Earl Thomas Gives Middle Finger To a Single Fan in Row 107B

ARIZONA — The Seahawks left Arizona with a narrow 20–17 lead over the Cardinals, but not without any bumps in the road.

Seattle free safety Earl Thomas suffered a leg injury during the game and was carted off the field. During his ride he was shown flipping the bird directly at a long time season ticket holder in row 107B of State Farm Stadium.

Fans lashed out at Thomas across social media for appearing to direct the middle finger at his Seahawk teammates that were standing on the sideline. The theory is attributed to Thomas’s recent contract dispute, which left him particularly disgruntled. This of course would have been pretty egregious considering the callousness of the gesture, and Thomas clarified after the fact that the media reaction was premature.

“No no no, I would never disrespect my teammates that I’ve been out here playing with everyday,” Thomas explained. “That would be incredibly rude and inconsiderate.”

So if not his Seahawks teammates, then who was the one-finger-salute meant for? Thomas addressed the source of confusion.

“I was aiming for a specific guy that happened to be behind our bench in the stands. I tried to line the finger up with him by lifting it a little higher to make it clearly at the height of the stadium seats, but the photos and videos of it made the angle look entirely off. I made sure to stare directly at that guy just to ensure it couldn’t be misinterpreted, but that wasn’t safe enough I guess. I even said to the medical guy driving the cart, ‘Ha Ha bro you have to see what I’m about to do, I’m about to flick off this one individual fan here in a moment and he is gonna be absolutely devastated’ and that still didn’t help. The press just took it and ran.”

We couldn’t reach the fan in question for comment because a lot of people go to these games so we gave up trying to find him.