Category Archives: Franchise history

The return games were pathetic, but free agents aren’t the answer

Bryan WaltersWithout a doubt, the worst part of the Seahawks last season was the return game — which is why many fans are taking notice every time a team cuts a return specialist these days.

In the last few days, Ted Ginn Jr., Jacoby Jones and Reggie Bush have been cut, but Seattle fans shouldn’t get too excited about any of them. The Hawks can do better.

They certainly need to.

In 2014, they ranked 30th in kickoff returns, at just 21 yards per attempt. And they were 25th on punts, at seven yards.

It was the most pathetic combined return performance by a Seattle team since the 2005 unit, which averaged 27.8 total yards behind kick returner Josh Scobey and punt returner Jimmy Williams and coincidentally also lost the Super Bowl.

You know you are horrible when (a) Bryan “Wave It Off” Walters is your best return guy, (b) it’s a victory just to hold on to the ball and (c) a touchback is typically your best kick return.

Continue reading The return games were pathetic, but free agents aren’t the answer

Bush/Carroll news is a good excuse to rip the NCAA one more time

Reggie Bush and Pete CarrollReggie Bush and Pete Carroll together again?

Don’t count on it. Bush, cut by the
Detroit Lions on Wednesday, is
going to be 30 in March, and the Hawks have no room for him in their backfield.

But the dual news surrounding the former USC duo (USC is giving Carroll an honorary degree in May) took us on a trip down memory lane — back to 2010, when Carroll came to Seattle and the NCAA’s good ol’ boys showed once again what a bunch of corrupt hypocrites they are.

One little sheep actually bleated for the Seahawks to fire Carroll in the wake of the NCAA’s vindictive and heavy-handed sanctions against USC. We laughed at that bozo, knowing the NCAA to be one of the most unethical organizations in America and any of its sycophants (like Mike Florio and Steve Sarkisian) to be mindless chuckleheads. We were too busy explaining why Carroll was not Dennis Erickson, despite the seeming similarities.

A few months later, we ripped the spineless fools — especially Sarkisian — who backed the farcical, two-faced, money-grubbing, oppressive establishment and blamed Bush for pulling back the curtain.

We were never USC fans, but the fact is Carroll, Bush and company dominated on the field like no other team in the 2000s. Carroll went 97-19, won two national titles and lost one he could have won.

The NCAA can do whatever it wants on paper (it vacated the 2004 title and all 12 wins in 2005), but it doesn’t change what really happened.

With two national titles and one Super Bowl title, Carroll has proven without a doubt that he is one of the great coaches of this era. (Just imagine if he had finished his two championship losses properly: five titles.)

And he clearly is a better human being than anyone who has ever been part of or supported the greedy, phony, spiteful, evil empire known as the NCAA.

USC obviously thinks so, or it wouldn’t be honoring him twice in two days in May. Good for USC.

If NFL wants Hawks back in AFC, Paul Allen should make league pay for it

AFC West champsThe news that the Chargers and Raiders are working on a deal to move to Los Angeles together raised once again the specter of the Seahawks moving back to the AFC — and, if the NFL does come calling yet again, Paul Allen needs to make the league pay in a major way.

A few months after Field Gulls posited the idea of the ping-pong move, 12th Man Rising brought it up again Thursday after the Los Angeles Times reported the newest development in the saga to get an NFL team back in Los Angeles.

Continue reading If NFL wants Hawks back in AFC, Paul Allen should make league pay for it

Are any of Seahawks’ nominees elite enough for Hall of Fame?

There is no Walter Jones in this group. No once-in-a-generation, first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Former Seahawks draft picks Shawn Springs and Kevin Mawae are among the first-year-eligible nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015, announced Tuesday.

They join former coaches Chuck Knox, Tom Flores and Mike Holmgren and former running backs Shaun Alexander and Ricky Watters as nominees who coached or played for the Seahawks.

Those seven are among 113 total nominees — a list that will be whittled to 25 semifinalists in November and 15 finalists in January before the inductees are selected Super Bowl weekend.

The Seahawks have had a good run in the Hall of Fame recently, with career Seahawks Cortez Kennedy and Jones being inducted over the past three years. They join Steve Largent as the only career Seahawks in the Hall (and they shared a great moment before the Seahawks’ opener a couple of weeks ago).

But do any of Seattle’s current nominees have a chance to join that trio this year? Let’s take a look at each of the seven, starting with the coaches:

Continue reading Are any of Seahawks’ nominees elite enough for Hall of Fame?