Larry Stone: Chancellor has backed himself into a corner with Seahawks

Here was Richard Sherman in January, describing how Kam Chancellor’s thunderous hits lift the entire Seahawks defense.

“It gives us energy they give us life. They allow us to play free ... We’re a bunch of wild dogs until the big lion comes around, and we’re some bad men when he comes. He just brings that menacing force. We’re a pack of wild dogs, and they’re pretty dangerous, but a lion running with a pack of wild dogs that’s something.�

It was really something, all right. And now it looks, unbelievably, like something the Seahawks will have to do without, indefinitely. Sherman pretty much nailed how Seattle’s aura will be in a Chancellor-less world: Dangerous, but not diabolical. And that’s no way to go into a new season.

It’s hard to fathom that it’s gotten this far. All along, you expected common sense and reason to prevail. There still might be a meeting of the minds, though the chances of an 11th-hour settlement are fading with the tick, tick, ticking of the clock.

No, it appears that Chancellor has painted himself into a corner that he can’t get out of not with thunderous hits, not with a menacing aura, not with a big lion’s roar.

It’s getting harder to see an end game that doesn’t involve heartache for both sides but much more for Chancellor. It’s becoming apparent that the Seahawks aren’t going to budge. The longer the impasse goes, the more entrenched they’re getting, because to do otherwise would mean emboldening future holdout candidates.

That means no re-working the contract to guarantee signing bonuses. That means not being forced into a trade, which is just another way of rewarding his holdout. It might mean forgiving most of his fines but even that stance could change if the holdout drags into the regular season.

That means that the only viable exit for Chancellor is to capitulate. And given what we know about his competitiveness, his desire, his will the attributes that make him such an indispensable player you know that’s just not in his makeup.

Chancellor has one card to play, and one card only: His talent. That’s always been his potential secret weapon: the hope (belief?) that the Seahawks will ultimately come to the conclusion that he’s simply too invaluable to stand up to any longer.

But if that’s what Chancellor is going on, I think he’s misjudged the team’s resolve. And if he’s hoping for a slow start to the regular season to jar them into action, well, that’s not only highly unlikely to work, it doesn’t send a great message to teammates who thus far have had his back.

The Seahawks’ organization seems determined not to let one person even one as beloved as Chancellor deter them from their principles. And you have to wonder if the support of the Seahawks players will be unwavering, now that they’ve endured the rigors of training camp without him. They are facing a long, hard, tough season minus a player they desperately need. The “next up� mentality is deeply ingrained in the football psyche.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has said they’re treating his absence pretty much like they would if Chancellor was out with an injury. But this is a self-inflicted wound, which makes it so much more frustrating.

Chancellor has either gotten horrible advice, or he’s severely miscalculated the power he held over the Seahawks. I have much sympathy, actually, for his plight. NFL teams hold all the contractual power, and players can feel like pieces of meat.

Chancellor has played nobly, and recklessly, without regard for his health (current or future). Those hits that electrify a team and a stadium (like the one on Denver’s Demaryius Thomas after Peyton Manning’s first pass completion that set the tone for their Super Bowl romp) can come with a heavy physical cost.

Chancellor almost didn’t play in Seattle’s most recent Super Bowl because of a bruised knee and torn MCL. He toughed his way through and made 10 tackles, an effort that was called “super human’ by Carroll. But Chancellor knows that in the future, if his value becomes lessened, for whatever reason including the collective toll from the very ferocity that makes him so coveted they could cut him loose.

Yet that’s the system their union gave them. NFL players should fight tooth and nail for improvements during the next negotiations.

For now, however, this has become an unwieldy mess, one that benefits no one. If there’s a compromise solution that works, no one’s thought of it yet. It has become a waiting game to see which one of two proud, willful entities will back down first.

Until that happens, the Seahawks will proceed without their big lion.

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