Many thought the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks
would just play nice in their season finale last Sunday at
University of Phoenix Stadium.

After all, both teams had been eliminated from playoff
contention and were playing mostly for pride…and second
place in the NFC West, for whatever that’s worth.

But credit goes to both teams, they played hard for well
over 60 minutes, with the Cardinals winning 23-20 in
overtime. Things got chippy along the way, and Seahawks’
coach Pete Carroll came out and accused the Cardinals of
doing some “extra stuff” to Seattle runnning back Marshawn
Lynch at the bottom of piles.

Brady Henderson, editor of MyNorthwest.com for Arizona
Sports 620’s sister station in Seattle, 710 ESPN, points out a few
instances of “extra stuff” in a blog post.

One came in the first quarter after Lynch
dragged a pile of defenders for several seconds. Darnell
Dockett, one of two Cardinals to finally bring Lynch down,
put his knee into his facemask while getting up. During
the end of a tackle in the second quarter, Adrian Wilson
pulled Lynch’s helmet off and pushed it away from the
pile. Lynch was visibly miffed while talking with Carroll
on the sideline following that play.

The old saying is “you don’t want to know what goes on at
the bottom of piles in the NFL”, so these “charges” don’t
exactly surprise anyone.

And Dockett and Wilson haven’t exactly been on-field choir
boys during their tenures with the Cardinals. Add that to
the fact that Lynch is arguably the toughest runner in the
league to bring down, and maybe, just maybe, some
frustration set in.

This sounds like the beginning of another heated rivalry
between the Cardinals and an NFC West foe — which is
exactly what the Cards, and the division, need.

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