RENTON, Wash. -- Frustrated over what's become a lost season for his Seahawks, Jim Mora used sarcasm to make a point he hopes gets heard throughout league headquarters. Protect my quarterback, too.
Seattle's coach delivered an exaggerated message Monday: If referees aren't going to deem it illegal, then his defenders should be pressing their forearms into the throats of opposing quarterbacks.
Mora was still fuming a day after Arizona defensive tackle Darnell Dockett pressed his forearm into Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck's throat following a sack by Cardinals linebacker Clark Haggans in the second quarter of Sunday's loss to Arizona. Hasselbeck got up holding his neck, but referee Walt Coleman did not throw a flag.
Mora said that play is "something I'd like to hear back on" from the league office.
"If they're not going to call it, then I'd like to see our guys do it to their quarterback -- if they're not going to call it," Mora said.
"If it's illegal, then it would be called," he added. "If it's legal, then we should be doing it --- if it's legal. I would never advocate us doing anything that's illegal."
Mora made two pronounced gasps to simulate what he said Hasselbeck was doing after the play.
"Boy, I'd like to see their quarterback doing that, you know?" Mora said. "It's a vicious game. I'm not saying anything that anyone else wouldn't say."
Dockett, who has engaged in friendly teasing sparring with Hasselbeck through each player's Twitter accounts this season, used the social networking site to respond. He posted that he would never try to hurt Hasselbeck because "he's a good guy."
Dockett also directly responded to Mora, who was a walk-on linebacker at the University of Washington in the early 1980s.
He wrote that stuff happens in football and "if u ever played the game ud understand."
Sunday night, Dockett tweeted: "don't normally do this but I got much respect for MatthewHass8 U 1 tough player good luck and stay healthy, the forarm was by accident!"
Playing with broken ribs and a sore shoulder, Hasselbeck completed 26 of 52 passes for 315 yards while being sacked four times in the 31-20 loss to the Cardinals.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
