Whether or not Earl Thomas should have raised his

middle finger in the direction of his team’s sideline Jarran Reed Color Rush Jersey , this much is clear: His broken leg amid an ongoing flap with the Seattle Seahawks illustrates why the lack of guaranteed contracts is such a problem for NFL players.This is exactly what Thomas was worried about when he sat out training camp. And when he skipped practices after the season started.There are, of course, all manner of injuries in each and every game, each and every week, around the violent-by-design league.Often, they involve stars — such as Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who left New England’s 38-7 win over Miami with an injured right ankle. Often, they are gruesome — such as what happened to Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert’s lower right leg in Cincinnati’s 37-36 victory at Atlanta, leaving him covering his face with interlocking fingers as he was driven to the locker room.So this given Sunday was no different from any other, really. Thomas’ particular case, though, seemed to resonate — yes, because of his flipping reaction, but also — because he has been so public about his concerns about health and finances.He’s in the final year of his deal and repeatedly has spoken about wanting the extra security of a fresh contract.“I need to make sure my body is 100 (percent) Nick Vannett Color Rush Jersey ,” Thomas said a week ago, “and I’m invested in myself.”Prescient sentiment. In the fourth quarter of Seattle’s 20-17 victory at the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Thomas’s left leg was fractured while he tried to defend against what became a 22-yard touchdown pass. As the six-time Pro Bowl safety was driven away on a cart along Arizona’s sideline, his leg in an air cast, he looked across the field, lifted his right hand and made his anger clear.It elicited a ton of reaction on Twitter, including this nugget from Thomas’ former Seahawks teammate Cliff Avril: “Exactly why guys want extensions.”In case you missed it, here are other top topics after the NFL season’s fourth Sunday:ROUGHING THE PASSERYes, Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was credited with half a sack while helping take down Bills QB Josh Allen in the second quarter as Green Bay beat Buffalo 22-0 . And, lo and behold, Matthews did not get flagged for roughing the passer — the first game this season that he did not get whistled for it. All in all, the uproar caused by the focus on that particular penalty seemed to have an effect, because after an average of more than 10 roughing calls per week through Week 3, there were only five entering the Monday night game. Then again Justin Britt Color Rush Jersey , one of Sunday’s was pretty hard to believe: when Oakland’s Arden Key barely touched Cleveland QB Baker Mayfield.NOT TAKING A KNEEHey, maybe Jaguars coach Doug Marrone was worried that the Jets would return a kickoff for a touchdown, then line up and go for 14? Hard to figure out what else would motivate him to go for a 2-point conversion after a TD put his team ahead 31-12 with 25 seconds left — unless, of course, Marrone just wanted to rub it in a bit against a club that passed him over for its top job. Jets defensive lineman Leonard Williams called it “really disrespectful.” Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson’s take? “He doesn’t like those guys. I don’t know what they did to him, but he doesn’t like them.” And Marrone’s explanation? “On the chart,” he said, “it says go for two.”YOUNG RUNNERSDon’t bother with a running game, they say. Never draft a tailback too high, they insist. Maybe they’re right, but there is a young crop of runners who are looking fantastic right now. There’s second-year back Alvin Kamara, who scored three second-half TDs and finished with 134 yards on the ground in the Saints’ 33-18 victory at the New York Giants, whose rookie Saquon Barkley looks pretty talented, too. Rookie Sony Michel ran for 112 yards and his first NFL TD for the Patriots Nazair Jones Color Rush Jersey , while his college teammate at Georgia, Nick Chubb, needed all of three carries to gain 105 yards and score twice for Cleveland in its 45-42 OT loss at Oakland. Yet another rookie, Kerryon Johnson, bulled through defenders while producing 55 yards and a TD for Detroit, which was beaten 26-24 by Dallas. SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman won’t get as emotional about playing against Seattle this week as he did when the 49ers and Seahawks met two weeks ago.All of that, Sherman insists, is water under the bridge now.Sherman is so calm and cool this time around that he even smiled and chuckled quietly when asked about critical comments made about him by former Seahawks teammate Frank Clark following Seattle’s 21-7 win over Minnesota on Monday.Speaking to a small group of reporters, Clark said that the Sherman era was over in Seattle and that the veteran cornerback needed to worry about his own problems.“Just seems like a guy who’s probably tired of hearing the same questions,” Sherman said Thursday. “I’d probably be pretty annoyed too if we won a game and somebody comes and asks me about a guy who wasn’t either involved in this game or on my team.”Clark, a fourth-year defensive end who leads the Seahawks with 11 sacks, was responding to a question about a comment made by Sherman prior to the Nov. 2 game between the two teams in Seattle. At the time, Sherman said the Seahawks were a “middle of the road” team.Clark and other Seattle players took exception.“That’s just Richard Sherman being Richard Sherman 12th Fan Color Rush Jersey ,” Clark said Monday. “He’s not in this locker room no more so his opinion really doesn’t matter. They’ve got some problems over there in San Fran that he needs to be worried about.“This is my team now. This is my defense. Richard Sherman, his era is over here. If he’s got anything to say about our defense, he can sat it on the field, at the end of the day.”Sherman tried to downplay the issue but was asked if it was an elephant in the room.“It’s like a mouse in the room,” Sherman said. “It’s like kids say the darndest things, you know? It didn’t bother me at all.It’s kind of weird but it doesn’t bother me. The era was over in my mind obviously. I’m here.”Seattle is 8-5 and can clinch a playoff spot with a win over San Francisco on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.Sherman and the 49ers, conversely, are putting the final touches on a disappointing 3-10 season.It’s Sherman’s first year playing on a team with a losing record since his rookie season in 2011, when the Seahawks finished 7-9.Unlike the first time he lined up across from the familiar faces in Seattle, Sherman isn’t anticipating being very emotional when he sees the Seahawks on Sunday. He spent seven years in the Pacific Northwest before Seattle released him last March while Sherman was still recovering from an Achilles injury.“The nostalgia of seeing your friends and seeing the personnel, all the guys that you played with (is over),” Sherman said. “In a couple weeks, I’ll see them again. We’ll be out of the season. We’ll be doing vacations and stuff. It was cool being back in the stadium and everything. This time we’ll be back home. We’ll be grinding it out. We know how it went last time and got a sour taste in our mouth.”__