My 12th Man Flag-Raiser Wish List

It's almost a month before our next home game, so I thought it might be fun to look at who should be raising the 12th man flag at our six (hopefully 7 or 8) remaining home games in 2010. Here's the list of people who have already raised the flag, all of which I'm eliminating from contention. I'm also going to leave out people working for another NFL team right now (so no Holmgren, Zorn, etc). Here we go:

8. Brian Blades
I'm guessing Blades hasn't been asked because of the nasty business surrounding his trail for manslaughter (he was eventually acquitted of charges that he intentionally shot his cousin). That's about the only explanation for not having this dude raise the flag. He started out during the Knox years, and endured the Behring era nicely, putting up receiving numbers bested only by Steve Largent himself. Side note: I bumped into him and Bennie Blades at Gameworks in Seattle the day before this fucking disaster.

7. Darryl Williams
Williams patrolled the middle for Seattle from 1996-1999; in 1997 he made the Pro Bowl, and nearly KILLED Rickey Dudley... Watch:



6. Michael Sinclair
Sinclair might be a bit busy, given that he's the D-Line coach for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes right now... But he's one of the most notable Seahawk to have never raised the flag. Only Jacob Green racked up more career sacks in Seattle than Sinclair, who reached the Pro Bowl three times with the Hawks and notched a league-leading 16.5 sacks in 1998.

5. Chris Warren
I know we'd all like to forget the dark days of Behring, but Chris Warren is one player worth remembering from the early + mid '90s. Only Shaun Alexander rushed for more yards as a Seahawk than Warren did in the Flores/Erickson years. Hell, in the lost season of 1992, the guy somehow ran for 1000 yards despite being surrounded by one of the worst offenses of all time.

4. Darrell Jackson
People hammered D-Jack over all the dropped passes, but he's still one of my all-time favorite Seahawks. In the entire history of the franchise, only Steve Largent has more touchdown catches than Jackson, and only Largent and Blades have more receiving yards. I'd love to see him return and enjoy the roar of the Qwest crowd one more time.

3. Joe Jurevicius
JJ only played one season with the Seahawks, but what a year! In the NFC Title year of 2005, JJ scored 10 touchdowns and was probably our main offensive threat besides Shaun Alexander. His career came to a bad end in Cleveland, but he'll always have a place in the hearts of us Twelves, based on 19 games in 2005-2006.

2. Shaun Alexander
SA is still a divisive figure among Seahawks fans, but to me there is no doubt he deserves not only to raise the flag, but to also have a spot in the Ring of Honor. One question is whether you do both at the same game. I'm guessing they'd split the two honors up. Alexander also might be saved for an important late-season or playoff game.

1. Walter Jones
Obviously, this will happen eventually. It's kind of delicate though, for a few reasons. A) How much, if at all, do we want to split up Flag Raising/Ring of Honor/Retirement of #71? B) Do you hold out for a possible playoff game? I think Big Walt will be saved for the NFC Wild Card game, don't you?

Did I miss anyone really obvious? What do you think, sirs?

Seahawks 27, Chargers 20

Pete Carroll's Seahawks have packed more excitement into three weeks than the Twelve Army has seen from the boys in blue over the last two YEARS. We've seen fuck-ups galore, but the revelation is that despite that parade of errors, Seattle's players now FIGHT. Where we once saw complacency and malaise, now we see hunger and urgency. Today was only the beginning of a string of terribly nerve-wracking and stressful afternoons for Seahawks fans. We won't win all of these type of games, but we will win MOST of them. The conclusion is inescapable: Seattle is headed for the playoffs, barring some unforeseen calamity.

I'm a propagandist for this team, but I'm not a bullshitter. In many phases of the game, the Seahawks SUCKED today. We saw the offense completely disappear in the 2nd half, and we saw a baffling string of odd/harebrained play-calling/clock management decisions from the coaching staff. The defense gave up WAYYYYY too many yards through the air, and still had problems getting off the field on 3rd downs. This is not an elite team; on a neutral field they'd be fairly termed an average NFL team or worse...

