5. Brian Blades (WR, 1992-1998) Brian Blades arrived in Seattle at the tail end of the Ground Chuck era, but he spent most of his career toiling (and thriving) in The Forgotten Years. He was a solid, consistent producer who rarely had the benefit of having an elite QB delivering the ball. Blades peaked in 1994, putting up a career best 81 catches and 1086 yards. Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider he had Rick Mirer and Dan McGwire throwing the ball at him (not TO HIM- AT HIM). As a lifetime Seahawk, and the 2nd most prolific receiver in franchise history, he probably deserves to eventually be added to the Ring of Honor. Here's a cool Blades TD:
4. Joey Galloway (WR, 1995-1998) Brian Blades' Seahawks CAREER is more impressive than Joey Galloway's, but this list is about the period from 1992-1998- And there was no more electrifying, exciting Seahawk during The Forgotten Years than Joey Galloway. In terms of raw athletic ability, he might have been the most talented WR who has ever played for Seattle. He also might be the only wideout in team history who you legitimately thought "any time he touches the ball, he could score."
There's a reason I usually wore a Galloway jersey from 1995-1998, and we shouldn't let his hideously ugly exit from Seattle (holding out for most of 1999, then playing like shit, then forcing a trade- thankfully Dallas Idiot Jerry Jones gave us TWO first round picks for Galloway) erase the joy he brought the Twelve Army over these four seasons. He was also a dangerous punt returner, scoring four return TDs in addition to his 37 receiving TDs (including this one):
3. Chris Warren (RB, 1992-1997) You know how a lot of Seahawks fans detested Shaun Alexander's running style, complaining that he wasn't tough or hard-nosed enough? Well, the 2nd most productive back in team history heard a lot of the same crap during his time in Seattle- like Alexander, he was a glider who often looked to be running with less than full effort... But once he found a hole, he ran with deceptive power and speed- and was the Seahawks' all-time leading rusher until Mr. Alexander came along. Ladies and Gents, Chris Warren:
Warren would post four 1000-yard seasons, and make three trips to the Pro Bowl. His most impressive accomplishment might have been his 1017-yard season in 1992. Surrounded by the worst offense in NFL history, and with the opposition KNOWING he was Seattle's only viable offensive weapon, he still ground out 4.6 yards per carry. HOW? Impressive, however he did it.
2. Michael Sinclair (DE, 1992-1998) Sinclair is one of the most unfairly forgotten players in team history- Only Jacob Green has more sacks as a Seahawk, and no one in Seattle history has forced more fumbles. He was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, and absolutely terrorized enemy QBs in 1998 with 16.5 sacks. One reason he has faded from memory is terrible luck- He spent his career on a fairly nondescript, non-playoff team. Another reason? He was playing next to one of the greatest defensive players of all time.
1. Cortez Kennedy (DT, 1992-1998) I've talked about Tez before, but the dude is always worthy of more discussion. Sometimes I like to try to talk myself into the idea that Kenny Easley was the 3rd greatest Seahawk ever after Jones and Largent, but let's be frank: It's Tez. For an entire decade, he was a DOMINANT force in the middle for Seattle, stifling opposing rushing attacks and creating absolute chaos for enemy QBs. His litany of accomplishments is amazing- Here's the big ones:
-1992 NFL Defensive Player of the Year -8-time Pro Bowler (2nd in Seahawks history, behind only Walter Jones' 9) -3-time All-Pro (2nd in Seahawks history, behind only Walter Jones' 4) -58 QB sacks (3rd in franchise history, 1st among Seahawks DTs)
A while back, Pro Football Reference made the case for Tez to be in the Hall of Fame... Clare Farnsworth did likewise. In a few years time, The Seahawks should have three players in Canton: Steve Largent, Walter Jones, and Cortez Kennedy. When Tez gets in, I will be there at his induction. That moment, more than anything, will dignify The Forgotten Years.
For all the Twelves who endured The Forgotten Years, Kennedy's ascension to the Hall of Fame will (in some small way) help justify all the time we spent devoted to a team owned by a carpet-bagging Californian that was only occasionally entertaining, and mostly bad-to-mediocre. We will be able to say "I watched the career of Hall-of-Famer Cortez Kennedy." Believe me when I tell you- That is a pretty exclusive club.
As I get older, I have become dimly aware that many Seahawks fans are wayyyy younger than me. In fact, there is a huge chunk of the Twelve Army that joined the ranks in the last decade or so- Many of these fans may have some sort of historical knowledge of the Ground Chuck Glory Days of the 1980s (they might even have throwback jerseys from that era), but most are probably unfamiliar with a dank, forlorn period in team history- The intermission between Knox and Holmgren, where the team struggled, the Kingdome emptied out, and there was the very real threat of the team skipping town. However, there are many things about this 7-season stretch in franchise history that are actually worth remembering, so today, and in posts to follow, I will try to shed some light upon the Behring Dark Ages.
Astute readers may notice that I'm not a Mariners fan, and that while I empathize with their plight, I was never actually a Sonics fan. One reason? The amazing amount of shit I had to put up with from front-running, bandwagon Mariners and Sonics fans during this era. Now I know a lot of you are/were passionate tripartite fans of the Hawks, M's and Sonics- I'm not slagging on you. More power to you that the M's and Sonics soothed your pain as Seahawks fans back then. No. I'm talking about the sentient, bipedal hemorrhoids who mocked me for sticking with the Seahawks in the mid-90s while the region's NBA and MLB sides were ascendant.
If you survived this era as a Seahawks fan, you earned your buttons. People gave you reams of crap for showing up in public in your Joey Galloway jersey. If you lived in the Seattle broadcast area, games were often blacked out. When you went to games, the Dome was half full, and/or mostly filled with opposing fans. Worst of all? The Seahawks lost most of the time and looked BAD doing it. How bad was the team? A highlight of the era was Sir Mix-A-Lot's posse wearing Seahawks gear in the video for "Baby Got Back."
The Presidents of the United States weren't making any songs venerating the Seahawks- and why would they? Over these 7 seasons, the Seahawks were 45-67 with no winning seasons and no playoff appearances. Even worse? They often were not just bad, but also BORING. These were also my college years at Western in Bellingham, so thankfully I was a bit distracted from the Seahawks' struggles- But every loss still stung, and I felt the glee of victory far too rarely.
Still, there are things worth remembering from this era- Guys like Cortez Kennedy, Chris Warren, Warren Moon, Chad Brown and Joey Galloway wore Seahawks blue in this era. We rose up and smote our divisional rivals and the NFL's elite once in a while. These men fought for us, and I aim to tell some of their stories.
First, the top 5 most important events of this era:
5. Paul Allen Sells 300 Level End Zone Seats for $10, I Get Season Tickets (1997)
Ok, this one is very personal, but when Paul Allen made a block of end zone upper deck seats available for $10, I thought "Holy shit! Even as a Cup-Noodle-Slurping impoverished grad student, I can scrape together $200 for Seahawks season tickets!" I've held onto them since, and I've gotten to be there in the flesh for amazing moments like the 2005 NFC Championship Game and the "Romo Game."
Thanks, Mr. Allen.
4. Rick Mirer Gets Spun Into Walter Jones (1997)
In 1993, the Seahawks used the 2nd overall pick in the draft on Notre Dame QB Rick Mirer (after- and this is just a widespread rumor- the Seahawks perhaps refused an offer from the 49ers of Steve Young for our first round pick). The short version? It didn't work out. After a promising rookie season, Mirer failed to progress, then started to regress, until finally playing himself onto the bench. Another major fuck-up by Behring's minions? Totally.
But... Somehow they hornswaggled the QB-poor Chicago Bears into giving Seattle a 1st round pick for Mirer in 1997- A pick that the Seahawks would use to select Walter FUCKING Jones.
Sometimes, despite themselves, the Behringites did the right thing.
3. Cortez Kennedy's 1992 Season
This really had to been seen to be believed. Budding superstar Cortez Kennedy, drawing additional motivation from the untimely death of friend/University of Miami teammate Jerome Brown (Kennedy switched to #99 in honor of Brown for the 1992 season), dominated the middle and notched 14 sacks AS AN INTERIOR LINEMAN.
Kennedy did all this on one of the worst teams in NFL history- a 2-14 team that included an offense that CONSTANTLY left the defense to fend for itself (they scored an NFL record-low 140 points over the entire season). Despite playing for a terrible team with NO national exposure, Tez was so overwhelming in 1992 that he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Why is he not in the Hall of Fame again?
2. The Phantom Touchdown (December 6, 1998)
The Seahawks were 6-6 and fighting not only for their playoff lives, but to keep Coach Dennis Erickson employed. They played their best game of the year, on the road, at 10 am Seattle time, and against the playoff-bound Jets. All they had to do to hold on to a 31-26 season-defining, coach-saving victory was to stop the Jets on 4th and goal... and they did.
