Sunday’s game between the Seahawks and Cowboys was stopped for several minutes before halftime as medical personnel attended to Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette after he was on the receiving end of a block from Cowboys safety Jeff Heath while covering a punt.
Lockette was eventually immobilized and taken off the field on a stretcher. He was diagnosed with a concussion and stayed in Dallas overnight after the Seahawks’ win, but has full use of his extremities after a scary first few moments on the turf. Heath was penalized for a blindside block on the play and some Seahawks players registered further offense with the play after the game.
Linebacker Mike Morgan called it a “dirty play” and said Heath “should definitely have to pay for” something Morgan said doesn’t belong in football. Defensive end Michael Bennett shared that assessment and extended it to others in the Cowboys organization as well.
“I thought it was a classless play,” Bennett said, via the Seattle Times. “I thought their coach could have came to the aid of our player to see that he was OK. That’s what Pete Carroll would have done. I thought [Cowboys coach] Jason Garrett could have done a better job on that. I thought the referees sucked. When something happens like that, it’s their job to protect the players, but they haven’t been doing a very good job of it this year.”
The Cowboys’ response to Lockette’s injury was an issue with Dez Bryant as well. Bryant reacted angrily to suggestions that he was taunting Lockette after the play and Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin, who was front and center in a widely-shared video of Bryant emoting on the field, said on Twitter that the wideout never said anything about Lockette.