But thank the ghost of Tom Catlin that half our games are at Qwest Field! There simply isn't a more hostile environment an enemy squad could experience, and it is no exaggeration to say the Twelves at Qwest deserve a game ball as much as Leon Washington... 6-2 at home? I'd be shocked if we did any worse. 7-1? Very feasible. 8-0? Why the fuck not? Shit, if we go 8-0 at Qwest, we'd likely win the division with just one teeny-tiny road win (at STL next week, for example).

I mentioned Leon: The Professional. Obviously, he's an amazing story, and every TD must be a dagger in Rex Ryan's rapidly shrinking gut... What bugs me is that you already have people whining about this being a "lucky" win for the Seahawks. A big part of that ignorance is the mistaken notion that Special Teams is somehow a series of random events, in some way less controllable than offense or defense. This is horseshit.

Yeah, the Chargers outgained the Seahawks 518-271. Who gives a fuck when you've got Leon Washington racking up 253(!) kickoff return yards and two god damn touchdowns? Yeah, Philip Rivers threw for 455 yards. Good for him and his fantasy owners. He also threw 2 key interceptions to Earl Thomas and took a pretty fucking brutal beating. Finally, the Chargers didn't turn the ball over five times. The Seahawks TOOK the ball away 5 times, you sumbitches!

Winning football can be defense, special teams, and an offense that doesn't fuck up too often. It worked today, and I think it can work at least seven more times this season. Don't you? Side note: This will sound weird coming from me, but I think this team could win with Whitehurst under center. I still don't think it's time to make the switch, but I'm less panicked about that notion than I was before today's game.

Enjoy this, my fellow Twelves. Enjoy one of the most exciting wins in recent history, and don't sweat the negative details. We'll win again in the Costco Warehouse STL calls an NFL stadium next week, and go into the bye commanding the NFC West at 3-1. Pretty sweet, huh?

Remember that "lucky" win over NYG in 2005? The Seahawks built on that... It was part of a special season. I don't expect the '10s to go THAT far, but I believe more strongly every week that we are destined to witness something special from our Seahawks this season.

What do you think, sirs?

(A final, special shout out to the reader who hooked me up with Sunday Ticket online. Watching at home and screaming like a girl at a Justin Beiber concert beats the shit out of trudging to a sports bar.)

Dress to the Eights, Twelves.

Let's get the unpleasantness out of the way: Matt Hasselbeck isn't the quarterback he used to be, and his tenure under center with the Seahawks is near its end. We've reached the point where every week he is playing to keep his job; The next performance he has like last Sunday in Denver might be his finale as an NFL starting quarterback.

I want to be clear: The second that Charlie Whitehurst actually would give us a better chance to win, I will want Beck to get the hook. There's no room for misty-eyed sentimentality and nostalgia in an NFL front office.

This much is ALSO clear: While my confidence in Hasselbeck is fading, I have ZERO confidence in Whitehurst. It seems Coach Carroll feels the same way, and I think as long as Hasselbeck is healthy and the Seahawks are in playoff contention, this change will have to wait (If we are 1-3 going into the bye, we might still be technically in "playoff contention," but presumably we'd be coming off not just three straight losses, but also three steaming-loaf performances by Matthew- I'd expect a QB change in that scenario before the Chicago game).

So the painful ending that we see for so many athletic careers is nigh for Matt Hasselbeck... That's obvious. But this week, he is still Seattle's starting quarterback. This week, he comes home to a friendly Qwest Field crowd. He can still be effective this week, and the Seahawks can (and will) win this game.

So I'm asking everyone out there who reads this blog: If you have a Hasselbeck jersey, wear it on Blue Friday. Particularly if you are going to the game on Sunday, wash it on Saturday and wear it again on gameday. Roar like T-Rexes when he is introduced, and for the love of fuckin' fuck: Don't boo the man.

I HATE when fans at Qwest boo the Seahawks in general, but booing Hasselbeck is supremely fucked up and makes one deserving of a robust, lusty dick-punching. Why?

