SEATTLE — Sitting in his locker after Sunday’s NFC Championship, Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas had ice wrapped on his shoulder, blood on his forearm and weariness in his eyes.
He had just answered a question about the status of his left shoulder, which popped out of joint during the second quarter. It caused him to miss all of one drive.
One reporter asked Thomas if returning so quickly was a heroic act.
“Heroic act?” Thomas responded incredulously. “It was just me doing what I’ve got to do. I love this game.”
The Legion of Boom was banged up on Sunday. Besides Thomas, Richard Sherman injured his elbow on the first play of the fourth quarter. He was sandwiched between Green Bay running back James Starks and a vicious hit by Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor.
Sherman was in pain on the Seattle bench and played with his left arm clutched to his chest.
“(Trainers) said it wasn’t going to get any worse, so I had to get back out there,” Sherman said. “It felt like some sprained ligaments or something. I couldn’t really extend my arm. I just wanted to stay with my man and not give up the big play.”
Both Sherman and Thomas said they will “100 percent” play in the Super Bowl on Feb. 1.
Unsung heroes
On every NFL roster, there are stars and stalwarts.
There are also players such as Chris Matthews and Garry Gilliam. Those players at the bottom of Seattle’s depth chart made huge plays on Sunday.
For Matthews, it was grabbing the onside kick with just over two minutes to play that kept alive Seattle’s hopes.
Matthews was in the right spot when Packers tight end Brandon Bostick could not clutch Steven Hauschka’s bounding kick.
“I was going to go and tackle him initially,” Matthews said. “But then he bobbled the ball. I jumped up and caught it. Either you’re ready for that moment, or someone comes in and takes your place.”
Gilliam caught a 19-yard touchdown catch from punter Jon Ryan on a fake field goal with 4:44 left in the third quarter. It cut Green Bay’s lead to 16-7 and gave a dormant Seahawks offense some hope.
It did not matter that Gilliam, a rookie who played defensive end and tight end at Penn State, had never caught an NFL pass.
It did not matter that Ryan had never thrown a touchdown pass in his 10 years in the NFL and Canadian Football League.
“They did it in practice and it looked great,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “I couldn’t wait to get the thing called.”
All that glitters
The NFL reportedly told Marshawn Lynch that his gilded cleats would be fool’s gold.
Photographs surfaced this week of 24K gold-flake painted $1,100 cleats that Lynch planned to wear Sunday. But Fox reported that the NFL threatened to suspend Lynch if he wore the non-approved cleats.
Lynch wore standard team-colored cleats instead.
They worked just fine, as Lynch rushed for 157 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.
Quick kicks
• Seahawks right tackle Justin Britt missed the game with a knee injury, but is expected to play in the Super Bowl.
• Green Bay receiver Randall Cobb spent three hours in a Seattle hospital Saturday night. Doctors checked for a possible appendicitis, but Cobb was cleared. Sunday, he had a team-high seven catches for 62 yards.
• Sunday’s crowd of 68,538 was a CenturyLink Field record.
