Even surprise HGH test can be viewed as disrespectful to Earl Thomas, Seahawks

PHOENIX – It wasn't so much a badge of honor as a bandage of dishonor.

Seattle safety Earl Thomas showed up at the Seahawks' media availability on Thursday with gauze wrapped around his right arm from a league blood test he got earlier in the morning. He was happy to show off the bandage; he was not happy about why it was there.

He tweeted:

The suggestion is that the league purposefully tested Thomas because of what he said about his shoulder on Wednesday. It's a serious charge, especially if no one else on either team was tested Thursday morning.

Thomas sat for the better part of an hour and took several questions about the tweet, and kept referring back to it. He neither elaborated nor backed down. "What you read is what it is," he said. Asked if he felt there shouldn't be testing during Super Bowl week, he said, "I don't want to get into that."

The Seahawks relish any and all ingredients for their us-against-the-world stew, but this development can be seen as protecting the team's reputation as much as undercutting it. HGH testing is supposed to prevent unfair advantages – especially during Super Bowl week. If the Seahawks are out to prove themselves as the best team in football, they should welcome a level playing field to reinforce their elite status. At the beginning of Super Bowl week, cornerback Richard Sherman suggested the Patriots would never get punished for deflate-gate because commissioner Roger Goodell is so close to Patriots owner Robert Kraft. In that case, he hinted that the scales are tipped in the opponents' favor. Drug testing is there to make sure the scales aren't tipped. It is supposed to be random, surprising and inconvenient. It's supposed to show the Seahawks don't need an edge.

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Of course the real edge for this team has always been its self-imposed status as disrespected underdogs. This is the latest example of a team looking to be loathed. The most famous instance was when Sherman took very public offense to 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick daring to throw in his direction in the NFC championship game last year. He was apoplectic that Kaepernick thought to "try me" with a "mediocre" receiver like Michael Crabtree. Never mind that Crabtree was a huge reason the 49ers got to that point and a natural target for a game-winning attempt; Sherman saw the pass as a slight and reacted as such.

After the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, the team's receivers stood at their lockers and decried the judgment that had been passed down on them as a group throughout the season. They had showed their true worth as a receiving corps, but they steamed with vindication rather than exultation. Then, a year later after an NFC championship win against the Packers, Doug Baldwin called out the media for undercutting the group again. At this point, nobody believes the Seattle receivers aren't good enough, yet they believe nobody believes them, so that's plenty of fuel.

This year's cause celebre is Marshawn Lynch, who has attained cult hero status for not talking to the media. It's an ingenious strategy, but it's cut from the exact same cloth: The league is treating Lynch unfairly because he doesn't want to talk to reporters. The team has used this too as a rallying point, even staging a funny fake news conference with Sherman and a cardboard cutout of Baldwin.

Legion of Boom is the known moniker; Enemy of the State is just as apt in the Seahawks' minds.

Which brings us back to Thomas, who carries a hefty chip on his shoulder despite drawing nothing but raves from opponents. Thomas has been called "phenomenal" by Tom Brady and he's been compared to Ed Reed by Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Sherman is chatty and clever; Lynch is cautious and cryptic; Thomas is in between – edgy but not effusive. The fire constantly lit under the Seahawks certainly runs on Thomas' attitude as much as anyone else's but we don't hear much in the way of sound bites from him.

That changed Thursday, as Thomas went public with his beef with the league's testing policy. It would be questionable to say the least if Thomas was targeted and no Patriots have been tested all week, but for now it's yet another chance to throw a log of resentment on the Seahawks' always-smoldering fire.

Thomas wore that bandage on Thursday with no shame. To him, it's another arrow he can thwart on social media, in the lab and on the field. To him, a needle prick is another battle scar.