Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was disappointed to find out he was fined for not wearing a mask throughout Sunday's win over the New England Patriots.
But even more than he was disappointed about the NFL lightening his wallet, Carroll was disappointed in himself for not doing a better job with what he knows is a serious issue.
Throughout the ramp-up period to training camp, Seahawks players and coaches were diligent about mask-wearing even during on-field workouts, and coaches and staff have kept it up in practice ever since. But during the excitement of game day, with all the communication going on, Carroll at times has let his guard—and his mask—down during games.
As a result, the NFL fined Carroll along with, according to reports, San Francisco's Kyle Shanahan, Denver's Vic Fangio, New Orleans' Sean Payton and Las Vegas' Jon Gruden for not having his mask on throughout the game. But what bothers Carroll most is that didn't set a better example.
"I had a coach who was reminding me about it throughout the game, (running backs coach) Chad Morton was on my ass the whole night. He was reminding me the whole time," Carroll said. "I even changed masks at halftime to find one that worked better. Sometimes you've got to get coached up. Sometimes you have to admit that that you screwed up and have got to do better."
Like every NFL team, the Seahawks have taken COVID-19 protocols very seriously, and as a result they have not had a single player on the reserve/COVID-19 list other than receiver John Ursua, who was briefly out of action during training camp due to a false positive. League-wide, there were no positive tests among players after administering 36,664 tests to 7,845 players during the week of September 13-19, the league announced Tuesday, and only five positive cases among other league personnel out of 22,590 tests administered.
"We wear masks all day at practice, we wear them around the building," Carroll said. "I know it's extremely important to wear masks. Sometimes you've just got to be reminded. Sometimes you've got to get coached up."
