Writer defends Seahawks dysfunction story: Players told me I 'nailed it'

An ESPN story highlighting the reportedly divisive state of the Seattle Seahawks' locker room made waves Thursday.

Related - Bennett: Story about Seahawks' divided locker room is 'trash'

Some Seahawks players weren't happy with the portrayal of their team. Michael Bennett called it "trash" and "gossip" and Richard Sherman - the centerpiece of the story - dismissed it as "a bunch of nonsense."

The writer of the story, Seth Wickersham, said Friday on "PFT Live" he understands the reaction, but defended his work, saying members of the Seahawks organization, including players, told him he "nailed it."

"I don't blame him for having that reaction," Wickersham said regarding Bennett, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "I've been doing this for a long time. I mean, he knows what’s going on. I got so many texts from players and people in the Seahawks building yesterday telling me how I nailed it."

Wickersham said the issues he explored, including Sherman's issues with head coach Pete Caroll and the defense's resentment toward an underperforming offense, is well known in NFL circles.

"I was not being some sort of expert detective here," Wickersham said. "I mean, this stuff is an open secret in the NFL, and I just spent a couple weeks trying to show it as best I could and talk to as many people as I could in the building; I took two trips out to Seattle."

Russell Wilson was painted as a divisive figure by Wickersham, with the star quarterback's consistently positive attitude regardless of how poorly the offense was performing causing resentment from the defensive side of the ball, which has been historically dominant over the past five seasons.

"You see Wilson after games, he’s relentlessly positive and on message, and he’ll say, 'You know we made a lot of great plays in this game, we just came up short.' He said that after they played the Rams, and they scored three points. And here's a defense, in an era of offense, keeping them in these games, thinking that they're going to make everybody forget the Steel Curtain, and the offense is putting three points up on the board and he's being treated in the building like he's their Aaron Rodgers.

"That to me I think is the biggest deal. Those defensive players are smart, they've played against the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and they know the difference between very, very good and future Hall of Fame."