A) What is it going to accomplish? Do you actually think Carroll will yank him because you yell boooooo?

B) What are you booing? The inevitable decline we all encounter as we age? No one has ever questioned Matthew's commitment to this team, his work ethic, his willingness to play with pain, and on and on.

C) If you boo Hasselbeck, you reveal your utter ignorance/contempt for the dude's place in Seahawks history. Beck is without question the best QB in franchise history, and one of the top 5 players of said history. Over the last 10 years he's given us much more joy than heartbreak, and has refreshingly brought a little bit of humanity to what is increasingly a robotic, corporate NFL.

Some of you might be covertly or overtly hoping Beck sucks on Sunday, in order to hasten the dawn of the glorious Whitehurst age. To you, I echo what the young magician once said to GOB Bluth: Fuck off, traitor. Like it or not, Beck is our QB this Sunday. If he has a bad game, we will probably lose. Rooting for the Seahawks to lose makes you look like a huge fuckbag of assholes (or a Niners fan).. So don't fucking do it.

Next year, Matt Hasselbeck will be retired or holding a clipboard in another NFL city. My hope is that he (and the team) can cobble together enough decent performances that we can win the NFC West and he can leave Seattle on a high note. If a more unpleasant scenario plays out, I'll deal with it when it happens. Until then, Beck has my heart, and he'll have my support.

How about you?

Broncos 31, Seahawks 14

Today's events were so familiar that both teams should have worn '80s throwback unis: The Seahawks go into Mile High in September and come away with a stinging, humbling defeat... Thankfully, back in the day many of those Seahawks teams would bounce back and make the playoffs.

Today sucked, but my belief that the Seahawks will make the playoffs remains unshaken. Seattle isn't as good as they looked last week or as bad as they looked today. Wherever they are between those extremes, they are better off than they were a year ago, and certainly on the path towards consistently competing for the postseason.

The most troubling aspect of today's blowout (besides the utter lack of pressure upon Kyle Orton) was the performance of Matt Hasselbeck, who was rarely seriously pressured but still threw three BAD interceptions. I'm not with Field Gulls here: I don't think Beck is done; But I am concerned. If, Rozelle forbid, we stand at 1-3 going into the bye week, it might be time to see what Charlie Whitehurst has to offer.

Thankfully we aren't there yet. The notoriously slow-starting Chargers come to Qwest next week, and I have no doubt the Seahawks will bounce back and take care of San Diego. This season will not be for the faint-hearted: Seattle will look like Super Bowl contenders one week, only to look like a expansion team the next week. We will know if we are moving in the right direction if the team gets more consistent as the season goes one.

I'm optimistic by nature, but I really like a lot of things I'm seeing from these CarrolHawks: There were a lot of fuck-ups today, but there wasn't the lack of effort we saw from the MoraHawks last year. Golden Tate and Deon Butler showed us very encouraging flashes of brilliance today, and the run defense looked solid again.

So relax, fellow Twelves. Kick back and enjoy the beating the Saints are going to lay upon the Niners Monday night, and know that we are still on track to win our division and host a playoff game next January.... and limber up those vocal chords, because we need everyone at Qwest cranked up to "Fighter Jet Fly-by" next Sunday.

This is a team on the upswing, going through growing pains... it's no longer a decrepit, rotting zombieteam. Even after a blowout defeat like we took today, that much is still clear.

What do you think, sirs?

Go read my Tweets!

I'm off to a sports bar to watch today's action, but I'll be tweeting all day... My username on twitter is DKSB17, of course.

GO SEAHAWKS!

A Tiny Bit of Sympathy for the Enemy

Within the space of four days last week, I was part of the blue and green horde cheering the Seahawks to victory at Qwest AND an evil minion of Red Sox Nation invading Safeco Field. I've beaten this topic to death both here and at Field Gulls, but I just wanted to make a couple final comments about being a Road Warrior for one's team...

I didn't like seeing all the Niners fans at Qwest on Sunday either, and I admit I yelled more than a few taunts at SF passers-by. However, I don't get the blind frothing hatred ignited by the mere sight of opposing fans at our stadium. If you think that 49ers fans shouldn't be at Qwest, then YOU should never go see a Seahawks game on the road, right?

