Sorrow Drips Into Your Heart Through a Pinhole

Well, now the decade ends. On balance, the '00s was the best decade in Seahawks franchise history: 82 regular season wins, 4 playoff wins, 5 playoff appearances, 4 NFC West titles, and one NFC Championship. Those memories, particularly of 2003-2007, will be cherished forever.

But it's sure ending on a sour note, isn't it? The radio confrontation between Seattle's WRs and Hugh Millen the other day didn't do anything to dispel this feeling: Our beloved team is in total disarray. We can only hope that rock bottom has been struck, and the front office makes the moves that start leading back to contention in the new year.

It's somehow worse than that though, isn't it? I feel worse than I ever have before as a Seahawks fan, and I think it's the sobering realization that we had our shot, and now it's gone. Over. Kaput.

Of course, eventually, the team will contend for a Super Bowl again. We just have no idea when that will be at this point. We had a glorious opportunity to break into that cadre of franchises that have won a Super Bowl, and you can ask fans of any team that has a Lombardi Trophy: It changes everything.

Only 17 of the NFL's 32 franchises have won that big game with Roman Numerals, and a victory with a billion people watching changes how your team is perceived FOREVER.

If Bill Leavy and his minions hadn't tipped the scales in Pittsburgh's favor back in February of 2006, Mike Holmgren would be the only coach to win a Super Bowl with two different teams. Matt Hasselbeck would probably have a Super Bowl MVP trophy, based on the epic 99-yard drive he led which produced the go-ahead score in the 4th quarter (of course, that never happened.. the drive was killed by that bullshit holding call on Locklear). The entire public perception of our franchise would have been radically altered, and it would have been a watershed cultural moment across the Pacific Northwest.

Maybe Hutch stays in Seattle after winning a ring with the Seahawks. Maybe Shaun Alexander's decline wouldn't have been quite so steep. Maybe Hasselbeck wouldn't have taken all the hits that have led to the rapid decline of his abilities. Maybe Holmgren's swan song wouldn't have been a 4-12 disaster.... and so on.

The pain is so much worse with the knowledge that our performance in XL, though flawed, was better than Pittsburgh's. We made mistakes, but so did the Steelers. The difference was an officiating crew intimidated by history, by 60,000 towel-waving Yinzers, and by two weeks of media slobber over how great it would be for Jerome Bettis to win a Super Bowl in his hometown. But who gives a shit, right? It was just the Seahawks. No one gives a shit about THEM.

After XL, I told myself we'd be back... and in 2006, despite a 9-7 regular season, we came WAYYYY closer to a return Super Bowl trip than anyone cares to admit. The 2007 team was even better, but doomed by its inability to run the ball and play defense in the snow at Lambeau.

Now it's over. The boulder rolled back down the hill, and plunged into a neighboring ravine. We're back to being a punch line, even in the friendly territory of the Pacific Northwest. I've been here before, and it isn't fun. I hope that all the fans that discovered the Seahawks this decade don't cut and run after a couple of bad years... We WILL bounce back, and it WILL make your loyalty worthwhile.

Right now, it just stings like a scorpion bite, doesn't it? Would it be too much to ask that we start the '10s off with a win on Sunday?

Let's Go Seahawks!

Blow. It. Up.

The last three weeks have been traumatic for me, and I'm sure for most of you readers as well. Since Olindo Mare's game-winning kick sailed through the uprights against the Niners, the Seahawks have plummeted from the down side of mediocrity to shameful, historic failure/incompetence.

They've been outscored 106-24 over these terrible 180 minutes, and as Mark Tye Turner pointed out over on his twitter feed, the 2009 Seahawks have suffered more losses of 17 points or more than any other squad in franchise history. Matt Hasselbeck has morphed into Stan Gelbaugh before our eyes, and ceded any rational claim that he should be allowed to play quarterback for the Seahawks ever again. Sentimentality might dictate that he starts in his final home game next week, but all the arguments that he should be back in 2010 as anything but a back-up have been obliterated by two particularly awful performances. Unless your name is Mark Sanchez or Jay Cutler, no NFL QB should commit 9 turnovers in two games.

