Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman said he thinks fantasy football has caused fans to view injuries to players more impersonally.
The Seahawks’ 46-18 win over the Colts Sunday night was soured by a few potentially serious injuries, notably what coach Pete Carroll called a “significant” ankle injury to rookie running back Chris Carson.
Carson was carted off the field after his ankle was placed in an air cast.
The severity remained unknown, Carroll said, pending an MRI. But seeing the player who has gone from seventh-round pick to starter suffer an injury that could keep him out an extended time shook up some of the team’s players.
It also compelled cornerback Richard Sherman to unleash some strong thoughts on what he feels can be an impersonal view of players by fans — and specifically fantasy football players — when he was asked about the injury.
“It’s devastating,” Sherman said of the injury. “This is really devastating. I think a lot of people, a lot of fans out there have looked at players less like people because of fantasy football and things like that. You go and say ‘oh, man this guy got hurt.’ But you aren’t thinking ‘hey man, this guy got hurt, he’s really physically hurt and he is going to take some time to recover and it’s probably going to affect his mental state and now he has a long rigorous rehab.’
“You are thinking ‘oh man, he’s messing up my fantasy team.’ They don’t care about how it affects your fantasy team because they are really players — this is real life. This is real life and this is their real job. that is affecting their well-being. Now your fantasy team may not win and hey, guess what? You’ll live the next day. This is their well-being. They may not ever get another shot. They may never get another down, another play.
“I think that is why it is so devastating for players.”
Sherman then said he’d heard that Carson may not be as badly injured as was originally thought.
“Just trying to be optimistic in this situation,” he said. “But it is terrible when you see things like that because we know the guys personally and a lot of times the fans know us from the surface and wear 32 and he is running the all and he is doing good for my fantasy team. But they don’t think about the effects that an injury will have to a guy’s mental capacity and his family and what his mom and girlfriend and wife might be going through.”