I don't know how many of you have seen a Seahawks game on the road, but I have fortunate enough to attend nine away games since 2001. Nothing beats seeing a game at Qwest, but watching the Seahawks win in front of thousands of enemy fans IN THEIR STADIUM? That's pretty amazing too. If any of you have the means, repping the Hawks in a hostile stadium is something EVERY Twelve should experience.

Given that I've been on the other side, as the agent behind enemy lines, I don't begrudge all those Niners fans the right to be at Qwest.. I was very happy they all went home unhappy, of course. It also makes me smile to think about how much some of those Niners fans must have paid to sit in those club seats behind the SF bench. If I'm mad at anyone, it's the fabulously wealthy season ticket holders who allowed those Niners partisans into the stadium by selling their seats.

I only got into one minor verbal scuffle at Safeco the other day, when I reminded someone flipping me shit that by buying thousands of tickets, us Red Sox fans were literally helping the Mariners make payroll... Remember, no revenue sharing in MLB, kids.

The bottom line is that I'm glad people go root for the road team at games from coast-to-coast. Unanimity is boring, don't you think?

Is anyone going to the game in Denver on Sunday? I'd love to hear eye-witness reports from anyone who is attending.

Seahawks 31, 49ers 6

My pictures from today's game on Flickr

I was down near the Seahawks tunnel before the game at Qwest Field today, doing my usual up-close gawking at all the pre-game pageantry (side note: TWO different people actually recognized me from the blog, which was very humbling... almost as humbling as shaking Chad Brown's hand just before kick-off)... I noticed something odd: 49ers Coach Mike Singletary doing lap after lap around the edge of the playing surface, like he was a mall-walking retiree trying to maintain his figure. It was very odd to see an NFL Head Coach emulating the exercise routines of the elderly, but upon reflection it made sense: This is a coach of the old school, living in what he believes is a glorious bygone era of tough-guy football.

At the same time, Pete Carroll was winging fairly impressive spirals around the Seahawks sidelines and was clearly loose, prepared and confident about his game plan and his players. One coach looked forward, the other backward. We all knew who won the day, don't we?

The Forty-Niners are, at the most basic level, bullies. They are all aggression and bullshit macho posturing, built in their Coach's image. They are dirty and dumb... all balls and no brains. If the Niners were Scut Farkas, today our Seahawks were Ralphie Parker, finally snapping and taking down the blustering bully with great vengeance and furious anger.

It was rapturously awesome to see the Seahawks not just beat the 49ers, but physically punish and abuse them. Alex Smith was never going to be the next Montana or Young, but today we saw him just as lost and helpless as he was in 2007. The only difference between today and that game at the Stick three years ago was that Smith's shoulder survived... This time. Can I mention again how terrible of a coach Singletary is? He constantly leaves points on the board, and his team is a gaggle of undisciplined punks.

Carroll's minions in blue? After a shaky start, it all seemed to come together... an imaginative offensive game plan from Jeremy Bates, orchestrated by a savvy, veteran Quarterback (who was barely touched today... thanks O-line)... a ferocious but disciplined defense fueled into overdrive by the Twelve Army. San Francisco was utterly unprepared for what the Hawks threw at them, and it was a joy to behold.

When was the last time the Hawks delivered such a cathartic win? Such a statement that not only would Seattle win the day, but that the future belonged to us too? Simultaneously, our hated rivals tumbled back into Limbo, into the dreary knowledge that the glorious Niner restoration STILL isn't happening. In the words of R.E.M., The Future Never Happened.

There's already a lot of Seahawks fans trying to downplay this win. Fuck that. I predicted that the Seahawks would win the NFC West, and now I GUARANTEE they will... You, my friends, will have a home playoff game to watch in January. I will be at Qwest screaming until my soul spills out, and Mike Singletary and his Niners will be at home, watching on television.

As usual.

Saturday Update

I'm heading over to Seattle today, and my internet access might be spotty. I'll be at the game, though, and be tweeting and posting pics over at my DKSB17 twitter account.

