Category Archives: It’s bigger than football

Free agency, It's bigger than football, Training camp

Hawks are sure about Arnold, but not about when he might play

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The Seahawks’ contract agreement with Terrion Arnold is a definite gamble, and Mike Macdonald confirmed that today when he said he has no idea when the cornerback might be able to play for the team.

The coach said the Seahawks got “overwhelmingly positive” reports on Arnold from people who know him. Macdonald declined to say anything about the criminal case that led to Arnold being available to sign in the first place (after Detroit cut him), but he did say, “There’s allegations there that are serious. If you separate that from the person that they talk about (him being) on a daily basis and their history with him, it’s been overwhelmingly positive.”

You could loosely translate that to this: He’s a good person who got caught up in a bad situation and people should not be afraid of him coming into the community. Seems like that is about as close as Macdonald will come to saying that.

The coach also referred to the player being honest with him in their personal conversation.

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It's bigger than football, The roster, Training camp

Let’s hope the Hawks are making a well-informed bet on Arnold

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The Seahawks’ reported pending addition of Terrion Arnold is a bet on a lot of things: (1) Arnold being available to play, (2) Arnold being worth it on the field, (3) Arnold not being a huge distraction to the team, (4) Arnold not ending up in prison and making John Schneider and Mike Macdonald look like complete fools.

You have to hope the bet is more like an insider trading investment than a pure roulette spin. In other words, hopefully Schneider and Macdonald have garnered information about the legal case that makes them think Arnold (a) did not commit the crime and (b) is going to be available to play for them for the majority of the season.

We should hear from the team leaders about this when they officially sign Arnold. They certainly owe an explanation to fans and the community about the decision to sign a guy accused of eight felonies.

There obviously are reasons they are optimistic about this move – reasons that go beyond thinking the cornerback can help them and thinking he is a good guy who got into a bad situation.

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It's bigger than football, The roster

Arnold would be lucky to land with Hawks

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John Schneider’s Seahawks are known for checking out every opportunity. So it’s not a big surprise that they brought in troubled former first-round cornerback Terrion Arnold for a chat and tryout.

What would be a surprise is if they signed him before they knew whether he might be headed to prison. That would be pretty pointless – and make Schneider and Mike Macdonald look like idiots, frankly.

It sounds like they are being smart about it though – waiting for the legal process to play out. And they seem to understand that Arnold needs them a lot more than they need him. This would be just a potential flyer on a talented kid, if he does not end up incarcerated.

In more ways than one, Arnold would be lucky to land in Seattle.

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It's bigger than football, State of the team

As expected, fans are being stupid about this franchise sale

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Sports fans are by nature an emotional lot — and the sale of the Seahawks has shown many fans to be very up in their feels, as the kids say.

As the Khosla family prepares to take over with a $9.6 billion purchase, some fans are illogically concerned the out-of-staters will look to move the franchise. Some doofuses even wonder why the Paul Allen Estate did not sell to a local buyer, apparently not understanding that high bid wins.

There are even morons who think the Khoslas – longtime 49ers fans — spent nearly $10 billion just to sabotage the Seahawks franchise, basically burning all of that money. That’s laughable.

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It's bigger than football, Week 15: At L.A. Rams

Forfeit was not an option; postponement does not hurt Hawks

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Some players and fans are crying foul over the NFL’s decision to bump Seattle’s game to Tuesday as the Rams deal with a major COVID-19 outbreak.

The same is happening among the Raiders and Eagles, who had their games against COVID-riddled Cleveland and Washington postponed as well.

Is it inconvenient? A little. Is it worth crying about? Definitely not.

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It's bigger than football, The roster

Gordon’s second chance with Hawks is here: ‘Hopefully it’s better than last time’

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John Schneider has never been shy about betting on veteran talent – whether they’re big trades or no-risk deals.

Josh Gordon might be the first guy Schneider has taken a cheap flyer on twice. The troubled but talented receiver is back, conditionally reinstated by the NFL and eligible to play for the Hawks in Week 16 against the Rams (if he’s ready that fast).

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It's bigger than football

Wilson obviously does not understand how dangerous Brown is

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Just like Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson does not get it.

That is obvious based on the quarterback’s words about Antonio Brown, a seemingly mentally ill former NFL star whom Wilson thinks he and the Seahawks can help redeem while getting Brown’s talent in return.

Wilson is a good human, a kind and charitable guy strongly motivated by his faith in God. That faith was evident again Thursday as he talked about Brown, with whom he said he has become friends over the last five years. Wilson said, “I pray that he can continue to grow, just like anybody.” Also true to his Christian faith, Wilson added, “I try not to judge people.”

Wilson, 31, is apparently too young or too religious to understand it is necessary to judge people. You must weigh them against your principles so you know whether you should allow them into your life. If Wilson were wise enough to do that, we probably would not be having this talk right now.

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It's bigger than football, Schedule

What happens when games are canceled?

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Tennessee’s virus outbreak is no surprise. It was inevitable that teams would have problems as the NFL pressed to play. It’s why we thought the NFL should sit out 2020.

But, the season has started, made it to the quarter pole with only one game (TEN-PIT) pushed to another week, and now the league has to figure out how to finish. While Tennessee faces TBD consequences for breaking league COVID rules, along with an uncertain playing future this week and beyond, the schedule is starting to become a topic that needs to be addressed (it should have been before the season started, but the reactive NFL doesn’t work like that).

Due to issues in Tennessee and New England, those teams’ games tentatively have been bumped to early next week – with next Thursday’s game also possibly affected.

This is just the first major issue of what always figured to be a significant concern. And the question is now at hand: What happens if teams end up playing different numbers of games due to the inevitable cancellations?

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It's bigger than football

It’s a high bar, but Dunbar drama tops all in Carroll era

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The Seahawks have been NFL drama queens almost from the start of the Pete Carroll/John Schneider era, so it’s never that surprising when some crazy news comes along.

But nothing ever done by the likes of rogues Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett or chuckleheads Leroy Hill, Percy Harvin, John Moffitt or Malik McDowell could top the situation Quinton Dunbar finds himself in.

Dunbar’s case (alleged robbery) is still working through the system, with conflicting reports (by the same people) of whether Dunbar was involved. We’ll keep following it and see how it turns out, but it certainly is one of the crazier crime stories ever related to the Seahawks. And they have had a few.

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