Hawks D takes one more hit
The Legion of Doom? This season it has become the Legion of Injury Gloom.
After losing star cornerback Richard Sherman for the season to a torn Achilles in a Nov. 9 win at Arizona, reports on Saturday said Pro Bowl strong safety Kam Chancellor also is gone for the season with a neck injury, suffered in the same game.
Although Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on Saturday issued a tepid denial, saying those reports were premature, he denied neither the seriousness of the situation nor the nature of the injury.
“I don’t even know where (the reports are) coming from. I don’t know,” Carroll said.
“We’re still looking at what our options are, and we’ll continue to do that and re-evaluate what’s going on. We’re working very closely with him on that. That’s it.”
Asked specifically if the club has concerns Chancellor’s injury could be more than merely seasonending, Carroll said: “We’ll wait and see. We’ll just wait and see. We’re working through it, like I said, and we’re hanging together and just trying to talk our way through it, and not have to do anything any faster than we have to. We’ll just wait and see.”
Would the Seahawks make a roster move before Monday night’s home game against the defending NFC champion Atlanta Falcons (8:30 p.m. EST, TSN via ESPN)?
“Not yet. Maybe something, but not yet,” Carroll said.
At least the third veteran member of Seattle’s “Legion of Doom” secondary — free safety Earl Thomas — will play against the aerially dangerous Atlanta Falcons.
He missed Seattle’s past two games with a hamstring injury, and is a leading candidate for the NFL’s comeback player of the year, after breaking a leg late last season yet still playing at an all-pro level before injuring his hammy.
“Obviously we are going to miss Sherm,” Thomas said this past week.
“We are going to miss Sherm and Kam. You can’t replace those guys. But the good thing about those two guys, they’ve taught the younger guys that are going to be in their spots. I think we are going to be very prepared, and I like our chances.”
Seattle is 6-3, in second place in the NFC West behind the Los Angeles Rams. Atlanta more desperately needs the victory, as the Falcons are 5-4, behind both the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers in the NFC South.