One Seattle Seahawks player got out of a big fine.
The player in question is Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett, who was flagged for taking a shot at Jaguars center Brandon Linder‘s knee late in Seattle’s loss at Jacksonville on Sunday.
It was Bennett who started an ugly chain of events that saw players on both teams flagged for personal fouls, two Seahawks ejected
NFL Media reported that the league bought Bennett’s explanation, as relayed by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, that Bennett was just trying to swipe the ball as Linder snapped it to Blake Bortles for the kneeldown at the end of the game.
“Yeah, he did what I said he did,” Carroll said Friday, via Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times. “That’s what happened there and then they got tangled up a little bit.’’
Bennett may have been initially attempting to swipe the ball the instant Linder snapped it to Bortles.
But that doesn’t explain why Bennett then continued rolling into Linder’s knee, long after Bortles had taken the snap and kneeled down, as Linder attempted to get away from Bennett to protect himself from injury.
The NFL also apparently thinks commentator Daryl Johnston was hallucinating when he described what Bennett did while FOX showed a replay.
“Michael Bennett rolling into Brandon Linder — that’s what started everything, right there,” Johnston said. “And then he comes back and hits him again. So this tape is gonna be reviewed by the NFL.
They didn’t get Michael Bennett out of the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something from the league that comes down on Michael Bennett because that’s disrespect to an opponent on the field. There’s no place in this game for that.”
“Honestly, I think if you dive at someone else’s legs, you’re a little [expletive],” Bennett said. “If you are big in the NFL, you just line up and play — why you got to cut someone on the [expletive] play?
I mean, I don’t know. That [expletive] is just stupid to me. Why cut somebody when you can just line up and win? I don’t know. I don’t come off the ball jumping at offensive linemen’s legs.’’