Let's face it: Seahawks fans can be a hysterical, dramatic bunch. We're also prone to negativity (which I've tried to make this blog an antidote to), so that often means you hear fans talking about how one move made or NOT made means the team is DOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED! Mike Holmgren taking over the Browns (which I wrote about over on the excellent No Logo Needed blog), coupled with the first consecutive losing seasons for Seattle since the early 90s, has Seahawks fans acting more screamo than usual... "ZOMG! There's no hope for the future! The team is run by Donald Sterling-level incompetent boobs! Paul Allen is going to sell the team back to Ken Behring, who will implode Qwest Field, move the team to L.A., and shower the Space Needle with pig shit!"
Obviously, bad decisions by the front office got the Seahawks to this valley of suckitude, but the assumption that Holmgren was guaranteed to succeed as GM, or that anyone else is destined to fail, is laughably stupid. Let's look at the list of GM candidates Pro Football Talk says the Seahawks are bringing in for interviews:
Cardinals director of player personnel Steve Keim, Chargers director of player personnel Jimmy Raye, Eagles G.M. Tom Heckert, Ravens director of player personnel Eric DeCosta, Packers director of football operations John Schneider, Patriots senior football adviser Floyd Reese, Patriots pro personnel director Jason Licht, Interim Seahawks G.M. Ruston Webster, Chargers consultant Randy Mueller, and 49ers director of player personnel Trent Baalke.
I don't know a ton about these guys specifically, but they're all at least associated with consistently successful teams (with the exception of Baalke and Webster). There's no reason to think any of these guys are drooling morons, and one of them might be football's Theo Epstein for all we know.
That's the other thing. As fans, we're wrong A LOT. I was initially mad when we drafted Lofa Tatupu (as were a lot of other Twelves), and when Epstein traded away Nomar Garciaparra, I was convinced that my Red Sox were frakked. Three months later? World Series Champs.
Bottom line: I don't know if it was the wrong move to let Holmgren walk, and neither do you. Whoever the new GM is, we won't know fuck-all about the guy's skills until we see how the roster he builds performs on the field. Personally, I'd like to see Mora canned because I think he simply doesn't have the right temperament to be a successful head coach. But if he's back in 2010, I'll still renew my season tickets and hope that I'm proven wrong.
For those of you talking about "boycotting" the Seahawks? Fuck you. For realsies. Anyone who would talk about boycotting the team they supposedly love after two bad seasons A) is a fairweather dicktard and B) has no appreciation for how good they've had it this decade. If this is how you really feel, take your Seahawks gear to Goodwill and stock up on Mariners and Sounders stuff. At least I'll know that if I see someone rocking a Carlson jersey, they are a REAL fan.
I've seen the Seahawks be kings of the Seattle sports scene, and I've seen them tumble into lowly serfdom. I don't care about the M's, Sounders, or Huskies, so the Seahawks are MY main emotional connection to my home state. I've endured taunts of Seachickens, Seashits, Seabags, and more from folks festooned in the garb of other Seattle squads, and I've been to games in the Kingdome and Husky Stadium where the stands were half-full or mostly filled by fans of the enemy. And I'm not going anywhere.
Are you? I'm perfectly happy with this blog becoming a haven for dead-ender Twelves, hiding out in the jungle, not knowing or caring that the war is lost. If one bad two-year stretch of football makes you flee, so be it. I'm sure you'll come crawling back when liking the Seahawks is fashionable again.
6 comments:
Hrm, Carlson isn't a bad idea. I'm trying to figure out what name I should get on the back of one of those green jerseys while they are 25 percent off, and I'm stuck between him, Burleson (who may not be with the team anymore but I still love), Curry, or Weaver (who I miss).
Oh, and if any of you are thinking of boycotting, that's just fine with me. More season tickets for the real fans like myself. You think the people with the good seats signed up for the waiting list in '05? Lol, I made myself laugh just typing that.
Leiwike is a smart guy. I have confidence that he will pull something Zduriencik-like. (If you don't know that name, google it.)
Someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, the Seahawks will be back on top of the league, and the stadium will be filled with the people who had enough passion to endure losses.
Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about bitches! Shut the fuck up! Thank you for your words of wisdom DKSB. I'm sick of the Seabitch fans.
Absolutely WORD, O Bearded One!
Made me go and grow a beard of my own.
All the Chicken Littles can SUCK IT if they think that firing all the coaches and front office staff and cutting all the players, especially the young ones with upside (Curry, Tapp, LoJack, Sims) and the vets that perform superbly within a halfway decent program (Hass, JJ, Housh) will solve all that's wrong with this franchise.
Yo, Chicken Little, you REALLY wanna become an expansion team all over again by replacing all those coaches and front office staff all at once and starting a bunch of rookies like Teel?
Just remember the immortal words of George Argyros, owner of the Mariners who averaged about 100 losses a year EVERY FUCKING YEAR he owned them:
"Patience is for losers."
Do you REALLY want to jettison all the talent so they can earn rings elsewhere just because you have the long term vision and commitment of a hiccup?
Piss off, Chicken Littles everywhere.
First time over here at DKSB, but I catch you over at Field Gulls from time to time.
It's worth acknowledging that people have cause to be upset. You can make a pretty good case that this team is playing worse than last year despite the record. We just got walloped by a team that NOBODY thought was better than us on our home field.
The real source of anguish though, in my humble opinion, is unease about the future. I was definitely in favor of playing the market rather than settling for Holmgren, the known quantity. Still, it's anxiety-producing to *know* that this is a watershed off-season and yet have no feel for how it's going to go.
I'm not a Seachicken but more of a realist. This isn't a good team, hasn't been all season, despite the desire/hope of fans and blog writers. The reality is, it's expensive to be a season ticket holder and in my personal economy, I don't have money to waste on a crap product. I could buy a whole season of Sunday ticket for less than what it costs to go to ONE game and shut it off when the whole thing goes south. I'm a Seahawks fan, always will be but your rational that we should just buy what amounts to a broken piece of crap on the shelf and not even look at something that might be a worthy investment is a land of delusion I wish I could live in.
Side note: I have no inclination to give up my tickets but anticipating this sort of crap for another year is like looking forward my yearly mammogram
hawkgirl,
I'm not talking about people who have to give up their tix because of $$ issues... It's rough out there... I'm talking about the fucking dipshits blathering about "boycotting" the Seahawks after TWO bad years. WTF?
DC,
Yeah, that was the most humiliating moment for Seahawks fans since 2-14 happened. I think big changes need to be made... I just get the strong sense from a lot of fans that's they've already decided that we're in for another decade of shitty, 90s-esque football... It's WAYYYY to soon to jump to that conclusion.
BHB,
I actually think the majority of the roster could stand to be traded or cut. A core of a dozen or so guys should be kept, but I think pretty much every else is expendable for the right deal. Many can and will be cut outright.
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