Carroll says 'I've gotta do a better job' after Seahawks stripped of draft pick

SEATTLE – Pete Carroll said one quick mistake from two young players led to the NFL stripping the Seattle Seahawks of a fifth-round draft pick and levying fines against himself and the organization.

“We had an unfortunate day – guys banged heads, and we had an issue,” Carroll said during a press conference at the VMAC on Monday afternoon.

“It was a couple young guys. They just went the wrong way at the wrong time and just banged heads.”

Carroll said the two players “both got banged in the head pretty good” on the play in question.

In addition to the 2017 draft pick and fines of $400,000 and $200,000 for the team and Carroll, respectively, the Seahawks also lost three days of organized team activities next summer. The incident happened on June 6 during an OTA.

Carroll said after the team got in trouble twice in previous season for violating no-contact rules, he and his staff worked hard to make sure players were in compliance. He said the team stopped practicing with helmets in many instances in an effort to do so.

“I’ve gotta do a better job,” Carroll said. “I’ve gotta make sure that we’re toeing the line with the standards.”

Carroll said the Seahawks have brought league officials in to explain the rules to players, and that he’s gone so far as to kick players out of practice and even suspend them if they were “overzealous.”

Still, he said, the organization’s competitive nature can lead to trouble.

“We always practice really hard around here, that’s something we’ve done for years,” he said. “We just try to practice harder than anybody else is practicing.”