Yes, Pete Carroll advises against the DK Metcalf-Shannon Sharpe, so-2021 tweet controversy
It’s sometimes easy to forget. After all, DK Metcalf isn’t exactly physically immature.
He’s 6 feet 4, 230 pounds. A Pro Bowl wide receiver who physically dominates most everyone on a football field.
Yet he’s still just 23 years old.
Two events involving Metcalf Sunday night into Monday morning were reminders of that.
The Seahawks’ leading receiver nearly cost his team the chance to tie Sunday night’s game at the Pittsburgh Steelers on the final play of regulation. He almost kept his team from getting to overtime.
With Seattle out of time outs and the clock running down inside 10 seconds, Metcalf caught a pass at the Steelers 27-yard line. Then, oddly, he stopped. He could have taken one step to his left out of bounds at the 25 to halt the clock with 14 seconds remaining. Instead, he kept running, down the sidelines well inside field-goal range, to challenge oncoming James Pierre. Metcalf tried to run over the Steelers cornerback. Pierre punched the ball from Metcalf’s left arm.
Seahawks receiver Freddie Swain recovered Metcalf’s fumble with 10 seconds remaining on a clock that was still running because Metcalf did not step out of bounds.
Chaos followed. The clock expired before quarterback Geno Smith could assemble the frantic Seahawks offense into formation and set them for him to spike the ball and stop the clock, so kicker Jason Myers could get on the field for the tying field goal. Smith eventually did spike the next snap — but then the Heinz Field game clock showed all zeros.
It took a replay review of Metcalf’s catch, bad-idea run and fumble by NFL headquarters in New York to see if it was indeed a catch, a review Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was still unhappy about on Tuesday, to restore 3 seconds on the game clock. That was enough time for Smith to spike the ball again and stop the clock for Myers to make his tying kick as time expired, for real.
“I really can’t tell you what happened out there,” Metcalf said past midnight Monday morning Pittsburgh time, following his Seahawks’ sudden, 23-20 loss to the Steelers in that overtime.
The next time anyone, besides his fellow Seahawks on the team plane going west, heard from Metcalf was at 4:47 a.m. Seattle time on Monday.
What ensued was as avoidable as his nearly-lost fumble.
It was such a 2021 controversy.
Being on social media is often less than the best idea. Being on it in the middle of the night is often worse than that.
When it’s even worse: after a loss that left you bewildered, then a five-hour flight home through the night across the county.
That’s when Metcalf, presumably upon landing in Seattle and getting cell-phone service again, posted his response to Fox Sports television analyst Shannon Sharpe. Sharpe had written on Twitter at the time of Metcalf’s nearly disastrous last play of regulation Sunday night: “What was D. K thinking? Why try to play hero in that situation?”
Metcalf’s Twitter answer to the 53-year-old Sharpe, at 4:47 a.m.: “Stop questioning me lil boy,” with an emoji of a face laughing to tears.
Sharpe is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He won three Super Bowls. He was an All-Pro four times. He was selected to the Pro Bowl eight times, seven more than Metcalf. Sharpe was a tight end with the (mostly) Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens from 1990-2003.
“Nothing to question,” Sharpe posted on Twitter back at Metcalf. “That was “DUMB ASS” play and your pride won’t let you admit it. ‘You’ can’t question anything I’ve done. Pray your resume will be as complete as mine, PRAY. Enjoy the rest of your day”
Sharpe added emojis of hands clasped in prayer.
Metcalf apparently didn’t know Sharpe’s credentials. Or he was too tired and ticked to care when he posted another response to Sharpe, at 10:53 a.m. Monday: “From the looks of it i can wipe my (emoji of a smiling pile of excrement) with yours! Continue to gossip you washed up wanna be.”
Less than an hour later, at 11:41 a.m., Metcalf offered something of an apology, at least an online regret. Maybe he realized what he posted wasn’t it. Maybe coach Pete Carroll, others with the Seahawks or those to whom he listens had reached Metcalf.
Whatever. He attempted to quell the dust-up with Sharpe in a final post.
During his weekly day-after-game press conference with the media Monday afternoon, Carroll was asked if he’d spoken to Metcalf about his online activity.
The 70-year-old Carroll gave a deft answer that applies in any situation, with anyone.
“In general, I don’t know why anybody would want to communicate that way, openly,” Carroll said. “You can always call people and talk to them and work things out a lot more efficiently.”
Six games in, it’s already been a season of growth for Metcalf, who leads the Seahawks with 31 catches, 441 yards and five touchdowns receiving.
Last month he was engaging during and after plays with opposing defensive backs. He was getting called out by game officials as part of the NFL’s new emphasis on taunting against opponents.
Asked in September how teams were defending him differently so far this season, Metcalf said: “Just talkin’ sh**. That’s it.”
He smiled.
Carroll and quarterback Russell Wilson were among those who talked to Metcalf about being more even-keeled and less interactive with opponents during games.
Forty-four of the 53 Seahawks on the active roster are in their 20s. Social media and the online world isn’t a hobby for them, it’s a way of life.
Like leaders of most pro sports teams, Carroll and his staff advise their players against engaging with anyone as Metcalf did online. Particularly with Hall of Famers who, really, are correct and absolutely have been there and done that.
“We have always tried to discourage our guys from communicating in that fashion,” Carroll said. “For the most part, guys are really good at it now. Guys used to use Twitter like they were sending a text. They figured it out.
“And,” Carroll added, “DK has a big awareness. I don’t know how that one went kind of wherever.
“If you watch DK, you will always see him come around. He will always come around to clear thinking, and he’s a really bright kid.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2021 at 5:37 PM.
