Seahawks GM: Nothing 'malicious' about handling of Sherman injury

The Seattle Seahawks could reportedly face severe punishment for their failure to disclose Richard Sherman's MCL injury, but general manager John Schneider said there was no "malicious" intent behind not listing the star cornerback on the injury report.

"Pete (Carroll), it was in a press conference at the end of the season, and quite frankly, was sticking up for the different bumps and bruises and issues that Richard had," Schneider said Thursday in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, according to ESPN's Sheil Kapadia. "I think that's why they've gone ahead with this. But we feel like we didn't do anything that was malicious at all."

Carroll revealed in an interview after the season that Sherman had been playing through a significant knee injury. However, Sherman was never listed on the injury report with that particular ailment, leading the NFL to open an investigation that could result in Seahawks being docked a second-round pick in this year's draft.

"Obviously something I can't really get into, but we feel like we didn't do anything that was out of the norm or trying to avoid any rules by any stretch of the imagination," Schneider said.

While Sherman didn't miss any game time due to the injury, the NFL's rule states, "If any player has a significant or noteworthy injury, it must be listed on the practice report, even if he fully participates in practice and the team expects that he will play in the team's next game."

"All doctors will tell you, you have to manage the player and not the MRI, or the patient and not the MRI, and that's what we did," Schneider said. "He never missed; the guy was a total stud about it."