Until dipshit official Phil Luckett signaled touchdown. Later, he would say that he thought that Testaverde's helmet was the ball. For reals. I was so incensed that I broke numerous items in my tiny Bellingham apartment. Seattle would limp to 8-8, and Dennis Erickson would get canned.
Two very important things happened because of this game. The NFL brought back Instant Replay, and Paul Allen hired Mike Holmgren to run and coach the Seahawks. In the end, it all worked out- But I'll never forget the rage and hopelessness I felt that day.
Here's the Seahawks' 1998 team video- The Jets footage is right at the start:
1. Referendum 48 Passes by 36,870 Votes (June 17, 1997)
You know the story: California carpetbagger Ken Behring bought the Seahawks in 1988 and quickly started running the franchise into the ground. In 1996, he used falling tiles in the Kingdome as a pretense to try to move the team to Los Angeles. It went so far that minicamp was held in Southern California that spring. Paul Allen stepped in and made an offer to buy the team, but that offer was contingent on funding for a new stadium to replace the Kingdome. Just two years earlier, at the height of Mariners fever, a similar vote for a new M's stadium failed- So the Seahawks' chances looked slim at best.
With Seattle and its suburbs supporting the stadium, they were able to overcome opposition from the rest of the state (expect for the Tri-Cities, which was only area of Eastern Washington where a majority voted yes). The rest is history, right? Holmgren, Hasselbeck, a decade of success, and an amazing new stadium... and it all started here.
Coming up? The top 10 games and Top 10 Seahawks players of The Forgotten Years- I'll show you the #1 player now:
The 2016 NFL season kicks off tonight, and this will be my 20th season as a Seahawks season ticket holder. It's not coincidental that I got season tickets when Paul Allen bought the team. After years of neglect and sabotage from Californian Carpetbagger Ken Behring, Allen was desperate to rebuild a Seahawks fan base that had atrophied through the Forgotten Years of the 1990s. It got so bad that TV blackouts became commonplace (I remember driving outside the blackout zone to be able to watch games WAY too often), and the rare sellouts would happen when a team with a large national fan base rolled into the Kingdome.
Once Referendum 48 passed and Allen took over the franchise, he made a few sections of seats in the south end zone's upper deck rediculously cheap: $10. $200 for a pair of season tickets. I had just graduated from Western that spring, and in celebration of R-48's passage I snapped up a pair of seats in the VERY TOP ROW of the Dome's upper deck. I was staying in Bellingham to get my M.A. in Political Science (mainly because I never really wanted to leave).
I went to games there for only two full seasons. Despite starting off with one of the most humilating losses in franchise history, it wasn't that bad rooting on the Hawks from that perch. I could stand up the whole game if I wanted. There was a little area behind the seats where we could put all our stuff. You could make extra noise by banging on the metal panel behind my seats. OK, it sorta sucks, but I made the best of it. Of course, since we are talking about the tail end of the Dennis Erickson era, I got to see two fustrating 8-8 seasons. Warren Moon, Joey Galloway, Ricky Watters, Chad Brown, and others provided some highlights, but it was a familiar story for the Seahawks: Mediocrity as grey as the paint in our end zones. The arrival of Mike Holmgren in 1999 brought the first playoff home game in 15 years, but it was all too fitting that the Dome's last game was a bowel-churning playoff loss (to a Miami side that would lose by 55 POINTS the following week in the divisonal round).
Then we had two seasons of watching our team flail about in sideways needle rain at Husky Stadium. I had already moved to Columbus for more graduate school (No more degrees to get at Western, sadly), but I would schedule trips home around Seahawks home games as frequently as possible. That's how it's been now for 17 years.
Seahawks Stadium opened in 2002, and that means we've played 14 seasons in the loudest, most beautiful venue in the NFL. In that time, I've seen us go to the playoffs 10 times. I've personally been in the house for 5 playoff wins, including three NFC Championship Game victories. I've watched the franchise completely transform from one seemingly encased in 8-8 amber into FUCKING RAPTOR SQUAD.
Seattle enters the 2016 season with few glaring weaknesses (What happens if Russell Wilson goes down? Will the offensive line adequately protect him? Will they open up running lanes for Thomas Rawls? Will he still be able to dart through them after last December's injury?), and a lethal combination of youth, talent, experience and THIRST for another championship. Ask any Seahawk player, coach, or fan - One shitty half in Charlotte is the only reason last season didn't end in Santa Clara. Even after falling behind 31-0, our imdominable Hawks damn near won anyway. Why all the optimism?
Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin forged some sort of football nerd mind-meld and torched the whole league in the 2nd half of last season. RW3 removed any doubt that he is a true franchise quarterback - One of the top 5 signal callers in the game (I don't care what those bobblehead haters in the football press say). The WolfBadger has an obscene number of dangerous weapons - Beyond Angry Doug, there's also Flash Lockett, Big Game Jermaine, and weirdly half-forgotten Jimmy Graham.
Even with the retirement of Marshawn Lynch, the Hawks should still be able to bludgeon the enemy via the running game with Rawls and whichever combination of promising rookies and Christine Michaels claws their way onto the 53-man roster. On defense, the original Legion of Boom has been reunited with the return of Brandon Browner, and it's absolutely likely that Seattle will have Top 5 units on offense, defense and special teams. Seattle's #1 ranking by Football Outsiders going into this season is completely deserved, and I'm calling it now: Next January the Hawks will defeat Pittsburgh to win Super Bowl LI.
I've been thinking a lot about the 49ers of the early 1980s lately. Not just because of their historical run of success, but because Bill Walsh so greatly influenced Pete Carroll. A young Niners team won a Super Bowl ahead of schedule in January 1982, followed by the weirdness of the strike-shortened 1982 season and a narrow loss in the 1983 NFC Championship game to D.C.
In 1984 they achieved an almost unprecedented level of dominance, going 15-1 with the #2 offense and #1 defense in the league. They capped that campaign by flattening Miami in XIX, but their run was far from over, and they'd win a total of four championships over a nine-year stretch. These Seahawks have similar potential.
I plan to share another magical season with all y'all here and over on my twitter feed. The hiatus is over. The Seahawks mean everything to me - But they mean the most when I am connected to my fellow Twelves. Expect much more content in this space over the next few months. Fell free to hit me with questions in the comments and GO HAWKS!!!
This Saturday, the Seattle Sounders will visit Ohio to battle Columbus Crew SC. I'm sure the vast majority of my readers will be rooting for the Rave Green. I'll be at the match, clad in Black and Gold (I know... Steelers colors! Horror!) and pulling for the Crew. Every year, when this match approaches, I get bombarded with variations on a single question: Why aren't you a Sounders supporter? I aim to answer that here, as well as dig a bit into the psychology of how fandom grows, puts down roots, and sometimes even dies.
I've written extensively about the roots of my Seahawks fandom before. The short version? I grew up in Eastern Washington, which was a hotbed of Twelvedom in the early 80s. I was a weird, bookish, sensitive kid, so when I expressed an interest in something "normal" like football, my family aggressively cultivated it. The magical 1983 season, which included my first trip to a Seahawks game at the Kingdome, hooked me for good. Watching the Hawks became a family activity in my house, and a lifelong attachment was born.
That attachment survived The Forgotten Years of the 1990s for a complex melange of reasons. Even though the Seahawks veered between being god awful and merely mediocre, they were one of the few positive things I shared with my estranged father. From 1993 to 1999, I was in Bellingham getting my B.A. and then my M.A. at Western. I had such a blast during those years that a pile of Seahawks losses taller than Sehome Hill didn't sting quite as much as it would have otherwise. I also was then, as I am now, a contrarian at heart. As everyone around me donned Ken Griffey Jr. and Shawn Kemp jerseys in the mid-90s, I defiantly strode around campus in my Joey Galloway jersey, feeling like the only Twelve in Bellingham. I threw myself into the campaign to get funding for Seahawks Stadium approved, and when new owner Paul Allen started selling $10 tickets, I snapped up a pair of Season Tickets in the top row of the Kingdome South End Zone for $200 (tickets which I still have today, thanks to parental subsidies... though now they are $50 apiece/$1000 for the pair).
In 1999 I moved to Columbus for graduate school, and my Seahawks fandom became even more central to my identity. I was the first and only Twelve most Ohioans had ever met, and even though I'd have some awkward moments, I LOVED being an ambassador for the 12 Army in the Wilderness of Central Ohio. It made me feel special, but more importantly, as the years passed and my roots in Columbus deepened, 12ing represented the cultivation and renewal of my connection to my home state of Washington. Every time I would come home and go to a game, and join 66,000 other Twelves in collective hysteria, I felt reborn. After drifting away from shore, it was like the tide created by that massive Blue Wave brought me home.
But Columbus IS home for me now. I fought that idea for a long time, but since I met my partner and started my transition a few years ago here in the Arch City, I've accepted that barring some crazy unforeseen circumstance, I'm not going to move back to Washington State (though... Damn... I really miss Bellingham). Columbus is actually a pretty spectacular place to live. It's got a high quality of life, a relatively low cost of living, and it's one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the Midwest. As I dug myself a happy little rut in Ohio's Capital, I realized that I needed sports teams to root for.