Beyond that, Beck's overall decline, that I tried to deny and wish away until very recently, couldn't be more obvious now. Over his last 20 starts, the Seahawks are 6-14. Beck has thrown 20 TDs, but also 26 picks. His QB rating? 69.6. That's comparable to the career numbers of Joey Harrington and Rex Grossman. Ewwww.

I might not think he's a good quarterback anymore, but I still love Hasselbeck. He's a warrior, and what he's accomplished as a Seahawk can never be denied or taken away. However, I have nothing but contempt for Jim Mora, whose inability to inspire, prepare or motivate this team is the main reason Seattle has become the worst team in the NFL at the moment.

The talent gap between NFL teams is, by design, never THAT wide. Hell, just today Tampa Bay beat the playoff-bound Saints after falling behind 17-0, and Carolina laid a 41-9 lead-pipe beatdown on a Giants team playing at home and needing a win to boost their wild card hopes. Yes, you need good players, and the Seahawks need a LOT more of those, but just as importantly, you need an emotional and mental edge when you take the field. You also need coaches with strong strategic and tactical skills, and excellent aptitude at interpersonal relations and dealing with the media.

Jim Mora would get a failing grade from me in ALL of these areas. You could see it today in the way the Seahawks WILTED after Hasselbeck's first interception. It was if the attitude was "well, we made a big mistake... might as well pack it in, because we are fucked."

No one in the organization should be safe from the scrutiny of the new GM. His first act should be Mora's firing, followed by a brutally honest assessment of the roster. High-priced veterans should be cut or traded (Hasselbeck, Big Walt, Kerney, and Branch are obvious candidates for outright release). Younger players should be made available for the right bounty of draft picks. In free agency, get players who have experience in successful organizations and can show the young guys what it takes to win in the NFL. Only by getting younger, cheaper and nastier will this organization have a chance to return quickly to contention.

Right now, the Seahawks are the worst team playing in the NFL. Despite their 5 wins, they might be the worst squad in team history. In some sense, the good news is that we've hit rock bottom. With the right (albeit painful) moves in the coming months, we can climb out of hell.

Happy Christmas, Twelve Army.

26 years ago today, our Seahawks won the first-ever playoff game in team history over the hated Denver Broncos. Things don't look nearly as hopeful in Seahawks Nation tonight, but I'm still thankful that I root for a team with such passionate fans, such a rich, interesting history, the best stadium in the NFL, and a wise Billionaire owner.

We won't be down for long, fellow Twelves.

So use this as a forum to talk about your best Seahawks Xmas memories, and brag about the cool Seahawks crap you score from Santa tomorrow. :-]

Everybody Needs to Chill the F**k Out

Let's face it: Seahawks fans can be a hysterical, dramatic bunch. We're also prone to negativity (which I've tried to make this blog an antidote to), so that often means you hear fans talking about how one move made or NOT made means the team is DOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

Mike Holmgren taking over the Browns (which I wrote about over on the excellent No Logo Needed blog), coupled with the first consecutive losing seasons for Seattle since the early 90s, has Seahawks fans acting more screamo than usual... "ZOMG! There's no hope for the future! The team is run by Donald Sterling-level incompetent boobs! Paul Allen is going to sell the team back to Ken Behring, who will implode Qwest Field, move the team to L.A., and shower the Space Needle with pig shit!"

Obviously, bad decisions by the front office got the Seahawks to this valley of suckitude, but the assumption that Holmgren was guaranteed to succeed as GM, or that anyone else is destined to fail, is laughably stupid. Let's look at the list of GM candidates Pro Football Talk says the Seahawks are bringing in for interviews:

Cardinals director of player personnel Steve Keim, Chargers director of player personnel Jimmy Raye, Eagles G.M. Tom Heckert, Ravens director of player personnel Eric DeCosta, Packers director of football operations John Schneider, Patriots senior football adviser Floyd Reese, Patriots pro personnel director Jason Licht, Interim Seahawks G.M. Ruston Webster, Chargers consultant Randy Mueller, and 49ers director of player personnel Trent Baalke.

