Seahawks' Doug Baldwin admits to agitating teammates after fight with Richard Sherman

The Seattle Seahawks have been interesting under head coach Pete Carroll. Carroll is known for letting guys be who they are, and some of his players, well, they’ve taken advantage of that approach.

Defensive end Michael Bennett has gotten into a couple of scraps in training camp, and earlier this week, it was Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman’s turn.

Sherman went after Baldwin after the receiver, who had a league-high 14 touchdowns last season, went past both Sherman and safety Earl Thomas for a score on a go-route down the numbers. The News Tribune’s recap of the “fight” doesn’t sound major, but it was serious enough that Baldwin showed up to the field the next day with a bruise on his forehead and stitches on the bridge of his nose.

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Baldwin and Sherman have been teammates for years, going back to their days at Stanford, but Baldwin said it wasn’t an orchestrated dust-up – though Baldwin may have intentionally prodded his friend.

“Obviously, tempers flare,” Baldwin told the News Tribune. “Sherm’s really upset that we keep destroying him in practice. He’s upset that the receivers are getting the best out of him and the defensive backs this year. So he takes offense to that.”

Baldwin added that he’s not worried by the number of practice scuffles.

“Not concerned with it, as long as it doesn’t spill over into our play on Sunday – or, Thursday, this week, I guess you should say. But we always like that level of chippiness because it brings out the true level of competitiveness in all of us.

“I’ll admit it: I’m kind of an agitator in that, at times,” he said. “But it’s because we need it. We don’t like it just to be peas and carrots all the time in practice. We want to bring out that competitive nature. We want to see the dog in guys so we can bring out the best in their abilities.

“So, yeah, not too concerned about it. We’ll probably taper it down here a little bit as we get closer to the season, to make sure we are all healthy and focused on the task at hand.”

Baldwin even took aim at Bennett, who isn’t known for holding his tongue. Bennett said this week that there is a “code” among players and that they shouldn’t go too far in terms of physicality against their own teammates in practice and potentially put another player’s health, or as Bennett said, livelihood, at risk.

Baldwin found that funny, particularly coming from Bennett.

“I mean, yes, there is a ‘code.’ But Mike B. doesn’t always necessarily operate by that code, either,” Baldwin said. “It hard to take him serious when he talks about other guys taking food off his kids’ plate – when he is driving around here with 10 different cars, you know?

“It’s all relative. You take it with a grain of salt.”

Teammates fighting one another and publicly talking some trash – just another day at Seahawks camp.