The Buckeyes? Umm... No. Not only did I not particularly like college football, but I found the culture surrounding Ohio State Football to be both oppressive and a bit frightening. That left the NHL's Blue Jackets and Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew. I embraced the Jackets first, because I grew up rooting for the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League, and I didn't have an existing NHL allegiance to betray (Nope, I never became a Canucks fan back in the old days). My support for the Crew came later, and only after a long evolution of my feelings about soccer as a sport. 20 years ago, I though soccer was a boring, foreign waste of time (Halfback passes back to center... Center holds it... holds it... HOLDS IT!).
Gradually, I started paying more attention to the World Cup every four years, and I'd catch the occasional Crew match (usually on Buck-a-Brat nights). In 2011, I went to my first Crew match in years with my partner and we had a rollicking good time. My deepening commitment to Columbus, combined with my rising interest in the world's most popular sport, as well as a shared experience with the woman I loved, ignited and fueled my Crew fandom. The Sounders? Bad timing, guys. Y'all didn't join MLS until 2008- Years after I moved away, but before soccer became my 2nd favorite sport after football. Plus, it irks me to no end when you call 40,000 people in a stadium that holds 67,000 a "sellout." The team I root for that plays in that stadium has sold EVERY seat in the place for EVERY game since September of 2003. Yeah, I respect Sounders supporters- Seattle fans are pretty consistently RABID when given any sort of Championship hopes- But you guys are always forgetting that Columbus is the capital of American soccer. I know a TON of Sounders supporters, so this Saturday's match is a particularly big deal to me.
My Seahawks fandom is evergreen, but the Crew and Jackets serve two really important needs for me: They scratch my sports-fanaticism itch when the Hawks aren't playing, and they give me something that connects me to my new home without forcing me to root for Ohio State. I've explained how my sports fandom has grown and evolved... But how does it die? And why?
From 1986 to 2014, I was a huge Boston Red Sox fan. I even wrote a piece about my Sox fandom a few years back for Field Gulls. I was devastated by Bill Buckner's gaffe and Aaron Boone's homer, and elated by hard-won championships in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Today, my allegiance to the Red Sox is on indefinite hiatus. Why? One reason is my waning interest in baseball as a sport. Rooting for the Crew only demands two hours of my time a week. The Seahawks? 3 or 4. A baseball team? 3-4 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Just thinking about that has become exhausting for me.
The bigger reason? I find the idea of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a LOT of the same people who celebrated one of the most painful moments of my life NAUSEATING. I just can't stomach stuff like Tom Brady throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park right now... And I'm not sure if or when I'll feel good about rooting for a team from Boston again. I have deep emotional connections to the Pacific Northwest and Central Ohio that fuel my fire for those teams. For Boston teams? None of that for a city I've only visited twice in my life (though Massachusetts' Capital is indeed a lovely place to visit).
So fandom can die. Could anything kill my Seahawks fandom? If they ever moved away from Seattle, that would do it (Sidebar: If Ken Behring had succeeded in moving the team to L.A. in the mid-90s, I was all set to become a fan of the... Ugh... New England Patriots. I loved Drew Bledsoe, and I was already a Red Sox fan, so it made sense at the time). A long stretch of subpar play couldn't do the trick... What if the Seahawks started employing a gaggle of reprobates? I have to admit I find our drafting of Frank Clark distasteful (I'm not going to run out and buy the jersey of a suspected domestic abuser, that's for sure), but it's not nearly enough to eat away at my bond to the franchise. At the moment, I'm just hoping that John Schneider is right about him, and that he stays out of trouble from this point on.
What about everyone else? Do you just root for Seattle-area teams (or, all the local teams from where-ever you are)? If you don't, how did you get attached to teams you aren't geographically connected to? Let's hash it out in the comments!
9. 12/11/94 Seahawks 16, Oilers 14 This game is proof that, once, and intentionally, two NFL teams pitted Dan McGwire and Billy Joe Tolliver against each other as starting quarterbacks. The real reasons this game makes the list are Chris Warren's BEASTLY 30 carry, 185 yard performance and Cortez Kennedy's pair of sacks.
Trivial side note: This was the first year of the 2-point conversion in the NFL. Seattle's 16-0 lead going into the 4th would have been a 3-score edge any previous season. Houston rallied late, scoring a TD coupled with a deuce, and scoring ANOTHER TD... The Seahawks only held on to win when that 2-point try failed.
8. 11/21/97 Seahawks 38, 49ers 9 7. 11/14/97 Seahawks 22, Raiders 21 A fun two-week stretch got the '97s to a respectable 8-8 finish. At Oakland, youngster Jon Kitna got the start at QB against the 4-11 Raiders. Seattle fell behind 21-3, but those who turned the game off after the putrid first half missed an electric come-from-behind triumph punctuated by a 49-yard game winner by Todd Peterson. Oh Kitna, so much moxie... such limited talent. I truly can't believe the guy is still rattling around the league as Tony Romo's back-up, and I've always been thankful I didn't snap up a Special K jersey when we were 8-2 in '99.
The next week the 13-2 49ers visited the Kingdome- The Niners came in with HFA locked up, and treated this like a glorified preseason game. Despite that, this was still a very satisfying win. Warren Moon wrapped up his spectacular 1997 season with four TD passes, including two to Joey Galloway.
6. 11/12/95 Seahawks 47, Jaguars 30 Speaking of Galloway, it's easy to forget how exciting he was back in his Seattle years. This game from his rookie season against the expansion Jaguars is the one you wanna watch to glimpse his amazing raw talent: 200 yards rushing/receiving and three touchdowns, including an eye-popping, cris-crossing 86-yard scamper. Chris Warren chipped in 121 yards rushing, and... hell, even Rick Mirer looked competent for a day.
5. 11/30/92 Seahawks 16, Broncos 13 (OT) This was the lone bright spot of the desolate 1992 season. Yes, this win cost us Drew Bledsoe... But we were so desperate for anything good to happen that this felt almost like a playoff win. Long before the days of flex scheduling, ABC was forced to air a MNF game between the 1-10 Seahawks and the 7-4 (seemingly playoff bound) Denver Broncos. It would go down in national memory as perhaps the worst MNF game ever, but it's one of my favorite Seahawks memories.
We lucked out when Tommy Maddox started at QB for Denver rather than Seahawk-Killer John Elway, and as usual for '92 Seattle's defense played brilliantly only to find itself betrayed by our historically inept offense. The Hawks were somehow only down 13-6 in the final minutes- A face-mask penalty on a punt return set us up at the Denver 35, but it still felt like it would take a miracle to put 7 on the board.
Somehow Stan Gelbaugh got us inside the 10, and on 4th and goal he hit Brian Blades for the tying TD. Blades did some stupid early-90s celebration dance and the Kingdome crowd erupted like it was 1984 all over again. In OT John Kasay booted Seattle to only its 2nd win of the season, and Denver spiraled to a 8-8 collapse and an Xmas at home just like the pathetic Seattlites. I remember running out onto my front yard and screaming "SEAAAAAAHAWWWWWKKKKKSSSSSS!" into the night after that win.
4. 9/6/98 Seahawks 38, Eagles 0 If you didn't see this game, it's really difficult to understand the reaction of Seahawks fans at the time. The Hawks went cross country into that outhouse of a stadium called The Vet and DOMINATED the Eagles. In every phase of the game, the Seahawks looked Super Bowl Bound. Warren Moon tossed three TDs, Joey Galloway had 6 catches for 142 yards and 2 TDs, and we had a running back tandem of Ahman Green and Ricky Watters that looked unstoppable. The defense? They just posted three takeaways, nine sacks and a pick-six TD.
For one day, anything looked possible.
3. 11/3/96 Seahawks 23, Oilers 16 This one is probably the 2nd most dramatic finish in Seahawks history (after Krieg-to-Skansi at Arrowhead in 1990). Game tied at 16, with Houston trying a chip-shot FG for the win on the final play of regulation. In a matter of seconds, a sure defeat became overtime (with a blocked FG attempt), and overtime became a Seahawks win when Robert Blackmon streaked into the end zone for the winning score. Here's the visual evidence:
2. 10/26/97 Seahawks 45, Raiders 34 Watch Warren Moon throw for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns! Watch Monica Seles hang out with Paul Allen in the owners box! It was nothing but fireworks that day in the dome, and Oakland never recovered from this loss, going 1-7 afterwards to finish 4-12. My seats were in the top row of the south end zone, and a few rows down were a bunch of howling, strutting refugees from The Black Hole, who brayed like hyenas all day. Finally, with the outcome decided and during a lull in the action, I screamed at them "Sit down and SHUT UP. Your team is 3-5!!!!" I was lucky they didn't shiv me in the parking lot after the final whistle.
