Seahawks’ WR Ricardo Lockette having neck surgery, out for season

The Seattle Seahawks announced Monday morning that wide receiver and special-teams ace Ricardo Lockette was having surgery in Dallas following Sunday’s hit that required him to be taken off the field on a stretcher in Arlington, Texas.

“Wide receiver Ricardo Lockette sustained ligament damage in his neck that requires surgery to stabilize,” the team’s statement said. “He will undergo surgery this afternoon at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. He has full motion and feeling in all extremities and his prognosis is good. We will provide an update following surgery.”

Coach Pete Carroll told 710-AM radio in Seattle on his weekly show Lockette has his father and other family members at his side in Dallas and that Lockette was “in good spirits.” He is obviously out for the remainder of this season, which for the Seahawks resumes Nov. 15 against Arizona after this week’s bye.

Lockette tweeted a message Monday morning:

Lockette was laid out unconscious in the middle of the field for a few moments during the second quarter of the Seahawks’ 13-12 win at Dallas Sunday. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said it was the scariest scene he’d ever been involved with on any field. Lockette, usually Seattle’s No. 4 wide receiver, had more targets (two) than top wide outs Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse combined well into the second quarter. Then he was getting his usual double-team in the open field while as the gunner running down to cover a punt by Ryan on the next-to-last play of the opening half.

He never saw Dallas safety Jeff Heath turn into him and lift him off his feet with a blow to the upper chest near midfield. As officials flagged Heath for a blindside hit to a defenseless player, Lockette laid motionless on the field near the Cowboys’ star logo. Seahawks team doctor Jonathan Drezner rushed onto the field as soon as the play ended. He was out his side with Dr. Ed Khalfayan, Carroll and most prominently among players safety Earl Thomas, Baldwin and Wilson.

Those three and Carroll stayed with the doctors, trainers and Lockette as he was loaded onto and strapped to a stretcher. His helmet was still on as he was immobilized and taken from the field. Lockette pumped his right arm and raised an index finger to the hushed-then-applauding crowd at AT&T Stadium as he was stretchered off the field, to a hospital.

"It was horrible," Carroll said.

Thomas said he could see Lockette tearing up, with fears of, Why is this happening to me?

“He walk talking, but you could tell it was bothering him,” Baldwin said. “He was just trying to be strong. He’s one of the most loved players in this locker room, so it definitely affected our team.

Baldwin called it “ a relief” for the entire team when Lockette moved his arm and signaled while exiting the stadium.

“That’s the first thing you think about, ‘God, please allow him to still be able to walk,’” Baldwin said.

Wilson echoed that Lockette is “a guy everyone loves.”

"I’m trying to think if I’ve been involved in something that kind of scary; I don’t think I have,” the quarterback said.

"He wasn’t moving, for a little while. He finally started moving his eyes, moving his fingers a little bit. He finally started talking to us. He said, ‘Do it for me, Russ. Do it for me, Doug.’

"Kind of crazy. … One of the best teammates you can have, on and off the field. We are praying for him. ... It was an emotion thing for every single person on this football team. We care for him so much.”

Officials flagged Heath a 15-yard foul for what referee Carl Cheffers announced as "a blind-side" hit, though it was from the front. As Lockette was down both bench areas emptied and players from each team traded shouts and pointed fingers. Tarvaris Jackson was among the most vocal Seahawks barking at Cowboys.

As Lockette was being strapped to the stretcher, teammate Richard Sherman gathered almost all the Seahawks around him a few yards to the left of the injury scene and led what appeared to be a brief, fiery, impassioned talk.

The message: Not stoop into retaliation against the Cowboys and to keep the mission intact of winning the game.

Carroll likened it to a hit former Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate put on Dallas linebacker Sean Lee in the open field during a scramble by Wilson in a 2012 game in Seattle. Tate got a personal foul and $21,000 fine for that.

Sunday Carroll said it appeared to be a hit for which the NFL will fine Heath.

Afterward, Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett vented.

"I thought it was a classless play, from everybody down," Bennett said. "I though their coach could have come to the aid of our player to see if he was OK. That’s what Pete Carroll would have done. I thought Jason Garrett should have done a better job if that.

"I thought the referees sucked. When something happens like that, it is their job to protect the players. But they haven’t been doing a very good job of it this year."

Bryant railed profanely in the other locker room after he saw a video circulating the internet from the Twitter feed of a DFW-area television digital reporter that claimed he was basically taunting the Seahawks and saying Lockette got what he deserved.

"I won't ever, ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player that's been knocked down. C'mon, man. Stop with the bulls***," Bryant said, via Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Not once did I say that's what you get. I got on one knee and prayed for that man.

"I got on one knee and prayed for him. C'mon, man. Don't put clips together and do that.”

Heath told the Star-Telegram he "hated" what happened.

"When I saw that he was injured like that, and he wasn’t moving, I hated it," Heath told the Star-Telegram’s Charean Williams. "My intention is never to hurt anyone. I was playing hard, and he was doing the same thing. I heard he was all right, and I was really happy that he was able to move after when they were taking him off. I just was praying for him. That’s about it."

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Seahawks’ WR Ricardo Lockette having neck surgery, out for season."