Seahawks Violated CBA Rule with Terrell Owens

The NFL has notified the Seattle Seahawks that they violated the new Collective Bargaining Agreement on Thursday when they allowed new wideout Terrell Owens to wear shoulder pads.

Yup, that’s it. The league is gathering facts about the scandal of Owen wearing shoulder pads.

We can’t all be that surprised that the NFL is going to be a bunch sticklers about their rules. We’ve seen players suspended for less — well okay maybe they’re not that ridiculous but the league isn’t about to let any violation slip through the cracks and nothing makes that more apparent then this.

All sarcasm aside, the Seahawks did clearly break a rule in the CBA which was ratified almost a year ago. In the CBA it clearly states that a player may not practice in pads until his fourth day of practice with the team. Since Owens hadn’t participated in any days of practice since signing his new $1 million deal with the Seahawks, him practicing with pads on was a direct violation.

In the CBA it states that Day 1 is designated for physicals and meetings. During the next two days said player can practice but he can only wear a helmet and shells or a padded shirt. No pads whatsoever are allowed. 

Owens was signed on Monday, but he practiced in full pads yesterday which was only his third official day with the team. It’s hard to believe the NFL will have harsh punishment for the Seahawks, but the crowd standing behind Jonathan Vilma will be able to use the incident as a way of deflating the “making an example of” punishment Vilma received. It holds no weight but you’ve got to believe some idiot will cry out ‘why doesn’t Goodell make an example out of the Seahawks if he did it to Vilma’.

Hopefully I’m wrong about that but in all seriousness the NFL won’t come down that hard on the Seahawks. That being said, no word has come down the pike yet on any sort of discipline or if there will be. To the Seahawks credit, they reported the incident to the NFL who told them it was indeed a violation.