A blind Seattle artist and his guide dog were kicked out of a Seattle restaurant when one of the workers accused the customer of faking his blindness.

Paul Castle, who is legally blind, claimed he entered the unnamed eatery with his service dog, Mr. Maple, but was instantly met by the wary worker.

“I walked in with my guide dog, Mr. Maple, and immediately somebody rushed up to me and said ‘no pets allowed, only service dogs,’” Castle said in a TikTok post on May 7.

“I said ‘It’s ok, he’s a service dog.’” the author said. “He looked at me, he looked at Maple, he said ’emotional support dog?’”

According to WAFB, Castle has less than 10 percent of his vision.

He insisted that Mr. Maple was a “guide dog for the blind” before showing off the pooch’s designated harness to the worker.

Castle told the employee he was blind, but the man wasn’t buying the artist’s story.

“‘You don’t look blind,” the man stated before Castle explained that “a lot of people in the blind community still have some functional vision.”

“You’re looking right at me,” “Yes but it’s like I have a pinhole of vision, it is all I can see.”

Castle described his vision as “sort of like looking through a straw. I have no peripheral vision, the rest of my visual field is full of static.”

“Listen, this isn’t my first rodeo,” the man reportedly said.

Castle offered to return to the establishment with Mr. Maple’s paperwork, but the employee threatened to call the police if they stepped “foot back in this restaurant.”

Castle and his husband Matthew run the “Matthew and Paul” TikTok account, which has garnered over 2.1 million followers, and was created to give viewers an inside look at the lives of blind people while also spreading awareness about blindness.

“I was speechless, I was shaking,” Castle told the outlet. “I was really upset and disappointed.”

“When I encounter a situation like this where I’m fully rejected not only for my dog, but because my own disability wasn’t believed, it makes me really sad on top of all the struggles that I already kind of deal with,” Castle said.

Federal law prohibits private businesses that provide goods or services from discriminating against individuals with disabilities including those that need service animals.

The goal of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to goods and services.

The law also disallows businesses from asking for documentation, and animals do not have to wear a vest or harness that indicates they are trained for a specific service.

According to the ADA, To help separate service animals from pets, a business may ask two questions when a person with an animal enters a place of public accommodation:

1. Is the animal required because of a disability?
2. What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

Castle, who is not taking any legal action, didn’t name the restaurant where he was thrown out, because he doesn’t want them to face backlash.

He says he shared his experience for educational purposes and, after his video went viral, reached out to the restaurant where he talked to the manager who was sincerely apologetic and promised to better train the employees.

With OTAs now opening across the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks will open training camp at the VMAC in a little over two months, officially ushering in the first season under new coach Mike Macdonald.

In preparation for the new incoming season, we’ll be detailing every member of the Seahawks 90-man roster over the next several weeks, diving into scheme fits, exploring best and worst case scenarios, and predicting what to expect from each player entering the 2024 campaign.

Reuniting with former high school teammate Byron Murphy II in Seattle, can Devere Levelston make an impact in a crowded defensive line room?

Levelston started at Tyler Junior College after graduating from DeSoto High School in Texas, where he starred alongside Murphy. He accrued 12.5 tackles for loss and 5.0 sacks before transferring to SMU. While at SMU, Levelston started in 26 games but despite playing in 13 games, only three of his 26 starts came in 2023. In his four seasons at the FBS level, Levelston made 90 tackles, including 16.0 for loss and 11 sacks. His highest season of production came in 2021 when Sonny Dykes was the head coach, as made 38 tackles with 10.5 for loss and 6.5 sacks and his production fell off once new coach Rhett Lashlee took over. After a quiet final season with the Mustangs, he signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent.

During his time at SMU, Levelston played all across the defensive line. In 2021, he played 355 snaps at right defensive end and 179 in the interior but still on the right side. However, by 2023, Levelston was mostly on the inside with 324 snaps at 3-tech defensive tackle and only 37 at defensive end. In Mike Macdonald’s defense, he looks to be a defensive end, but will likely need to add some weight to make that happen. He is currently listed at 281 pounds, which is a bit light to play in the trenches in a 3-4 defense. That could be an issue though since he isn’t a great athlete and doesn’t have a great get-off on the ball, attributes that could be even worse with extra mass.

Levelston’s experience playing all across the defensive line and as a stand up rusher could give him a leg up on the competition vying for reps. If he’s able to play at multiple spots and make some plays in preseason games, he could be a practice squad candidate to develop and potentially compete for a roster spot down the road.

Due to Levelston not being the ideal size for the position and lacking preferred athletic traits, it could be a struggle for him to get on the field and show what he can do in a deep depth chart. A textbook tweener, he receives a pink slip early in training camp without getting any preseason snaps in Seattle.

Previously finding success at SMU hunting down quarterbacks, Levelston is an intriguing player with his versatility and size. However, versatility likely won’t help him that much when you consider that he doesn’t have the ideal size to play defensive tackle, where he is currently projected to play for the Seahawks, and tested poorly athletically in most drills at his pro day.

If he can use his length and his 91st percentile broad jump can help him get off the ball and penetrate, Levelston could make enough of an impact in the preseason to warrant a practice squad spot, and it’s possible he could benefit from playing alongside Murphy again to bring out his best on the practice field. However, he first will have to carve out consistent reps in a crowded defensive line group and that will be a tough lineup to crack for an undrafted rookie of his talent level.

Previous 90-Man Roundups

Buddha Jones | Devin Richardson | TaMerik Williams | Rason Williams II | Ro Torrence | Nathan Pickering | Dee Williams

The Seattle Mariners left Yankee Stadium with a split from their four-game series against the team with the best record in the American League, but the two losses that came back to back in the final two games of the set were not encouraging on the offensive side.

What should we make of three struggling Mariners additions?

What stands out after that series as the AL West-leading M’s now head to Washington, D.C., for three games against the lowly Nationals?

Bob Stelton of Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob is back for another edition of Bob’s Baseball Breakdown. This week, he discusses:

• His biggest takeaways from the first two series of the road trip
• What he would do to ignite Julio Rodríguez’s power
• Who is the best arm on the staff right now
• What he wants to see over the next week of games

Tune in to Wyman and Bob from 2-7 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More on the Seattle Mariners

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• Rojas says he picked up Yanks’ pitch tipping on Moore HR
• M’s make three-player trade with Orioles for bullpen help
• What stands out about AL West-leading Seattle Mariners to Blowers
• Hot start by Seattle Mariners’ Bryan Woo isn’t all about him that’s ‘absurd’