Then there was Darryl Williams' brutal but clean hit on Rickey Dudley... I was there that day, and I've never seen or heard anything like it: A huge collective gasp, followed by a roar of absolute bloodlust... here it is:
1. 12/10/95 Seahawks 31, Broncos 27 This win not only kept Denver out of the playoffs, but it also was the greatest comeback in team history, against our most despicable rivals and chief tormentor. I was going to Western at the time, and living in the Fairhaven dorms. It was final exam time, and instead of cramming I was glued to the Hawks/Broncos throwdown. As the game went on, my textbooks started to look more appealing than witnessing another Elway-administered beatdown.
Denver led 20-0 at one point, and even after a Peterson FG, it was 20-3 at the half. Denver was deep in Seattle territory early in the 3rd, about to make it 27-3. The Hawks gambled on D, sending Robert Blackmon on a safety blitz. Blackmon obliterated Mr. Ed and Antonio Edwards scooped up the fumble and rambled 83 yards for a TD that completely shifted the momentum. I leaned out my dorm window and brayed like a farm animal after that one... Seattle still trailed 27-17 in the 4th, but rallied for two late touchdowns, leading to more out-the-dorm-window screaming. Simply amazing.
Up next? The Top 10 Players of The Forgotten Years
For the first time ever, we are having a guest blogger here on DKSB, and I couldn't be happier. Great stuff here from an old friend of mine on Ed Sabol and the staggering impact of NFL Films on all of our lives.. Enjoy!
Guest Blogger: Brad Nelson
To begin, I’d like to thank Johnny for the opportunity to serve as a guest blogger. His DKSB is a entertaining and informative blog. I hope my post below keeps with the tradition of high quality insights on football (and all things Seahawks, of course) that Johnny has established over the last few years.
On Saturday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is set to induct another group of legendary men into its relatively tiny but hallowed and glorious building. Seven men (six players, one contributor) from different backgrounds, all of whom have made a lasting impact on the game. Admittedly, as a Bears fan, I’m happy that Richard Dent is finally getting enshrined; he should’ve been recognized as one of the game’s premier pass rushers long ago. He has the statistics (137.5 sacks), a signature game (MVP in Super Bowl XX), two rings (Super Bowls XX and XXIX), a signature move (the strip-sack, which he and LT popularized in the 1980s). And he was arguably the best and most feared defender on probably the greatest single-season defense (1985) in the history of the NFL.
But I’m most pleased that NFL founder Ed Sabol will finally get his day in the sun. I’ve been banging the drum for Ed–on Twitter, via messages to HOF voting members, and in conversations with friends–for the past decade. In my view, he has done more than anyone to popularize the NFL. Most significantly, it was largely through his vision and effort that the American public shifted from seeing the NFL as a corrupt, nasty and violent game (a major problem in the 1950s) to singing its praises as glamorous and essential viewing. Remember, at the time of the inception of NFL Films, pro football was at best on an equal footing with the college game, a notion that seems preposterous nowadays. Under Ed’s leadership, NFL Films helped to grow the game, attracting more television viewers, in-game attendees, and fans and adding billions of dollars to the league’s coffers. And NFL Films itself has become an extremely respected motion picture dynamo that’s unrivaled in any sport in any country around the globe.
In the early 1960s, Ed Sabol quit his job as an overcoat salesman and launched a company devoted to capturing professional football on film. Initially, his new venture was called "Blair Motion Pictures," named after Ed’s daughter. At the heart of this was Ed’s love of making movies. Indeed, Ed constantly tinkered with his motion picture camera, first producing short films of the mundane in the Sabol household and then eventually son Steve’s high school football games. In 1962, for $4000, Ed won the rights to film the NFL championship game between the Giants and Packers.
The timing and location of the 1962 championship is central to the formation of NFL Films. The game took place in New York on December 30. The brutal weather conditions were not particularly conducive to putting together a top-notch short picture for a bunch of young and inexperienced film makers. The freezing cold (game time temperatures were 13 degrees and dipped into single-digits as the game progressed) and high winds (gusts up to 40 MPH) made life miserable for Ed and his crew of cameramen (as well as the players). They struggled, as camera lenses constantly froze and film rolls cracked, and had to adapt to the weather on the fly. But in the end, they succeeded, and this was important for a couple of reasons. One, Ed and his men captured the 1962 Packers, one of the greatest teams in NFL history, on film in their finest hour. And two, the fact that they effectively did the job under such difficult conditions made Ed confident that his team could tape NFL games on a full-time basis. This was the start of what would be known by 1965, after the league purchased BMP, as NFL Films.
It’s rather startling to grasp the progress of NFL Films from its infant stages to the organization as it currently stands. In fact, to get an understanding of how far NFL Films has come, as well as the specific changes it’s implemented along the way, I encourage readers to check out the "Lost Treasures" series. Today, NFL Films is an omni-present force in football. It’s cameramen are everywhere and highly-regarded. It’s work is featured prominently on a host of ESPN stations, the NFL Network, HBO, Showtime, among other outlets. (Additionally, keep in mind that the Sabols have carved out a niche in other industries, such as the Olympic Games, the Ringling Bros. circus troupe, Harley Davidson, Sony Music, and more.) NFL Films DVDs sell very well. The way NFL Films has shot footage has influenced the way that contemporary football games are filmed and aired. And the soundtrack and the distinctive voice of NFL Films are pop culture sensations.
The guiding light behind NFL Films is an interesting character. Ed Sabol grew up in New Jersey, was an excellent swimmer as a teen, attended Ohio State, where he continued his swimming career, and even qualified for the 1936 Olympic Games. He reportedly declined the invite because the Games that year were held in Nazi Germany. And like many American men in the 1940s, Ed served in World War II.
Ed has been and still is an eccentric guy. One could see him in the early days of NFL Films wearing crazy multi-pocketed suits, smoking a cigar, and talking furiously to anyone and everyone. He’s energetic, garrulous guy. But that served him well. He was the networker, the recruiter, a schmooze. In this way, Ed formed connections to important people. He built a strong relationship with Commissioner Pete Rozelle. He pulled legendary voice and Philadelphia newsman John Facenda into the NFL Films orbit while drinking at a neighborhood bar. Ed developed a great bond with Packers coach Vince Lombardi. In fact, so great was this bond that Lombardi allowed Sabol’s crew to record him throughout the 1967 season. Four years later, Redskins coach George Allen (see video below) participated in a similar program for NFL Films. Rozelle, Lombardi, Allen, and other coaches and players backed NFL Films because they liked and trusted Ed; they believed he worked with the best interests of the NFL in mind. And without a doubt, they were right.
That said, it would be a mistake to undersell his creative vision for NFL Films. It was Ed who made the decision to create short football films that resembled in many ways the big Hollywood blockbusters of the 1960s. He sought something that was eye-popping–in terms of the visual footage, musical score, and the dialog. This was a sharp change from how pro football was typically presented. Prior to the emergence of BMP and NFL Films, NFL clips and highlights were packaged in a very dull and boring format by the teams themselves, with employees usually taking their cues from how evening news telecasts displayed content during sports segments.
In the end, Ed’s successfully implemented his ambitious vision, and that, in turn, effectively glamorized the NFL. He created a world in which kids, men, and women wanted a part of. How? Ed helped to create a new image for the NFL. Pro football wasn’t just a vicious and bloodthirsty sport. Sure, NFL Films didn’t avoid showing the big hits. After all, the organization has reams of film on such superstar aggressors like Dick Butkus and Night Train Lane and proudly shows this footage. But what NFL Films did do is open up a whole new side of the NFL that many Americans didn’t see before. Now, the game was also inhabited by aerial assaults by the likes of Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath; swift, balletic receivers like Lynn Swann and Lance Alworth streaking down field; opportunistic defensive backs like Willie Brown; and agile yet powerful running backs such as Walter Payton and Jim Brown. Grace, beauty, artistry gradually became buzzwords associated with the NFL, thanks to Ed and his crew.
It would be a gross oversight to leave out the role that Steve Sabol has played in the growth of NFL Films. Steve, hired by Ed, his dad, worked for years as a cameraman before moving up the organizational hierarchy. Steve brought a distinct and crucial aspect to NFL Films: he played college football (as a RB). Which meant that he brought an awareness and understanding of football to the film crew. As Steve began to take on a bigger role in NFL Films, he made sure to emphasize offensive and defensive line play in the organization’s videos and highlights, a piece of pro football that was usually far overshadowed by offensive glitz and hard hits. Lastly, we should not forget that Steve has been a great spokesperson for NFL Films. He is smart, articulate, and extremely knowledgeable about the history of pro football. And Steve’s passion for the game radiates through NFL Films telecasts and his other broadcast appearances.
As we know, NFL Films has left a significant impression on pro football, and some of its accomplishments I’ve already described above. Here, I’d like to discuss two more.