A quick, personal September 11, 2001 story:

My future wife and I went to the Seahawks/Browns game in Cleveland on 9/9/01. President Bush did the coin toss via satellite, and he was VICIOUSLY booed by the fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium. This wasn't shocking to me, given that Cleveland is a Democratic stronghold, but given Bush's spectacular boost in popularity two days later, it's an odd little historical artifact.

Seahawks win... Woo!

I flew out west to my parents' place in the Tri-Cities on 9/10/01. The plan was to spend a few days at home, then go over to Seattle to see my college peeps and catch the Seahawks/Chiefs game at Husky Stadium.

Things didn't go according to plan.

About 6 am, I woke up with my body still on eastern time. I turned on the TV, which was on the Weather Channel from the night before. I watched for about 60 seconds, and they were talking about some weird event taking place in New York.. Still half asleep, I was flummoxed. Then my fiancée called, and frantically told me to turn on the news.

I did, just in time to watch the second plane hit. It still is beyond my comprehension that millions watched thousands die on live television that morning. My trip continued under the dark could of national tragedy and mass murder on an unspeakable scale, with the Seahawks game understandably postponed until January.

I don't want to make any overt political statements today, other than restating my belief that we best honor the victims of these attacks by maintaining and protecting our basic liberties rather than curtailing them.

As the Brits said during the Nazi blitz: Keep Calm and Carry On.

We Are Standing on the Edge

There's been so much angst and frustration amongst Seahawks fans in the last few days, I feel sort of obligated to talk about the things I am EXCITED about seeing this season. Here we go:





-I'm excited to take my seat at Qwest Field next Sunday, and scream myself hoarse with 67,000 of my closest friends. No other venue in the NFL is as beautiful as Qwest Field, and no experience in sports is quite like being part of that roaring din when the enemy has the ball on a critical 3rd down in a close game.

-I'm excited to see Matt Hasselbeck try to regain his Holmgren-era Pro Bowl form. Beck is one of my favorite Seahawks of all time, and I'm going to savor every snap he takes this season (in part because every snap he takes might be his last as a Seahawk).

-I'm excited to watch Mike Williams and Leon Washington complete what would be two amazing career resurgences, one from two years OOF (out of football) and one from a horrific broken leg.

-I'm excited to see the development of the young talent that will lead us in the coming decade: We will watch players like Okung, Curry, Thomas and Tate take strides towards (hopefully) long and productive NFL careers.

-I'm excited to watch Seahawks legends Lofa Tatupu and Marcus Trufant return to form, and continue their twin march into the Ring of Honor.

-I'm excited to watch Pete Carrol and Jeremy Bates try crazy new shit. Yes, they will fail sometimes, but it would be nice to see the Seahawks take some risks, and I think that's exactly what we'll see this season.

-I'm excited to see all the unpredictable shit that always happens in an NFL season, for good or ill. We might lose a game or two we are supposed to win, but I'm damn sure we are going to sneak up and steal a couple games no one gives us a chance to win.

-I'm excited for that terrible, queasy, not-at-all pleasurable feeling I get for 3+ hours every Sunday when the Seahawks are playing. That feeling has become very familiar over the last 27 years, and I don't know what I'd do without it.

-I'm excited to watch this team learn and grow. If this is the start of something special, I will be able to say I was there from the start. Imagine if you were a Rams fan in 1997... a Patriots fan in 2000... and so on... and you were able to say "I was there when they started to turn things around. I was there from the beginning."

It begins next Sunday. Will you be there?

Bonus: Radiohead performing "Lucky"

"This is Your Team"

Here's the 53-man roster. What do y'all think?

So long, Housh.

Here I am again, defending a Seahawks front office move I don't like very much. Housh was probably going to be the best receiver on the 2010 Seahawks, even coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. TJH can get open and he can catch the ball in traffic. Those are not skills to be thrown away lightly.

