Dori and Brock: Earl Thomas needs to be a team player

If you ask Brock Huard of 710 ESPN’s Brock and Salk, Seahawks safety Earl Thomas’ recent behavior and statements are “childish.”

After Sunday’s game, Thomas told reporters that he will continue missing practice if it feels right for him, and that he does not believe he is adequately appreciated by the Seahawks.

I’m invested in myself. Now, if they was invested in me, I’d be out there practicing, but if I feel like anything – and I don’t give a damn if it’s small, I got a headache – I’m not practicing. But I don’t want that to be taken the wrong way. I know I’m going to get fined, but that’s just where I’m at with that.

During the Dori Monson Show’s Monday Monson Quarterback, both Dori and Brock chastised Thomas for claiming that he is underappreciated.

RELATED: Video | Brock and Salk recap Pete Carroll’s statements on Earl Thomas

It’s hard to feel sorry for a player who is getting a direct deposit for nearly $500,000 after every game, Brock said.

“What are you talking about, ‘They’re not invested in you?'” Brock said in outrage. “For a decade they’ve been nothing but invested in you, and I think truly looking out for your best interests, and they’re paying you a half a million dollars a game — top five safety money. They are invested in you in every way, and have been.”

“If you include the signing bonus, he’s making $10 million this year — I want my employer to ‘not appreciate’ me like that,” Dori joked.

As a fan of Earl Thomas’ skills and passion on the gridiron, Brock said he was conflicted.

“I’m just so turn in so many ways,” Brock said. “You know, he’s just a wonderful player, he has a spirit to play.”

RELATED: What do the Seahawks do with Earl Thomas after he crossed yet another line?

On the other hand, Brock said, he himself has a strong work and sportsmanship ethic drilled into him by his father, who was head football coach at Puyallup High School. For Brock, it is hard to reconcile Thomas’ attitude with his own work-oriented outlook.

“I’m the son of a coach and I know the essence of what practice means,” Brock said. “And in this culture, right here in this building we sit in, it is, ‘Compete every day,’ not, ‘Compete on Sunday.'”

Earlier on Monday, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had come on Brock and Salk to discuss situation with Earl Thomas.

“There are two sides and we’re just working it out … we’re trying to figure out what’s best,” Carroll said to Brock and Salk. “It’s ongoing and really sincerely ongoing. I want what’s best for Earl, and we’re trying to figure that out and how to work this out.”

If Thomas continues to miss practice, Brock said, the fines that the safety receives will not be insignificant. Brock pointed out that Thomas was hit with seven-figure fines during the preseason training camp.

“We’ll see how much of that wallet book Earl wants to continue to have hit … these fines are going to be very heavy if he continues to do this,” Brock said.

Recalling his own experience coaching girls basketball, Dori said that if he were Thomas’ coach, he would not tolerate such behavior.

“You don’t practice, you don’t play,” Dori said simply.

“He’s playing a game that I am unfamiliar [with] in so many ways,” Brock said.

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