Kam Chancellor still supported teammates during his holdout
Though Kam Chancellor was not in the locker room with the Seattle Seahawks for several weeks as he sat out, protesting his contract structure, he was still keeping a watchful eye over his teammates.
The three-time Pro Bowler, who returned to the team facility on Wednesday, ending his lockout, was in frequent contact with his teammates, a leader even from afar.
Take, for example, Dion Bailey. The second-year safety started in Week 1 against the Rams, and gave up the game-tying touchdown at the end of regulation when he tripped and fell, leaving St. Louis tight end Lance kendricks wide open.
When Bailey went to his stall in the visitors’ locker room at the Edward Jones Dome, there was a message waiting for him from Chancellor.
“He said I played my butt off,” Bailey said. “He said football things happen, don’t worry myself about little things like that. A slip or whatever could happen to anybody. So it was reassuring to hear him say I played well in the grand scheme of things.
“That’s just the type of person he is. When business is in the way of football, he’s still finding out a way to help others reach their success. Kam is real big on wanting to see everybody else succeed, not just himself. So that just speaks volumes of the type of person that he is, and I’m just really glad to have him back in the building.”
Veteran defensive lineman Michael Bennett wasn’t surprised Chancellor remained supportive despite his own situation, saying Chancellor “is a good team guy. He cares about the team.”
But Chancellor’s holdout didn’t gain him anything: though he was hoping to have some of his 2017 salary pushed into 2016, he returned to work without any changes being made to his contract.
There’s no word on whether the Seahawks forfeited or reduced the amount of fines Chancellor’s had accumulated by being away; coach Pete Carroll said yesterday he wouldn’t be talking about that aspect of the story “at all.”