But let's say that Housh matched his 2009 totals this season, while taking playing time away from Deon Butler, Golden Tate and Mike Williams. Let's also say that if the season went south, he started squawking about wanting the ball more, or wanting to be traded to a contender. These are headaches for a team that is looking to get young, and start fresh. The Seahawks are still on the hook for whatever part of $7 million Housh doesn't get from another team, but presumably this move will save a bit of money as well.

Like the Wilson trade, this is a move I don't like, but I can see some of the logic behind it and I can hold off judgement until I see what the results are on the field over the short, medium and long terms.

The reality is Carroll and Schneider are going to be running things for AT LEAST the next two years, even if the team plummets into abysmal crapulence. Most of these moves have left me feeling queasy, but I really have no choice but to hope for the best, and believe that the Master and Commander knows what he's doing. Getting younger and turning over a roster that won 9 games since I started this blog in January 2008 seem like good strategies in theory, but we won't know if the right decisions have been made for some time.

In other news, I feel like a schmuck for trading away Mike Williams in fantasy... Dude might just blow up this year.

What do you think, sirs?

"Where's the Fuck You, Where's the Black and Blue?"

I've been ruminating a lot about the bone-deep problems in the Seahawks fan base since the reactions to the Josh Wilson trade rocketed right into loony "Oh noes! My favorite band is breaking up" territory... I hinted at this notion before, but I wanted to explain it in more detail: Seahawks fans have a confidence problem.

When I was growing up and trying to date girls, I suffered from an overabundance of honesty. I was too honest about how I felt about them, and too honest about how I felt about myself (which wasn't very good). This led them either to bolt for the hills, or quickly and firmly place me in the "friend zone," as they dated giant assholes who had the virtue of self-confidence. I was told over and over that I had to "fake it until I made it."

I never got to that point with women. I was lucky enough to find one who liked me as I was, so I never had to put on that bullshit act. But I think this can be applied to Seahawks fans...

As a group, Seahawks fans have many great qualities. Compared to other NFL fan bases we are more educated, in better shape, more progressive, and REALLY FUCKING LOUD. However, in general, we posess a key quality of the geek and the nerd: A lack of self-confidence.

Just take a quick survey of other NFL fan bases... You will see a blizzard of bullshit false bravado at every turn, from Oakland to Jacksonville. Even if their team is doomed to failure, fans in most other NFL cities would get in your face if you shat on their team, or suggested they were doomed to fail.

I don't get that impression from Seahawks fans over the 27 years I've been a Twelve. Even since I was a kid, I've been appalled at how quickly and easily many other Seahawks fans will just fold in any argument with a fan from another team; how quickly THEY THEMSELVES will refer to the Seahawks with derogatory language like "Sea Chickens" or "Sea shits," etc. (Side note: If you pull that shit around me I will call you on it. And if you try to say that it's ok for you to say things like that about my team because you are a fan, I'll retort "Fuck you. you are very CLEARLY NOT a fan.")

I have friends who root for other NFL teams, and they are unanimously amazed at the negativity Seahawks fans bring into the tournament. Even if I don't believe what I am saying, if anyone fucks with the Seahawks, I will defend my team. I've been doing it since I was 8 years old, surrounded by a shockingly high number of Broncos fans in the Tri-Cities.. I lost untold riches making school yard bets on the Seahawks throughout the 80s and early 90s... I felt I had no choice; I had to back up my Hawks, even if it meant pissing away the quarters I had squirreled away to play Paperboy at 7-11 after school. I've spent the last decade out in the midwest defending the Seahawks from fairly regular & bizarre attacks, at the risk of looking like a goddamn obsessive lunatic.

Is it a Seattle thing? I didn't grow up there, and I've never actually lived there, so maybe there is something about the sports culture that eludes me? I'm open to enlightenment here.

I'm begging all of you... Even if you DON'T believe in this team right now, FAKE it. Tell the asshole at work that you think the Seahawks will make the playoffs. Come to Qwest and scream your fucking head off for 3 hours on gameday. Be a motherfucking mean Soldier of Twelve and stow this fucking insidious negativity, at least in public.

