The Seattle Seahawks have endured more suspensions for performance-enhancing drug use than any other team in the league since Pete Carroll took over.
On the heels of a regular season that also saw cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Walter Thurmond slapped with bans for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy, the coach weighed in Wednesday about how this otherwise overachieving organization is dealing with the issue.
"We have set it in motion from a ways back, just the education that needs to be expressed about the issues, about substances and the rules the league governs that we follow," Carroll said. "We've had team meetings. We've had speakers. We've had seminars. We've had one-on-ones."
Carroll pointed to pass rusher Bruce Irvin's PED suspension in May as a turning point that "set us in a new mode, in a new mentality."
"I found that we're a very young team, with young minds and guys that needed to formulate the plan and how it all fits together," said the coach. "... In that process of talking through that and working through that with our coaches and players, we really came together with a really simple thought: We're Seahawks 24/7."
Carroll credited Irvin's honest approach to his springtime mistake as "a great starter to the new mentality that we've developed about taking care of business."
The Seahawks certainly emit the vibe of a team that operates as a unified, tight-knit bunch, but the fact is that Browner and Thurmond were suspended after Irvin's incident, and subsequent to the franchise's "new mentality."
Carroll acknowledged that, saying: "When we've had anybody who has strayed or has had an issue, it came to the point where we really felt compassion for the guys who couldn't hang with us and the commitment that we made. So I think it's become very strong from inside out."
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