When Richard Sherman learned that the NFL could take away the Seahawks' second-round draft pick for the team's failure to disclose his MCL injury for much of the season, he called the possible punishment "foolishness." It turns out, the NFL isn't so foolish after all.
According to NFL.com's Mike Garafolo, the Seahawks won't be docked a draft pick. Instead, the NFL simply issued a warning.
Violation deemed to result from misinterpretation of rules (Sherman practiced fully.) If future violation, this one will be taken into acct.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) February 14, 2017
The controversy didn't begin until after the season, when Pete Carroll revealed that his star cornerback played a substantial chunk of the season with an MCL injury. That got the NFL's attention, because Sherman didn't show up on any injury reports with a knee injury during the year. So, the NFL decided to investigate if the Seahawks hid Sherman's injury.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported at the time that the Seahawks could even lose a second-round pick.
"I heard some foolishness like that. That's just unfortunate," Sherman said last month, via ESPN. "I think they kind of are a little too hard on our team for no reason. I think if there's other teams that kind of just got docked for the same thing, so it's going to be curious how they treat the other teams."
The NFL's decision to simply warn the Seahawks could bode well for the Steelers. The NFL is reportedly investigating them for their handling of Le'Veon Bell's groin injury.