1. Amazingly, NFL Films has provided the iconic pictures (the short movies and highlights, of course), voice (John Facenda and Harry Kalas), music (Sam Spence), and language (scripts by Steve Sabol) of American pro football. So enduring are the contributions of Facenda, Kalas, and Spence that I believe each should be recognized somewhere in the Pro Football HOF. Unfortunately, a complete discussion of each of these components is beyond the scope of this blog post, though I do want to add a few words. If readers aren’t familiar with "Autumn Thunder," a 10-disc compilation of NFL Films music, I encourage them to check it out. There, you will find well-known and moving tunes like "Battleground," "Round-Up," "Journey to the Moon," "Wild Bunch," "The Raiders," and "Classic Battle." Furthermore, the narration of NFL Films has provided a number of brilliant, vivid lines. Here is an unforgettable quote, and a personal favorite: "Lombardi. A certain magic still lingers in the very name. It speaks of duels in the snow and cold November mud." Probably the most memorable set of lines comes from "Autumn Wind," a poem composed by Steve Sabol for "The Championship Chase," an hour-length video that collected highlights of the 1974 season.
2. NFL Films has gone behind the scenes and revealed worlds that were previously unknown. For instance, game planning and strategy, coaching, player development and acquisition are all familiar and knowable concepts at least in part because the organization has covered them in a thorough manner over the years. There are many examples of this, but the recent "Hard Knocks" series is likely the most prominent one. Just as important, individual profiles of football players, many of which show them on and off the field, have made these athletes relatable and knowable to fans, an extraordinary feat considering that players wear uniforms that cover their entire body and helmets that shield their faces. Yes, it was long thought that football, both college and pro, would lag behind baseball and even basketball because fans could see clearly see the players’ faces. NFL Films effectively worked to overcome this barrier.
On a final note, I’d like to share a few of my personal memories of NFL Films. As soon as I first watched an NFL Films program, sometime during the 1981 season, I was hooked. As a kid, I watched as many programs I could find on television: NFL Yearbook, Super Bowl highlights, Game of the Week, Inside the NFL, NFL Films Presents, among others. These programs quickly enhanced my knowledge of the game. And programs like "NFL Films Presents" provided an essential visual history of the NFL. Impressively, in the course of only a few hours, I was able to get a historical tour de force of key teams and players during several decades. To this day, my single favorite NFL Films movie is the 30-minute highlight package of Super Bowl XVI. True, this wasn’t a riveting game, as the 49ers built a 20-0 by the half, but it was the first Super Bowl I watched, so it still holds a special place in this football fanatic’s heart.
NFL Films also helped to bring some of my favorite players to life, creating a bond that continues to the present. As a kid, I loved running backs. Players like Walter Payton, Marcus Allen, Eric Dickerson and Curt Warner (yes, that’s right, Seahawks fans!) were my gridiron heroes. In an era absent constant football coverage, without the NFL Network or the Sunday Ticket, it was a special treat to see these players on television. Although it happened four years before I began following the NFL, I was able to catch Payton’s magical 275-yard performance (see video below). And whenever possible, I watched Payton in action in Chicago’s yearly Team Yearbook, the Game of the Week, and Inside the NFL.
I originally became a fan of Warner when he was running the ball as a young pup at Penn State. After he was drafted by the Seahawks in 1983, I continued to follow his career. His 1983 season was absolutely breathtaking (see video below). In just one season, he cemented his place as one of the top five running backs in the league. Certainly, I was bummed when I heard of his opening day knee injury against Cleveland in 1984. But he bounced back and had a very solid and at times outstanding career. Warner, in my opinion, is one of a handful of running backs from the 1980s (e.g., Billy Sims and William Andrews) who have been regrettably forgotten primarily because their careers were impaired by injuries. Fortunately, through the wonders of NFL Films programs on DVD, television, and online (You Tube, Hulu, etc.), we can relive the glory days of Warner, Payton, and any other of our favorite teams and players.
As should be evident, I’m a fan of Ed, Steve, and NFL Films. I’ve watched NFL Films for years. I value the work that organization has done. Ed’s induction will be a great moment. And this weekend should be a wonderful one for the Sabol family. Bravo, Ed! Here’s to many more years of wonderful NFL Films programming!
Brad is Co-Founder and President of Center for World Politics and Peace, a think tank on international politics. His work can be found on Facebook and Twitter. Brad has been a fan of pro football, and the Chicago Bears in particular, for the past 30 years.
First, the ground rules- History isn't as neat and clean as we'd like sometimes, and some great Seahawk careers of the Knox and Holmgren eras bled a bit into the forgotten years. This exercise is about honoring the increasingly faded memories of '90s Seahawks, so I will focus on players whose primary contribution to team history came between 1992 and 1998. A partial list of players banned (so to speak) from consideration:
-Chad Brown (1997-1998) -Jeff Bryant (1992-1993) -Joe Nash (1992-1995) -Walter Jones (1997-1998) -Rufus Porter (1992-1994) -Eugene Robinson (1992-1995) -Mack Strong (1994-1998) -John L. Williams (1992-1993)
Here's the bottom half of my top 10:
10. Steve Broussard (KR/RB, 1995-1998) The former Wazzu superstar ended his NFL career in Seattle mostly as a workhorse kickoff returner- His 165 kick returns and 3900 kickoff return yards are both franchise records. His 23.6 average per return is comparable to two of the most famous kick returners in team history: Charlie Rogers and Bobby Joe Edmonds (Broussard's numbers are slightly better than Edmonds', slightly worse than Rogers'). Broussard also had some brilliant flashes as a running back- Here's one:
9. Pete Kendall (LG, 1996-1998) 8. Kevin Mawae (C/RG 1994-1997) Both these players became much more well-known AFTER leaving Seattle, but they anchored a surprisingly decent offensive line in the mid-90s, opening up holes for Chris Warren and keeping Warren Moon relatively clean.
7. Warren Moon (QB, 1997-1998) It's fairly depressing that the best Seahawks QB between Krieg and Hasselbeck was a 41-year-old originally signed to back up John Melvin "Deep" Friesz, but here we are. The Seattle years are a largely forgotten chapter in Moon's Hall of Fame career to those outside of South Alaska, but for a brief period he played QB as well as anyone else in team history. Moon (albeit in a smaller number of games) put up QB rating, yards per game and yards per attempt numbers almost identical to Krieg's and Hasselbeck's during his Seahawks tenure.
Two side notes: Moon almost bumped Dave Krieg as Seattle's QB in 1984, but decided to sign with the Oilers rather than the Seahawks coming out of the CFL. Also, I owned a Warren Moon Seahawks jersey, and it looked AWESOME. After he signed with the Chiefs, I stupidly gave it away to my best friend's girlfriend at the time... still regret that. Here's a sweet Moon TD pass:
6. Darryl Williams (FS, 1996-1998) Williams spent most of his career with the Bengals, but the peak of his career was in Seattle, where he made his lone Pro Bowl appearance after the 1997 season. His 20 Seahawk-era interceptions are equal to the pick totals of Marcus Trufant and Shawn Springs, and he was an intimidating force in the deep middle of the Seattle defense. In other words? He could fuck shit up. Observe:
Yeah, I've linked to that a lot. So what? It's AWESOME.
There you go- Top 5 coming soon. Who do you think it will be, sirs?
I'll be blunt and admit that I know next to nothing about who the Seahawks should draft next week. If you're itching for actual knowledge and insight about that, you should amble over to Seahawks Draft Blog for a bit before coming back over here... I don't really pay any significant attention to college football, and my preferences have been proven dead wrong WAY too many times in the past for me to trust my own prospective judgments about the NFL draft. I've been ecstatic about us drafting duds like Aaron Curry, a bit puzzled by picks like Russell Wilson, and disappointed by our selection of future Hall-of-Famers like Earl Thomas. Like the Sea Captain on The Simpsons, sometimes I am just left muttering "Yarr... I don't know what I'm doing."
Thankfully, judging the performance of our front office in the draft retrospectively is much easier. A few years back I posted an "All-Time/All-Drafted" Seahawks team. Six years later, a reboot is LONG past due... First, the rules:
A) players must have been drafted by the Seahawks (no undrafted players like Doug Baldwin or Dave Krieg)
B) players must have made a significant contribution with Seattle (no Ahman Greens, for example).
OFFENSE
Quarterback: Russell Wilson
You know who was the best quarterback drafted by the Seahawks before 2012? Seneca Wallace. Jim Zorn, Dave Krieg and Matt Hasselbeck were all acquired via means other than the draft. Yes, Wilson has only been the league for 3 years, but he's already not just the best quarterback the Seahawks have ever drafted- He's the best QB we've ever had, period. Easiest decision on this list.
Running Back: Shaun Alexander; Fullback: John L. Williams
Curt Warner and Chris Warren had stellar runs in Seattle, but no other RB the Hawks have ever drafted comes close 2005 NFL MVP Alexander's resume. He's the all-time franchise leader in rushing yards and touchdowns scored and is a sure bet for a spot in the Seahawks Ring of Honor. 1986 first-round pick John L. Williams deserves a to have his name splayed across the Seahawks Stadium upper deck, too. Only Steve Largent and Brian Blades caught more passes for Seattle than the multi-talented fullback, and Williams stacked up nearly 8700 total yards from scrimmage as the Ground Chuck Era bled into The Forgotten Years.