I don't know a ton about these guys specifically, but they're all at least associated with consistently successful teams (with the exception of Baalke and Webster). There's no reason to think any of these guys are drooling morons, and one of them might be football's Theo Epstein for all we know.

That's the other thing. As fans, we're wrong A LOT. I was initially mad when we drafted Lofa Tatupu (as were a lot of other Twelves), and when Epstein traded away Nomar Garciaparra, I was convinced that my Red Sox were frakked. Three months later? World Series Champs.

Bottom line: I don't know if it was the wrong move to let Holmgren walk, and neither do you. Whoever the new GM is, we won't know fuck-all about the guy's skills until we see how the roster he builds performs on the field. Personally, I'd like to see Mora canned because I think he simply doesn't have the right temperament to be a successful head coach. But if he's back in 2010, I'll still renew my season tickets and hope that I'm proven wrong.

For those of you talking about "boycotting" the Seahawks? Fuck you. For realsies. Anyone who would talk about boycotting the team they supposedly love after two bad seasons A) is a fairweather dicktard and B) has no appreciation for how good they've had it this decade. If this is how you really feel, take your Seahawks gear to Goodwill and stock up on Mariners and Sounders stuff. At least I'll know that if I see someone rocking a Carlson jersey, they are a REAL fan.

I've seen the Seahawks be kings of the Seattle sports scene, and I've seen them tumble into lowly serfdom. I don't care about the M's, Sounders, or Huskies, so the Seahawks are MY main emotional connection to my home state. I've endured taunts of Seachickens, Seashits, Seabags, and more from folks festooned in the garb of other Seattle squads, and I've been to games in the Kingdome and Husky Stadium where the stands were half-full or mostly filled by fans of the enemy. And I'm not going anywhere.

Are you? I'm perfectly happy with this blog becoming a haven for dead-ender Twelves, hiding out in the jungle, not knowing or caring that the war is lost. If one bad two-year stretch of football makes you flee, so be it. I'm sure you'll come crawling back when liking the Seahawks is fashionable again.

The End of All Things

The Seahawks today proved why Mike Holmgren would have been a terrible choice to lead the franchise into the next decade: He's too loyal and too invested in this franchise. He, like myself, might be sentimental when it comes to players and coaches he shared the glory days with.

We don't need that right now.

We need a Wet Boy, an assassin. Someone with no connection to or investment in the current incarnation of this franchise. We need someone who will cut heroes and legends. We need someone who will trade or release talented guys who are nonetheless too old/expensive. We need someone who will fire a local boy made good after only one season, because that homegrown coach has made Tom Flores look like Chuck Fucking Knox.

The Seahawks are broken. Some parts can be salvaged, but this football team needs to be completely rebuilt, from the front office to the long snapper. I didn't really believe this until today. I clung onto the comforting fiction that Seattle wasn't THAT bad, that we were only some minor tweaks away from contention... I was brutally proved not just wrong, but stupidly naive today.

I haven't been this embarassed to be a Seahawks fan since 1992, and even that awful team could boast the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, a 1,000 yard rusher, and a memorable MNF win over the hated Broncos. The '09s are a lethargic, rudderless bunch who have shown almost no fighting spirit over fourteen motherfucking games. The blame falls squarely upon Jim Mora, who has quickly become a stain on his father's legacy. Whoever the new GM is, his first act should be to fire the man who sent our team out completely unprepared and unmotivated most Sundays this fall.

I wish I could put some sort of positive spin on this, but I can't. The next moment we are likely to feel any excitement or joy is the shitcanning of Mora, then hopefully some smart moves in Free Agency and the Draft. There will be a lot more unpleasantness though. Walter Jones will have to be cut, as will Hasselbeck unless he accepts a huge pay cut and a diminished role. We're going to have to let go of some decently talented guys in an effort to get younger and cheaper, too.

Frankly, no one SHOULD be safe. No one involved in this disasterous campaign is above scrutiny, and I hope the new boss is a cold hearted, ruthless sumbitch. This is going to get even uglier, and I'm glad Holmgren isn't going to be the one who has to get tits-deep in blood, bile and guts to cure this cancer-ridden team.

Happy Christmas, Everyone!