Pete Carroll recruited DeMarco Murray to play at USC as a defensive back.

Murray was coming out of high school as a star running back and decided instead to attend Oklahoma where he followed in the footsteps of Adrian Peterson.

"Pete probably could have made him an NFL corner because DeMarco is so long and athletic," recalled his high school coach, David White. "DeMarco was curious and interested about it, but he really wanted a shot at running back, and USC had three or four guys committed already. He just wanted a real chance to see if he could make it at the next level at running back."

Pete Carroll denied that there are issues in the relationship of Marshawn Lynch and the Seattle Seahawks.

"I have nothing to say about that because there's nothing to that," Carroll said Monday. "I have no idea where that came from."

An ESPN.com story Sunday said the organization has grown tired of Lynch's ways, including pulling a no-show at the White House Super Bowl ceremony, his training camp holdout and his possible contribution to locker room distractions, according to sources.

"At this point, I don't think it behooves us to try to respond to all these kinds of things," Carroll said. "Our players have told you how they feel about it, and we're in a really good place right now. It's just not worth it, but there's nothing to that."

Lynch missed the first eight days of training camp over a contract dispute. He has rushed for 482 yards on 111 carries this season.

"He's doing fine," Carroll said of Lynch. "He works his tail off. Since the day he got back here, he looked terrific. He returned in great shape. He's done everything we ask of him. He's always ready to play and he's doing great."

A report from Bleacher Report over the weekend suggested that some of Russell Wilson's teammates on the Seattle Seahawks didn't believe he was "black enough" and that he has too close of a relationship with the front office.

"Nobody in here said that," Richard Sherman said. "It's made up."

Wilson had a similar response, though he didn't directly contradict the veracity.

"Black enough? I don't even know what that means," Wilson said. "I'm just an educated, well-spoken male."

Russell Wilson had nothing to do with the Seattle Seahawks' trade of Percy Harvin to the New York Jets, according to sources.

Wilson had known for about a month that the Seahawks were planning on trading Harvin. Wilson argued with general manager John Schneider and Pete Carroll to keep Harvin on the team.

Any "envy" directed toward Wilson in the locker room is more aligned with quarterback dynamics, including the fact he has major marketing endorsements, sources said.

Wilson, however, makes about half the salary of backup Tarvaris Jackson.

The so-called divided locker room is very much overstated, sources said.

Marshawn Lynch has not been put on the trading block by the Seattle Seahawks, but both sides do not expect him to remain with the franchise in 2015.

The Seahawks have grown tired of Lynch's behavior, including not showing up for their White House Super Bowl ceremony, holding out in training camp and his possible contribution to locker room issues.

The Seahawks are unlikely to trade Lynch since they are currently thin at running back behind him.

Some players on the Seattle Seahawks reportedly believe Russell Wilson is too close to the front office and doesn't always take blame for his mistakes. 

"There is also an element of race that needs to be discussed," Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman wrote. "My feeling on this -- and it's backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players -- is that some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough."

Kenny Mayne added this to Freeman's story:

“Two sources — one inside the team, one outside of the underachieving 3-3 Seahawks — tell me that much of what was written in Mike Freeman's Bleacher Report column is true,” Mayne said, via PFT. “(Freeman) wrote of turmoil involving since-traded Percy Harvin and the quarterback Russell Wilson that led to a more widespread internal battle pitting those for Russell Wilson and those against. 

"And Freeman surmised on his own an issue among some teammates regarding Wilson that quote, 'he isn't black enough.' A certain expected behavior based on color, apparently. One of the sources told me, quote, I don't know how he got all that stuff, but it's pretty much true. We do have a divide. We're working on it. Thursday that notion was not presented to Wilson, but over and again, questions came about Harvin's departure.”

First, as PFT's Mike Florio points out, Freeman didn't "surmise" this. It was his feeling "backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players." Second, "that notion" was presented to Wilson.

“There's no division in our locker room,” the third-year quarterback told the media. “There's none at all. If anything, I think we've continued to build, continued to grow. I truly believe that. I think that the guys that we have in the locker room, the guys that believe that we can still go 1 and 0 and still be a championship team; those are the guys that we have sitting in this room every day. Every morning when we wake up, we're looking for one common goal and that's to win football games.”

Cam Newton won't needlessly challenge Richard Sherman, but he also won't be afraid to throw in his direction.

"If the play is called for me to read it to Richard's side, by all means I'm going to do it," Newton said Wednesday. "And I'm going to give each and every receiver an opportunity to make plays.

"I'm not going to force it. I'm not going to be an idiot. I'm going to do a great job of protecting the football and be aggressively patient in taking what the defense gives me." 

Seattle's opponents already have as many touchdowns (6) throwing to Sherman's side as they did in 2014. 

Sherman will likely draw Kelvin Benjamin on a lot of snaps.

Marshawn Lynch was reportedly upset over the Seattle Seahawks' decision to trade Percy Harvin, but his agent denies reports that he refused to get on the team's bus.

"These reports of @MoneyLynch going off and not wanting to get on bus are absurd," Hendrickson tweeted on Tuesday. "Please report accurate stories and not bogus ones."

The Seattle Seahawks were prepared to release Percy Harvin if they were unable to trade him.

The Seahawks had until the NFL's trade deadline of Oct. 28 to move Harvin, but the desire to cut him loose was no longer a debate within the organization, the sources said.

According to sources, Russell Wilson wanted to be part of the solution, helping Harvin with the anger management and trust issues that created numerous incidents and tension in the organization.

The Seahawks have agreed to trade wide receiver Percy Harvin to the Jets, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Seattle will receive a conditional draft pick in 2015, which will range from a second- to fourth-round pick, a source told ESPN's John Clayton.

Fox Sports first reported the trade, which it says is contingent on Harvin passing a physical.