Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas said he doesn’t regret displaying his middle finger during a game last season, confirming the gesture was directed at former coach Pete Carroll.
“I don’t regret my decision,” Thomas told ESPN in an interview published Wednesday. “If my teammates felt like it was toward them, I regret that part. But I don’t regret doing that to Pete.”
Then with the Seattle Seahawks, Thomas made the gesture as he was being carted off the field with a broken leg during a Week 4 game against the Arizona Cardinals, an injury that required surgery and ended his season. Thomas, who had been involved in a contract dispute with the team since the offseason, told ESPN he didn’t believe Carroll’s concern following the injury was genuine.
“I gave Pete the middle finger because I felt like he wasn’t being honest with me,” he said.
A six-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro in nine years with Seattle, Thomas added that he hasn’t spoken to Carroll since.
He described an up-and-down history with the coach, even when the team was performing well.
“We got to walk with each other the rest of our lives because we won a Super Bowl together,” Thomas told ESPN. “But they’ll love you one minute and then hate you the next. That was our relationship.”
Thomas joined the Ravens on a four-year, $55 million contract in free agency in March. His departure from Seattle had long been expected after the Seahawks showed little interest in extending him entering the final year of his contract.
“I think my time just ran out,” Thomas said of how things ended. “Pete and the front office didn’t value me like they used to, and I just talked to Coach Carroll, and he was saying how he was trying to get me in the plans of getting a new contract. But I got hurt the next week. I think I hurt myself, too, by my actions getting carted off the field.”
Thomas, 30, had 28 interceptions in 125 games with the Seahawks, ranking sixth in franchise history.
He will face his former team in Seattle on Oct. 20, when the Ravens visit the Seahawks in Week 7.
