During the Seattle Seahawks' 22-16 victory over the Arizona Cardinals last night, their star corner back Richard Sherman suffered a ruptured achilles tendon and will therefore be out for the remainder of the season. The Seahawks' next game will be the first Sherman has missed since entering the league in 2011.
Sherman, who left the game in the third quarter, said his Achilles has been bothering him all season and has been cautious to avoid making any drastic cuts.
Per ESPN,
"I thought I could get the ball. Once it popped, just unfortunate," said Sherman, who was visibly emotional at times while addressing reporters. "One of those things that you have to play through for as long as you can. When it goes, it goes.
"I've put a lot of stress on it. Think it would have gone eventually."
Last December, Sherman penned an essay for The Player's Tribune, titled "Why I Hate Thursday Night Football" in which he describes how players don't have enough time to recover on the short week.
After last night's game, Sherman's teammates echoed those statements. Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin said Thursday night football should be illegal.
“Guys don’t have time to recover,” said Baldwin. “Hard to recover in four days.”
According to ESPN, when asked whether all the injuries were Exhibit A as to why Thursday night games are tough on NFL players, Baldwin said, “It’s Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, Exhibit D, Exhibit Z. Thursday night football should be illegal.”
Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner noted that several guys on both teams suffered injuries last night due to the lack of rest, while defensive end Michael Bennett compared Thursday night football to a boxer who has to fight twice in the same week.
"There was guys dropping down on both side with serious, minor injuries," Bobby Wagner said. "We play a very physical game, a very physical sport, and to ask us to turn around and be ready after Sunday to turn around and have our bodies OK on that Thursday, it's really tough to do. I hope the league is watching. Hopefully they'll look at it and see what happens and change this format."
"I know you want to give fans what they want but also you want to protect the players as best as you can, and sometimes I feel like Thursday night football doesn't give them the opportunity to be protected like that," said Bennett.
Head coach Pete Carroll held back when asked if the league should look at changing the Thursday night games, simply saying, "I don't want to pay anything so I'm not going to comment on anything."
The Seahawks, 6-3, won't take the field again until November 20th when they host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.