluated on game-day. If Okung can’t play, Alvin Bailey would be his replacement. The situation is a bit trickier at safety if Chancellor can’t play, because his backup, Jeron Johnson, is out with a concussion. DeShawn Shead and Steven Terrell are the only other healthy safeties on the roster aside from starting free safety Earl Thomas, so it would not be a surprise if Seattle made a move Saturday to address depth at safety, the most likely move being to promote Terrance Parks off the practice squad.
The better news for Seattle is that starting center Max Unger could make it back this week after missing the past three games with a foot injury.
“Max is going to dress, he made it through the week, so that’s a real good sign,” Carroll said. “We’ll see how much he can play, but we’re happy to have him back out there.”
Both Unger and his backup, Stephen Schilling (knee), are listed as questionable.
“Steve Schilling will dress for the game also, and we’ll see how he does,” Carroll said. “We took good care of him during the week here, but he’ll be ready to go out there.”
After getting the day off Thursday, both cornerback Richard Sherman (back) and defensive lineman Michael Bennett (toe) were back at practice and are good to go, Carroll said.
As expected, the Seahawks will be without Zach Miller, Bobby Wagner, Byron Maxwell, Jordan Hill, Johnson and Malcolm Smith, who have all been ruled out.
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