Conflicting reports have emerged regarding tensions in the Seattle Seahawks locker room. ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne discussed a potential divide among Seahawks players on "SportsCenter."
"Two sources - one inside the team, one outside of the underachieving 3-3 Seahawks - tell me that much of what was written in Mike Freeman's Bleacher Report column is true," Mayne said. "[Freeman] wrote of turmoil involving since-traded Percy Harvin and the quarterback Russell Wilson that led to a more widespread internal battle pitting those for Russell Wilson and those against. And Freeman surmised on his own an issue among some teammates regarding Wilson that, quote, he isn't black enough. A certain expected behavior based on color, apparently. One of the sources told me, quote, I don't know how he got all that stuff, but it's pretty much true. We do have a divide. We're working on it. Thursday that notion was not presented to Wilson, but over and again, questions came about Harvin's departure."
Mayne's report, if true, is very damaging to Seattle. Freeman, the Bleacher Report columnist mentioned by Mayne, went on to support his report.
"My feeling on this - and it's backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players - is that some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough."
However, Mayne was incorrect when he said that Wilson has not been presented with this report.
"There's no divide in our locker room," Wilson told media members. "There's none at all. If anything, I think we've continued to build, continued to grow. I truly believe that. I think that the guys that we have in the locker room, the guys that believe that we can still go 1 and 0 and still be a championship team; those are the guys that we have sitting in this room every day. Every morning when we wake up, we're looking for one common goal and that's to win football games."
Obviously, players are going to shoot down any speculation about off-field issues. That is to be expected. But Wilson has been a consummate professional during his short time in the league and it seems out of character for him to be in the midst of a locker room controversy.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen also disputed Mayne's report, revealing that Wilson "actually wanted to help Percy Harvin with anger and trust issues." Mortensen maintains that it was the team's decision to move on from Harvin and it was in no way influenced by Wilson.
Whatever the case may be, the Seahawks need to figure it out before they play the Carolina Panthers this weekend.