Side note: The title of this post comes from this kick-ass Sleater-Kinney song.. enjoy!

Hell is Other Fans

The Josh Wilson trade isn't my favorite move the Seahawks have ever made, but just from a brief survey of the internets, you'd think we just traded Dave Brown for a laundry hamper full of Ray Lewis' dirty jockstraps.

Look, on the merits, I'll freely admit we didn't get "enough" in return for Wilson. I'll also admit the move doesn't make the team immediately better. However, LEGIONS of Seahawks fans are already not only primed to throw in the towel for the 2010 season, not only declare the Carroll era DOOOOOOOMED, but also DECRY a possible 2010 playoff run as "lucky" and counterproductive to the team's long term interests (I'm not going to directly quote anyone, but spend 5 minutes on any Seahawks blog or message board, and you will see this sentiment bursting off your screen).

Say WHAT?

Here's the reasoning: Since Carroll/Schneider are building the roster "the wrong way," a playoff run in 2010 would simply be a mirage and convince the Front Office they are on the right track, setting us up for even greater failure down the road. The extreme version of this position, which I've seen posted by more than one person, is that making this "wrong move" is so deeply unforgivable, that not even winning XLV would make things entirely right.

I guess the converse of this is that these folks WANT the Seahawks to fail in 2010, so the team will fire Carroll and Schneider and draft their Twilight-like crush Jake Locker... I guess? The whole line of "reasoning" is pretty hysterical and stupid. It's reminiscent of what I've heard liberal friends say in the past, when they refuse to vote for Democrats and hope that under Republican rule things will get SO BAD that the people will finally rise up in glorious revolution (now you know why it's so hard for us Demmy-crats to hold onto power very long... a nice chunk of our base is very immature and short-sighted).

Seriously. My god... do these people have ANY idea how precious and special a playoff appearance is? You know.. that thing that the Seahawks only did ONCE between 1989 and 2002? The assumption that a 9-7 campaign that results in a home playoff game would be "lucking" into the playoffs really fucking irks me too... A 9-7 Seahawks team in 1983 made it all the way to the AFC title game.. a 9-7 team in 2006 was a missed open WR in OT from going to the NFC Championship game. You can't discount these accomplishments as "lucky." And if you do, you're shitting all over the cherished memories of this particular Twelve.

What I read a lot is some variation of "we have to burn the village to save it," that only by hitting rock bottom can we build this glorious, mythical Seahawks dynasty. You know what? Fuck a dynasty. I want ONE FUCKING RING. That's all. I don't care if it comes in a 9-7 campaign where we get hot like the '08 Cardinals, and then suck for half a decade afterwards. Win one goddamn Lombardi Trophy, and then maybe we can have "cloud talk" about building a "dynasty."

The bottom line is that I love the Seahawks, but I can't fucking stand a huge portion of the Seahawks' fan base. I can't fucking take the RELENTLESS fatalism and negativity that radiates off a lot of folks like a cloud of despair. Ever since I've been a fan, I've seen it over and over and over again: at the first sign of any trouble, they go all Eyore, moan "same old Seahawks" and wallow in self-pity and sadness.

I'll never forget when I was at the Wild Card game v Dallas in January of 2007... Remember when we failed on that 4th and goal midway through the final quarter? The mood in the stands got very ugly and very negative. When the granola guy in front of me made some comment akin to the game being over, I went shithouse on him.

“IT’S NOT OVER, GODDAMN IT!”

On the next play, Jennings forced Glenn's fumble, which turned into a safety.. and you know the end to that story...

So I say it again, to all of you: IT'S NOT OVER, GOD DAMN IT!

Can we at least fucking wait until the fucking GAMES START to declare this season a disaster? Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick... I am done with the vile knee-jerk defeatism of this fan base. If all you have to offer is dank, soul-crushing negativity, kindly fuck off and spread your bile elsewhere.

Who is fucking with me?

UPDATE: I didn't mean "Who is fucking with me?" in the context of "Who is screwing with my head." I meant it as "Who is with me?" with the word fucking used as emphasis. Sorry for the confusion! :)