Seattle Seahawks’ Pete Carroll says NFL ‘opened up a bit of a can of worms’ with emphasis on taunting rule

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8:50 PM ET

  • Brady HendersonESPN

SEATTLE — Seahawks mentor Pete Carroll suggests he respects what the NFL is hoping to achieve by much more strictly implementing the taunting rule, but he thinks the league has “opened up a bit of a can of worms” by penalizing steps that can be tough for gamers to suddenly stay clear of amid the emotions of a game.

“You have acquired a large amount of men that have to deal with individuals explosive moments and they’ve acquired to really transform their emphasis away from the opponent,” Carroll said Monday. “It truly is a superior imagined. It’s just difficult to manage it.”

The taunting rule isn’t really new, but the NFL has manufactured its enforcement a level of emphasis for officials in 2021. The 11 taunting penalties named as a result of the very first two weeks currently equals the complete from the whole 2020 common season, according to ESPN Stats & Facts exploration. There were nine in 2019.

The Seahawks have been flagged for taunting twice in two video games: receiver DK Metcalf in the opener and cornerback D.J. Reed on Sunday.

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Carroll’s comments had been in response to the a single on Reed, which arrived in the fourth quarter of Seattle’s overtime decline to the Tennessee Titans. Right after effectively defending a deep ball that fell incomplete, Reed pumped his arms though searching at receiver A.J. Brown — a regime celebration that would have absent unpenalized in latest seasons.

Carroll’s difficulty was with the rule alone, not the official’s choice to flag Reed on that play. Robust basic safety Jamal Adams shared a equivalent sentiment postgame even though contacting the penalty “ticky-tack.”

“Arrive on, man,” Adams said. “You might be using the passion and the emotions out of the video game of soccer. At the close of the day, that’s the rule. We have to engage in smarter.”

Carroll cited yet another second from Sunday’s game as an example of how to steer clear of remaining penalized for taunting. He stated an unknown participant “produced a really aggressive movement” after a person play but had his body a bit turned absent from the opponent, so it did not appear as though he was directing his celebration at any one.

“What we are conversing about is generally celebrate with your teammates and we’ve been training it and creating a huge offer about it mainly because it is a person of the major new things that they’ve emphasised, and as often, that is what they contact,” he mentioned. “So I don’t assume it truly is lousy for the game. I just think it really is hard for the guys to do in the moment. They’ve just received to understand and teach and we have acquired to do a greater job. I have to do a much better work of placing us in predicaments and generating certain we are monitoring it genuinely diligently and encouraging our men teach.”

Reed’s penalty was a single of 5 15-yard infractions by the Seahawks towards Tennessee. In all, they fully commited 10 penalties for 100 yards.