Wide Receivers: Brian Blades and Darrell Jackson
While it was tempting to try to slip Joey Galloway or Golden Tate into one of these slots, Blades and Jackson hold the #2 and #3 spots on the franchise's all-time receiving leaderboard. For all the grief D-Jack got over his bouts of the dropsies, only Largent has caught more TDs for Seattle than Jackson. He's still probably the best player in franchise history to never play in a Pro Bowl.
Offensive Line: Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson, Max Unger, J.R. Sweezy, Russell Okung
Jones and Hutchinson are the only offensive linemen in Seahawks history to be named All-Pro multiple times, so they were the easy picks here for one side of the line. I give Unger the nod over Kevin Mawai because the vast majority (and all of the Pro Bowls) of Mawai's storied career happened after he left Seattle. Sweezy gets the guard spot across from Hutch over Pete Kendall, and I cheated a little bit by sliding Okung over to right tackle opposite Big Walt.
Tight End: John Carlson
How bad were the Seahawks back in 2008 and 2009? Carlson was the team MVP both seasons. When you look at how slim the pickings were at tight end through our team's history, current Cardinal Carlson is still the obvious choice.
DEFENSE Defensive line: Jacob Green, Cortez Kennedy, Brandon Mebane, Michael Sinclair
Cantonite Tez anchors this formidable theoretical d-line, and end rushers Green and Sinclair combined for a whopping 171 sacks wearing blue and green. Bane gets the other tackle spot, nudging aside Red Bryant and Rocky Bernard.
Linebackers: Bobby Wagner, Lofa Tatupu, K.J. Wright
Wags and Wright are the cornerstones of the current Seattle linebacking corps, while Tatupu anchored the middle of Seahawks' defense through the playoff runs of the late-Holmgren era.
Defensive Backs: Richard Sherman, Kenny Easley, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor
Yes, I know I have three safeties and just one corner here. But would you rather have Shawn Springs/Marcus Trufant on the field over ANY one of Easley/ET/Bam-Bam Kam? Let them murder the enemy WRs and Sherm can cover whomever happens to survive.
SPECIALISTS
The Traitor Josh Brown is still the best placekicker the Seahawks have ever drafted, and Ruben Rodriguez gets punting duties basically by default. Charlie Rogers and Bobbie Joe Edmonds were the most versatile/effective kick/punt returners Seattle's ever seen, and Fredd Young had absolute murder in his heart covering kicks for the Hawks in the mid-80s.
What do you think, sirs? Any glaring omissions? Let's hash it out in the comments!
Back home in the Tri-Cities, my Mom has a storage shed stuffed with artifacts of my childhood. Among the VHS tapes, photo albums and junior high yearbooks are my old journals, and as an odd, lonely kid with obsessive streak I scribbled in them constantly back then. One thread running through all of them was my penchant for detailed daydreaming about the Seattle Seahawks. I'd go through the upcoming season's schedule game-by-game and plot out the trajectory that would lead us to Super Bowl glory, down to quarter-by-quarter scoring in each game and the stats for individual players. It was a rudimentary version of the piece I wrote a while back about the Tangent Universe 1986 Seahawks, and it helped distract me from my day-to-day struggles and the perennial floundering of my beloved Hawks.
In all those reams of yellowing paper, written by an adolescent Twelve with an over-active imagination, I doubt I ever penned a Super Bowl yarn that ended with the Seahawks winning 43-8. I used to wear Hawaiian shirts WITH fish ties back then, but even that little weirdo I used to be would have thought "Woah, that's just bugfuck crazy!" I've been envisioning this Championship moment for thirty years, and those daydreams betrayed my own lack of confidence. In those mental movies, the Seahawks would mightily struggle, and hoist the Lombardi Trophy only after edging their opponents in a heart-stopping XXV or XXIII-esque affair. I could allow myself to dream about us somehow getting to the top of the mountain, and taking a brief look around before we trudged back to base camp battered, bruised and exhausted. I never seriously entertained a different notion: What if, when the Seahawks finally won it all, they were one of the greatest teams of all time? What if they strutted to the top of the mountain and built a fucking mansion up there?
The 2013 Seattle Seahawks are the best NFL team the 21st century has yet seen, and one of the Top 10 teams of the Super Bowl era. They evoke comparisons to the 1984 Niners and 1992 Cowboys- Youthful teams filled with speed, blessed with brains and fueled by blind rage and an appetite for brutality. Before the revisionist history takes hold about XLVIII (Peyton is "old," the Broncos weren't that great, blah blah blah), let's remember that the Seahawks were three-point underdogs. They were facing the most terrifyingly efficient offensive machine in NFL history- A unit that scored a league-record 606 points and was led by NFL MVP Peyton Manning, who shattered every significant single-season passing benchmark in the NFL's record books. Super Bowl XLVIII was supposed to be the capstone to Manning's superlative career- A second World Championship would ensure that he'd be remembered as perhaps the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. Then... This happened...
A whole lot of THAT happened, and the Seahawks ruined King Peyton's meticulously prepared coronation with the greatest defensive performance in the history of professional football. Seattle boasted the first defense to lead the NFL in points allowed, yards allowed and takeaways since the 1985 Chicago Bears, and they showed the largest television audience in American history why they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as those '85 Bears, the '00 Ravens, and the '02 Buccaneers. For three quarters, the Legion of Boom & Company shut out history's most explosive offense, and at the final whistle they had SINGLEHANDEDLY outscored them 9-8. They disrupted Manning's rhythm all day, forced him into three turnovers, and imposed vicious punishment upon his receivers every time they touched the ball.
Given the Championship stakes, the quality of opposition, and the level of utter domination, football has never seen a more dominant defensive performance than the one given by Seattle in XLVIII. Malcolm Smith was a deserving recipient of the MVP award, but it could have been given to a half-dozen Seahawk defenders (or the unit as a whole).
What about that struggling, pedestrian Seattle offense? Oh, you mean the one that was 8th in the NFL in scoring this season? They put up 27 points, and Russell Wilson posted a passer rating FIFTY POINTS HIGHER than Peyton Manning's. Wilson emphatically invalidated all that "game-manager" bullplop puked onto the airwaves by the bobblehead "experts" over the last few weeks and grasped football immortality before his more heralded contemporaries (Kaepernick, Luck, RGIII, etc). The terrifying thing for the rest of the NFL is that he's still YEARS away from his prime. Get used to this, NFL:
How total was Seattle's dominance? I hosted my first Super Bowl party in YEARS, and I was worried that a tight, stressful game would lead to... ahem... unflattering behavior on my part. My non-football watching girlfriend would be there, and I didn't want to freak her out if A) the Hawks got blown out or B) the game was competitive in the 4th quarter. In the event of the former, I usually become a sullen basket case. The latter? I typically become a nauseous, pacing, chattering, profanity-barking wreck. I'm quite the catch, huh?
While I was stressed beyond belief BEFORE the game, after the opening kickoff it evolved into one of the most stress-free, gleeful, relaxing experiences I've ever had as a Twelve. From the moment Denver's first snap sailed over Peyton's head for a safety, it was ALL joy. I jumped into a friend's arms after Malcom Smith's pick-6. Evidently after Percy Harvin's kickoff return TD to start the second half, I was bounding about my living room like Tracy Flick in Election. XLVIII got so boring after Harvin's score that the rest of my party-goers entertained themselves by playing Cards Against Humanity for the remainder of the game (while I was enraptured, floating on Cloud 12). You might be wondering when the tears came for me- It was only when the game was over, and the "Seattle Seahawks: Super Bowl Champions" graphic popped up on the screen that I was overcome with emotion. Then, the waterworks began.
I'm sure I'll be posting more articles about what this victory "means" in the coming days, weeks and months, but two things are really sticking in my mind today...
-All of the trauma I've ever felt as a Twelve has been magically washed away. I feel unburdened and bulletproof. None of it hurts anymore. Not The Phantom Touchdown. Not the 4th-quarter collapse against St. Louis in 2004. Not 1992. Not even XL. NOT EVEN XL!!!! I almost feel like I could go back and watch that game again now- Almost. It's similar to what I felt as I started coming out as transgender to people- Every time I did it, I felt LIGHTER. I felt freer. There's SO much we don't have to carry around any more, my fellow Twelves. On a deeply personal level, it's meaningful beyond words that the Seahawks finally won the Super Bowl only six weeks after I started living full-time as a woman. It's almost as if they were waiting to win so I could celebrate as my authentic self. In truth, one (small) reason I pushed myself to go full-time by January 2014 was because in the event the Hawks won XLVIII, I didn't want to experience it in "boy mode." Thanks for the extra motivation, guys!
