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| One of the most embarrassing Super Bowl moments....EVER |
But they could go down as the loser in another way. Not only will the Seahawks go down as having lost the game, they can claim a title that no one has worn before, the Super Bowl's first ever ejection. With 18 seconds left to play and the Patriots running out the clock, post-play pushing and shoving boiled over into a brief fight between the two teams. Several players were involved by the time it ended, but the officials identified Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin as the instigator and ejected him from the game.
"I was protecting a teammate, emotions flew," Irvin said Sunday night. "I saw somebody hit Mike Bennett, so I went and backed up my brother. I went about it wrong. Emotions were flying high, and I apologize.
"But if it happened again, I would go protect my teammate. That's just how it is."
Patriots guard Ryan Wendell and Irvin were shoving back and forth in the back of the end zone. With the officials focused on the pile of players in the middle of the field, Irvin and Patriots tight end Michael Hoomanawanui were locked up. Irvin threw Hoomanawanui to the ground as players were separated.
Three times Irvin went to Twitter to express his feelings and offer some sort of apology. His last remark went like this. "Still not an excuse and I'm truly sorry to all the 12's and my Wvu family for my actions". The Wvu stands for West Virginia University. And they, of course, had seen Irvin in action before. He has been less than a model citizen and now you can put less than a model professional football player in that same sentence.
Here's a look back....
May 23, 2007
The day Irvin and two others broke into a drug dealer's house in suburban Atlanta. After dropping out of high school, he fell in with people who were tumbling like himself – the kind of people his mother warned him would "laugh at you when you are down and out."
All rational thought was gone, though. He didn't much consider the consequences when he entered the home. Nothing mattered besides the money. He and two others robbed the house and escaped, not realizing that the person next door saw them and called the police.
It didn't take long for Irvin to be arrested and hauled to the police station where he was charged with burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. Then he was thrown into jail where he sat for two-plus weeks. "I thought I was done," he says.
March 18, 2012
The day he got arrested, again. A silly thing perhaps: misdemeanor charges of destruction of property and disorderly conduct. According to the police report, Irvin knocked a magnetic Pita Pit sandwich shop sign off the top of a delivery car. He was arrested when the driver said the sign was damaged.
Irvin will not discuss the incident publicly, even to correct an erroneous report that he had shattered a sign inside a Jimmy John's shop. The most he has said came two days after his arrest when he posted on his Twitter account: "If u honestly believe I would blow my chances destroying jimmy johns after all the hard work I put in to get in my situation ur crazy!"
It would seem to me, that I'm crazy. Because he hasn't learned. After the opportunities that Irvin has had.....he has been a continual abuser in the system. The Seahawks took the linebacker/defensive end in the 1st round of the 2012 draft, the 15th player chosen overall. He was, by all accounts, expected to be a fixture with the the Seahawks. Now, I'm not so sure. If......and that's a big "if", the National Football League wants to change its image and hold players accountable for their actions on and off the field, they need to step up and use Irvin's knucklehead actions as an example. When you consider the number of young people watching the Super Bowl, the end of the game brawl was a black eye on the sport, to say the least.
Yes, Bruce Irvin has a lot of growing up to do. But so does a number of his teammates, namely Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Baldwin. Their attitude on the game leaves a lot to be desired. But perhaps they have acceptance from someone who looks the other way.....in the name of winning. Pete Carroll has a history of running a shadowy program. Can you say USC? And as Pete likes to say "any notoriety is good, I guess".
If that's the way you want to be remembered Pete, so be it. Hopefully, the NFL has other thoughts and the dark side of the game becomes a thing of the the past. The Super Bowl had so many good things to offer.....the brawl did not.
Thanks for reading,
John
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