Playing in an icebox in Kansas City?
DK Metcalf sees it as an opportunity – to show off his famous chiseled physique.
The Seahawks’ 6-foot-4, 235-pound wide receiver, with famous body fat and famous workout photos, knows it must be 14 degrees with a wind chill around zero at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday. That’s where and when Seattle (7-7) will play AFC West-champion Kansas City (11-3) on Christmas Eve.
“The cold? Nah, I’m not worried about it,” the Mississippi native said.
“I can wear a shirt and go out.”
There’s a section of the Seahawks fan base that’s excited to see that.
Metcalf is used to cope with cold conditions in the field this season.
He says NFL game officials don’t talk to him during games.
Metcalf received his third unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in Seattle’s final game of the season against the 49ers on Thursday. San Francisco’s Dre Greenlaw pointed to the Seahawks side after Seattle’s Travis hit a homer short of the line. That was on a third-down pass in the second quarter of the 49ers’ 21-13 win at Lumen Field. Metcalf was blocking after Homer caught Geno Smith’s short pass. As Greenlaw ran to the 49ers sideline and Metcalf headed the opposite way, Metcalf gave the 49ers linebacker a shove with his left shoulder. Put it in Greenlaw’s chest.
Greenlaw didn’t like it. His jaw dropped at Metcalf’s. The Seahawks wide receiver jawed back at Greenlaw, using the hand in a “fetch it” motion.
Charvarius Ward of San Francisco broke up the fight. The officials called Metcalf a 15-yard, dead ball penalty for taunting Greenlaw.
It was Metcalf’s sixth penalty of the season. That’s tied with Las Vegas’ Mack Hollis at NFL wide receiver in 2022.
Metcalf said he is not changing his physical ways.
“Sometimes the authorities don’t like beating someone’s ass like I do,” he said on Tuesday.
“So I’m going to keep playing football the way I know how to play and that’s between the whistles. You can’t stop this.”
“I don’t know if Metcalfe has been punished by the last penalty – yet,” he said. In the Seahawks’ loss to the Buccaneers in Munich last month, he was fined just under $30,000 for defying the official for not calling pass interference on a Tampa Bay defensive back.
What’s up with the official who threw the die on Metcalf last week when their teams were being sent off?
“They wouldn’t talk to me,” Metcalf said, “so I couldn’t get an explanation from someone who wouldn’t talk to me.”
He said he has set an example with officials in games this season.
“Yeah,” said Metcalf, “the references don’t speak to me, so . . .”
Again he says: “I will not cease to be blocking or aggressive; Because that’s who I am as a player, and that’s why the Seahawks drafted me, because I’m competitive — and I’m going to shut my ass.
“I will not stop doing that.”
If Metcalf seems to have received assurances from coach Pete Carroll to continue playing the route, it’s because Metcalf does.
“I don’t want him to be anything but who he is and who he is. He’s a freakin’ fighter on the football field,” Carroll said Friday, the day after the 49ers game. “He wants to go on that edge and live in the game. I’m all for that. It’s just a matter of not letting him stumble and being penalized against him.
He has worked and made mistakes there and you get it.
DK Metcalf 13 penalties in the last two seasons
The Seahawks re-signed the 25-year-old receiver (he turned 25 last week) to a $72 million contract extension with a $30 million signing bonus before this season.
He has 13 flags over the last two seasons. Three were charged with unsportsmanlike conduct. The two were meant to be teased.
In the year He was ejected from the 2021 season in Seattle’s 17-0 loss to Green Bay. “I’ve got to grow up,” Metcalf said after that game and the ejection.
This season, he was fined $29,785 on November 13 for arguing with an official on a pass interference call that was not called against the Tampa Bay defense on a long pass from Smith to him. It was during the defeat against the Seattle Buccaneers in Munich.
Meanwhile, the game in Germany has seen 25 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the league through 11 weeks this season, according to Spotrac.com. Metcalf had a costly penalty for the attack. In week one, he was fined $6,000, the next most expensive unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, at Cincinnati Ja Marr Chess.
Metcalf was also penalized last week against San Francisco for grabbing the back of Ward’s jersey and pulling the cornerback off balance on a 27-yard plunge to the San Francisco 43 with 34 seconds left in the first half. That penalty ended Seattle’s chance to cut the Niners’ lead to 14-3 before halftime.
San Francisco took the opening kickoff of the second half and turned it into a layup and a 21-3 lead.
While Metcalf is physical, yes, he gets pass-interference penalties.
He has the physical strength, along with a history of flags, that NFL officials are clearly seeing and, in fact, watching everything Metcalf does during games and especially after games.
And Metcalf keeps making things.
“He is afraid to compete as a top performer as he has high expectations. And he can occasionally make a mistake at the level he’s playing,” Carroll said Friday. “He can do a little better. Yes, he can do a little better. We’re done talking about that now.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 5:36 pm.
Greg Bell is a Seahawks and NFL writer for the News Tribune. In the year In January 2019, he was named Washington State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. He began covering the NFL in 2002 when the Oakland Raiders won a letter to the Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks during their first Super Bowl in 2005. In a previous life, he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he might as well ask you to give him a 10.
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