-This victory means a great deal to millions of people. It's significant to the whole population of Washington State, it's a feast for Seattle-area sports fans starving for Championship glory, and obviously ALL Twelves are delirious with ecstasy. But I want to talk about one specific brigade within the Twelve Army- Those of us who survived "The Forgotten Years" and bled and cried over this team when the Seahawks were about as uncool as a sports franchise could possibly be.
Bear with me, and go watch this clip on YouTube. It's one of the most exciting finishes to a game in franchise history....
Wow! That was awesome, right? You know how many people were actually AT that game? 36, 320. That's it. The game was blacked out on local TV, and the only reason I saw it live was because I was in the Dome. The ascendant Sonics and Mariners ruled the Seattle sporting landscape, and our Californian owner was in the middle of a brazen attempt to relocate the Seahawks to Los Angeles. That awful reality was bad enough, but even worse was the fact that NO ONE SEEMED TO CARE if the Hawks skipped town.
Some of us did. Some of us were the Seattle pro football equivalent of those Irish monks who preserved civilization through the Dark Ages. We were the ones wearing Joey Galloway jerseys when all of our friends were reppin' Junior or Shawn Kemp. We endured watching talented Seahawks teams hobbled by incompetent ownership flounder and stumble to 8-8 finish after 8-8 finish. We were the ones who pestered all of our friends into voting for R48 in the summer of 1997. As I wrote in this space once before:
I felt kinda isolated with my Galloway jersey and my love for a team that hadn't even posted a winning record since 1990. I was terrified that R48 would fail, Paul Allen would bolt, and the team would quickly become the L.A. Blackhawks or something. It passed statewide by 51.1% to 48.9%, or by just a hair under 37,000 votes. That was far less than the throngs who packed the Kingdome for M's games back then. I was going to Western at the time, and I had a weekly talk show on KUGS-FM called The Democratic Circus. I pushed HARD for my listeners to vote yes on R48, and I like to think I played a tiny part in its victory... Look at the Whatcom County (Bellingham) results: Whatcom Yes 23794 No 23361 Sure, only about 100 people listened to my show on a GOOD night, but I like to imagine that a chunk of that 433 vote margin were folks swayed by my cogent, heartfelt arguments. Another anecdote illustrates how much things have changed since Paul Allen took over... Everyone has their own story about the 9/11 atrocities, but mine actually touches on the Hawks. I went to the season opener in Cleveland on September 9, and I was leaving the next day to visit my family and college friends in the Northwest. The plan was fly to Pasco, hang out with my family in the Tri-Cities, then go to Seattle and, among other things, catch the Chiefs game on September 16. We all remember that game was postponed after the mass murder of 9/11, and I understood why, but having a game to go to that Sunday sure would have made ME feel better. I was out at breakfast that Sunday with a friend, wearing my Hasselbeck jersey. I admitted to her that I was depressed about the game being postponed, and this total stranger overhears me. He then snorts: "Seahawks? Who gives a crap about THEM?" I looked over to see this gastropod in an M's cap and a Ichiro jersey, obviously enjoying the Mariners' 116-win regular season... and hey, who could blame him? But I fucking SNAPPED. "Who cares? I DO! I've been a fan since I was 8 years old.. I'd bet a million dollars you didn't own a scrap of Mariners gear before August of 1995, man..." He gave me a VERY dirty look, but also shut the fuck up. Now do a thought experiment: Can you imagine a scenario where that would happen NOW? I can't. Thank you, Paul Allen.
I've been thinking about that guy today, wondering if he'll attend the Victory Parade or Celebration Rally at Seahawks Stadium. If so, that's cool. I'd never want anyone to NOT root for the Seahawks. New Twelves are always welcome in our big ol' tent. But I hope he reads this, and understands that if people like him had held sway back in the Ken Behring Dark Ages, that parade isn't happening in Seattle today. For those of us who have been waiting for this our whole lives, it's unfathomably satisfying- We're not only Champions, we just got to cheer on one of the greatest NFL teams of all time... A team that not only went 13-3 and boasted a historically great defense, but also beat Drew Brees, a Niners team that would have won the Super Bowl in almost any other season this century, and Peyton Manning to reach Pro Football's pinnacle (and today's parade probably won't be the last one the Seahawks have through the winding streets of Seattle in the years to come).
We earned this moment. Revel in it. Remember every detail. We're Champions together, and nothing will ever be the same. I love you guys. Thanks for being with me on the wildest ride of our lives.
For pretty obvious personal reasons, I've been thinking about transitions and transformations a lot lately. When an individual or a group fundamentally changes their identity, how do they handle it? How do other people react to that fundamental change?
Before October 2004, the Boston Red Sox had a very distinct identity. They had a storied history, a venerable ballpark, and a reputation for falling apart JUST SHORT of championship glory. They were "cursed," and the term "Red Sox fan" was almost always preceded with "long-suffering." Nine years and three World Series Championships later, the Red Sox are an empire as evil as the one down in the Bronx in the eyes of most non-aligned fans. Their fans? They've gone from "long-suffering" to "insufferable" to the general public. Their regional NFL neighbors have gone through a similar phenomenon: Twenty years ago the Patriots were one of the most irrelevant franchises in the NFL, and an afterthough in their own city. Now, they're perennial contenders who are roundly detested outside their own fan base.
The Seahawks have always had a unique identity based upon NOT having a unique identity. Up until very recently, the Seahawks were most notable for their consistent grey mediocrity. One of the most depressing factoids about our team was that Seattle had the most seasons with between 7 and 9 wins in the 16-game-season era. They weren't good (or bad) enough to make much of an impression on the general public, particularly given that they played in a city geographically isolated from the tastemakers on the Eastern Seaboard. The NFL nation was indifferent to the Seahawks, and the team rarely forced them to take notice.
Seahawks fans? They've rarely been indifferent about this team (The Forgotten Years represented the only era of sustained blackouts, but with an owner actively trying to skip town, withdrawal in disgust was an understandable response for many Twelves), but they've also always tended to expect the worst. The lead would get blown. The star player would blow out his knee. The high-profile draft pick would be a bust. The ball wouldn't bounce our way. The inexplicable call by the officials would go against us. Pessimism, fatalism and cynicism became encoded in the worldview of a wide swath of the Twelve Army.
I'm fascinated by not just the process of transformation, but by how people's perceptions "lag" behind the actual changes. In my own case, I know that even well-meaning people are going to "slip-up" for a while and use the wrong pronouns when referring to me, even though my appearance has radically changed. Once people form a solid impression of another person, or a group, or an institution, it takes time and a LOT of new information to alter that impression.
That's why you get media bobbleheads who still think the Seahawks are a bad road team (6-2 this year, with the two losses by a total of eight point to two playoff teams), and/or they are doomed when kickoff happens at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (6-2 in their last eight such match-ups). That's why I still run into Twelves who refuse to accept our new reality: We have been transformed. We are not who we are before. We're not irrelevant. We're cool. We're not underdogs. We're the favorites. Some Twelves still expect it all to come crumbling down. They're lagging, and they might not catch up until Pete Carroll is thrusting a Lombardi Trophy into the New Jersey night on February 2.
After our 23-0 erasure of the New York Giants yesterday, the Seahawks' dominance can be measured in many ways, but every measure points to the same conclusion: The best team in football hails from South Alaska, and when they're done every team in their path will be a blanket of ash on the ground. They have the best record. The defense leads the league in almost every significant statistical category, as do our special teams. The offense would seem to be the "weak link," but they still are 5th in the NFL in scoring and 2nd in rushing yardage. If the offense had operated at its usual level of efficiency yesterday, the score would have more like 35-0. Seattle offered up a mistake-riddled, penalty-plagued performance and STILL won by more than three touchdowns. Think about that for a second.
Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas III can both make strong cases for NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and the only reason someone from another team might win is if Sherm and ETIII split the votes of writers looking to reward Seattle's defensive dominance. The defense is so talented that backups like Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane looked like Pro Bowlers against the befuddled Eli Manning and his flummoxed and frightened receivers. Given the chance to start, both might develop into actual Pro Bowlers. Malcolm Smith also shined filling in for K.J. Wright, and Seattle's front four traumatized Manning and euthanized New York's ground attack. On special teams, Steven Hauschka is tied for the league lead in field goal percentage, and leads the NFC in scoring. The punt coverage unit is on pace to allow the fewest return yards in NFL history, and Golden Tate is second to only Kansas City's Dexter McCluster in punt return yardage.
Now Seattle needs to win just one more game to clinch home field advantage through the NFC playoffs. With two home games remaining, it would be a stunning turn of events if they fumbled away the #1 seed. The Seahawks haven't lost home games in consecutive weeks since November of 2008, and it's hard to see how this team could drop both of its remaining contests, even against strong divisional foes like Arizona and St. Louis. All that stands between us and a trip to the Super Bowl is four home games, and we haven't lost at home since Christmas Eve 2011.
People will adjust to how I've changed. Eventually, (almost) everyone will be calling me "her" and "she."
