RENTON, Wash. — Richard Sherman felt good enough on Wednesday to break out his Halloween costume a little early, donning a cape, grabbing a wand, and presenting a very authentic Harry Potter look.
It was a drastic difference from late Sunday night and into Monday morning when Sherman was suffering from dehydration and fatigue on the flight back to Seattle after being on the field for nearly 100 plays and more than 46 minutes of game time in the Seahawks’ 6-6 tie with the Arizona Cardinals.
“Five quarters of football is pretty tough. But Quidditch — the Beaters, the Chasers, trying to find the Golden Snitch — is tough,” Sherman said Wednesday. “Five quarters of football, though, in that element, that takes the cake.”
In all seriousness, Sunday’s tie with Arizona left the Seahawks defenders exhausted. Never before had a Seattle defense been on the field longer and the effects were notable.
Between special teams and defense, strong safety Kelcie McCray was on the field for 108 plays, the most of any player in the NFL this season. Linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright were on the field for 102 total plays. Sherman and Earl Thomas played 99 plays and DeShawn Shead was in for all 95 defensive snaps.
It was an exhausting experience and three days later those involved were still trying to recover.
“I didn’t know how much it was but I did know it was a long time,” McCray said.
Arizona held the ball for 46 minutes, 21 seconds Sunday. According to the Seahawks, that was the 11th-highest total for any regular-season game since time of possession was first tracked in 1977. Sherman wasn’t the only one who needed IV fluids. Wagner left at one point during the game to get fluids in the locker room and missed only one play.
Sherman seemed to have the most side effects from the game, being told afterward he was suffering effects of heat exhaustion. Sherman said it wasn’t until Tuesday night that he started to feel normal again.
“They said I had a fever, but I had the shivers. It was bad, bad stuff,” Sherman said. “Probably around the third quarter, third quarter my legs started locking up. After a while you just kind of deal with it. Got to finish the game.”
Sherman’s body seemed to fail him on one play in particular in overtime where he attempted to undercut a throw for J.J. Nelson but couldn’t get any push from his legs to break up the play. Nelson caught the pass and if not for McCray’s effort to tackle him inside the 5, the game would have been over.
“At first I thought it was going to be a touchdown. I was like ‘this guy is about to score, game over.’ I just ran as fast as I (could) and gave everything I could to get him down,” McCray said.
Coach Pete Carroll revamped his Monday schedule to give players a few extra hours of sleep and some of the key contributors were expected to get a lighter amount of practice time this week in preparation for a long road trip to New Orleans.
“Right from the beginning leaving the locker room, we were talking making sure that throughout the next couple days that rest is really important, eating properly and getting everything all balanced back again,” Carroll said. “We’ve been all over that. That kicks us really back to today, we’re in pretty normal mode, but we’re still accounting for those guys that had the big workloads and we’re going to take that into account as we measure the reps during the course of the week.”
NOTES: Seattle is still unsure who will start at left tackle. Bradley Sowell suffered an MCL sprain in his right knee on Sunday but was trying to convince Carroll and the training staff he could play. Rookie George Fant, rookie Rees Odhiambo and veteran J’Marcus Webb are the likely candidates if Sowell is held out. … Seattle released veteran RB C.J. Spiller and signed FB Will Tukuafu on Wednesday.