People will also have to adjust to how the Seahawks are changing. EVERYONE will have to call them "World Champions," and soon.
Matt Hasselbeck's release by the Tennessee Titans earlier this week unleashed a new round of discussion about his place in Seahawks history (and seemed to confirm what I wrote two years ago when he left Seattle). Beck's quick move to back up Andrew Luck in Indianapolis tabled that subject for at least another year, but the fact remains that I have held on to my old Hasselbeck replica jersey for one very practical reason: I intend to wear it at Seahawks Stadium the day he's inducted into the Ring of Honor.
In terms of honoring exceptional figures in Seahawks history, there's a clear caste system at work. Are you in the Hall of Fame (or just waiting to go in on the first ballot like Walter Jones)? You get your number retired. Were you a fairly memorable player that the fans have fond recollections of? You get to raise the 12th Man Flag. In between First Class and Coach is the Ring of Honor- A higher honor than simply raising the flag for great players who weren't quite great enough to remove a number from the active roster.
Right now there are ten men in the Seahawks Ring of Honor (Soon to be eleven- Hard to see this weird "Walter Jones has his number retired but he's not in the Ring of Honor" situation dragging on much longer). They are:
Dave Brown, cornerback (1976-1986), inducted 1992 Kenny Easley, safety (1981-1987), inducted 2002 Jacob Green, defensive end (1980-1991), inducted 1995 Pete Gross, (1976-1992), play-by-play radio announcer, inducted 1992 Cortez Kennedy, defensive tackle (1990-2000), inducted 2006 Chuck Knox, head coach (1983-1991), inducted 2005 Dave Krieg, quarterback (1980-1991), inducted 2004 Steve Largent, wide receiver (1976-1989), inducted 1989 Curt Warner, running back (1983-1989), inducted 1994 Jim Zorn, quarterback (1976-1984), inducted 2001
A few things jump out about that list. First, it's almost entirely players from the 70s and 80s. There's only one player from "The Forgotten Years" (Tez), and no one yet from the Holmgren Era. Also, there hasn't been a player inducted since Tez in 2006. Yes, Big Walt will be next, and soon... But it's been a while. It's time to put some more names on the facade of Seahawks Stadium's upper deck.
But not TOO many more names. Being inducted into the Ring of Honor still needs to be something special, so let's say we add Walter Jones and nine more guys. That gets us to 20 total, and assuming you want to leave space for four current Hawks, that gives us five slots to fill. Here's who I think they should be, in the order they should see their names added to the Ring of Honor.
1. Matt Hasselbeck
Jones should get in the Ring of Honor this year or next, and Matthew should follow Big Walt the year after he retires from the NFL. I'm an unabashed Beck fanboy, and I've written many paeans to his greatness. Here's a good snippet:
There is no real debate about his status as the best QB in team history- No QB has won more games for the Seahawks, led the team to more playoff wins and divisional titles, completed more passes or thrown for more yards than Hasselbeck (Yes, Dave Krieg's rating is a tenth of a point higher than Hasselbeck's, and he threw for more TDs, but on balance even a Krieg worshipper like me has to give Beck the nod here). He played through injuries, and while he always had that tendency to make rookie mistakes, he also played with an amount of passion I wish all 53 guys on the roster also possessed. Beyond his status in Seahawks history, he has a legitimate claim to being one of the NFL's best QBs over the past decade- Is he a Hall of Famer? No. Is he on the same level as Brady-Manning-Rodgers-Brees? No. But his body of work is that of a very good, near-elite quarterback. If you look at some of the players Hasselbeck is "similar" to on Pro Football Reference, you'll see names like Archie Manning, Neil Lomax, Danny White, etc- and that's about right- All these guys, like Hasselbeck, were very good QBs who at times looked elite, but could never QUITE get their team all the way to a championship. Hasselbeck isn't a (mostly) beloved figure among Twelves simply because of his on-field accomplishments, though. He has always been entertaining, engaging, and relatable off the field (I truly think he can be a great broadcaster if he wanted to do that after he retires); I also think part of the reason I like him so much is that unlike a lot of NFL QBs, he comes off not as an alpha-male jock but as, frankly, a bit of a dork. To me at least, that's a very endearing quality. He also put down deep roots in the Seattle area, and has been extremely active in the community. That all adds up to make him one of the most popular Seahawks ever, in addition to one of the best. Where does he rank? I'd put him down as the 5th greatest Seahawk, behind Walter Jones, Steve Largent, Cortez Kennedy, and Kenny Easley. No matter what happens between today and his eventual retirement, he should SWIFTLY join the Seahawks Ring of Honor once leaves the game. One of the hundreds of reasons I am still so embittered about XL is the impact it had on Hasselbeck's legacy. If the officials had not incompetently tipped the scales in Pittsburgh's favor, Matt Hasselbeck would probably have a Super Bowl title and a Super Bowl MVP award on his resume- Those things rocket him from "very good quarterback" to "borderline Hall of Famer." 2. Shaun Alexander
This is where I expect to get some blowback from other Twelves. I'm continually stunned by the number of Seahawks fans who couldn't stand the most dangerous offensive weapon in franchise history (yes, even more than Largent). Let's look at the man's resume one more time:
-2005 NFL MVP (including 28 touchdowns and 1880 rushing yards)
-112 career touchdowns (#1 in Seahawks history; #14 in NFL history)
-9,429 career rushing yards (#1 in Seahawks history)
-Without him, we would still be part of the pathetic fraternity of teams who have never been to a Super Bowl. It's nice to hold something over the Lions, Browns, Texans, and Jaguars.
If that's not Ring of Honor-worthy, what the fuck IS? Yeah, you might not have loved his running style- But if he's not in the Ring of Honor eventually, the whole damn thing is a joke.
3. Mike Holmgren
If Holmgren was already OOF (out of football), he'd be in line right after Walter Jones. He'll have to wait to get in the RoH for the same reason Bill Parcells waited so long to get into Canton: No one is sure when he'll actually retire. But Holmgren's Ring of Honor case is very strong.
In ten years under Holmgren, the Seahawks went 90-80 (including the playoffs). In addition to the only Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, on Holmgren's watch the Hawks accumulated 5 of their 7 divisional titles, 6 of their 12 playoff appearances, and 4 of their 9 playoff victories. At the moment, he is CLEARLY the greatest coach in team history, and a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame- If not for the incompetence of Bill Leavy and Company, he'd probably be the only head coach in NFL history to lead two different teams to Super Bowl victories.
Outside of the Pacific Northwest, Holmgren is remembered for his time with the Packers, but he actually coached (and won) more games with Seattle. In addition, while he's unquestionably the #1 coach in Seahawks history, he's at best #2 behind Lombardi in Packers lore (and might fall to 3rd by the time Mike McCarthy retires). Without his successful run in Seattle, Holmgren wouldn't be the sure-fire Hall-of-Famer he is today.
4. John L. Williams
How is JLW not in the Ring of Honor ALREADY? He was a punishing runner, a nimble receiver, and an excellent blocker. In short, he was one of the best football players, regardless of position, to ever suit up for Seattle. Look at his resume:
-2-time Pro Bowler (1990, 1991)
-In 8 years in Seattle, he racked up 8730 yards from scrimmage. That's more than Curt Warner, Chris Warren, or Brian Blades. Only Steve Largent and Shaun Alexander have more YFS in franchise history.
-He has the 3rd most receptions in team history, behind only Largent and Blades.
-He scored two of the most important touchdowns in Seahawks history; both were long catch and runs off the "middle screen." One was at Chicago in 1987, in a crucial win that got Seattle into the playoffs. The other was at L.A. in '88, to put the Seahawks ahead of the Raiders for good and clinch the NFC West crown (both are chronicled in the video below).
-He was also a highly effective blocker, allowing Curt Warner, Derrick Fenner and Chris Warren to all rack up big numbers on the ground from 86-93.
I would argue strongly that among pre-Holmgren-era Seahawks, he is the most deserving of a spot in the Ring of Honor, and I would get his throwback jersey custom-made if I had the means.
5. Mack Strong
Mack Strong's career started in those dark days of the '90s, but he got to taste the glory of the Homlgren years as well. In 2005, he was named all-pro (and got one of his two Pro Bowl selections) and turned in the defining play of his career: a huge 3rd down conversion to seal a victory over the Redskins in the divisional playoffs. The Seahawks hadn't won a playoff game in 21 seasons, and DC put up enough of a fight to make things tense for all 60 minutes. The Hawks faced a 3rd down in the 4th quarter nursing a 17-10 lead, and Mack Strong tore off 38 yards on a draw play to set up Josh Brown's game-icing FG.
The most impressive thing about his career? He led the way for 10 different individual 1000-yard rushing efforts, and was crucial to sustaining Seattle's ground attack whether he was blocking for Chris Warren, Ricky Watters or Shaun Alexander.
What do you think, sirs? Am I missing anyone really obvious?
