Category Archives: It’s bigger than football

Fun & games, It's bigger than football, State of the team

Wilson, Chancellor & the gang enjoy Aloha spirit

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The Seahawks are having a good time bonding on Maui (my favorite vacation spot).

Russell Wilson has been joined by 20 teammates, including new additions Jimmy Graham and Cary Williams and all of the team’s starting linebackers.

The other players in attendance, according to Seahawks.com (and photos): tight ends Luke Willson, Cooper Helfet and RaShaun Allen; wide receivers Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Kevin Norwood and Chris Matthews; running backs Demitrius Bronson and Derrick Coleman; cornerbacks Richard Sherman, Eric Pinkins and Will Blackmon; linebackers Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Mike Morgan; safeties Kam Chancellor and Dion Bailey.

Not surprisingly, Marshawn Lynch is not there. The guy’s a maverick loner, as we all know. Not sure why Robert Turbin and Christine Michael are not there. Earl Thomas, Paul Richardson, Jeremy Lane and Tharold Simon are recovering from surgeries.

Contracts, It's bigger than football

Baseball talk is about dreams, not contracts

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Wilson HBO clipEveryone’s going gaga over Russell Wilson’s comments to HBO about wanting to play two sports, with some conspiracy theorists going so far as to claim the quarterback is trying to threaten the Seahawks amid contract negotiations.

Apparently no one paused to consider (1) Wilson was merely answering a question, (2) Wilson is not as arrogant as John Elway and (3) Wilson is not stupid.

In the preview clip for the April 21 edition of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel,” Wilson said, “You never want to kill the dream of playing two sports.”

Key word: Dream.

Continue reading Baseball talk is about dreams, not contracts →

It's bigger than football, NFL draft, State of the team

Hawks already try to identify Borlands

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Chris BorlandChris Borland’s sudden retirement has caused a big stir among NFL observers, with some declaring this is a harbinger of the end of the game as we know it, forecasting a future mass exodus by players.

Others say Borland is an outlier who does not represent the future of the league. Many have supported his decision; some have criticized it.

In the end, it’s his decision — neither right nor wrong, just a personal choice he is entitled to make. (Although, if he always planned to play just one season and did not tell the 49ers or anyone else, that clearly was a selfish move and the 49ers certainly should make him repay the rest of his signing bonus.)

But the league is not ending any time soon. There will be no rush to the doors by all of the league’s current and future players. One man’s decision — certainly not the first or last such premature retirement — won’t change the game in some major way.

But it might change how teams evaluate players.

The Seahawks are already ahead of the curve on that one. They have made a point to focus as much on the psychological profiles of players as on talent.

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Franchise history, It's bigger than football

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

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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.

It's bigger than football, Super Bowl XLIX

Dookie Baldwin apologizes — finally

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Doug Baldwin turddownTwo weeks later, Doug “Dookie” Baldwin saw the error of his ways and showed contrition for the “turddown” celebration in Super Bowl XLIX.

It cost his team 15 yards in a tight game, although Seattle’s defense made sure it did not come back to haunt Baldwin, who nonetheless shrugged it off after the game.

On Monday night, he told 710 ESPN’s “Barbershop”: “I apologize to anyone I offended in any way. If I could go back, I would take it back.”

Obviously, Pete Carroll has talked to him about it, and Baldwin now knows — two weeks later — that he messed up.

It still doesn’t change the fact that he and other Seahawks need to grow up and the Hawks need to surround Baldwin with better talent at receiver.

It's bigger than football

Like NFL, Carroll admits Rice video changed his view of domestic abuse

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As Roger Goodell and the NFL try feverishly to dig out of the dirty hole that is the Ray Rice domestic-violence case, at least something positive has come out of the fiasco: That video of Rice knocking out his fiancée has made everyone understand just how horrific domestic abuse is and perhaps how lightly the NFL has viewed it over the years.

“Unfortunately, we had to see an incident that elevated our awareness to really get to the right place,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate we have to learn the hard way.”

It seems crazy that people did not understand what Rice had done until they actually saw the second video. What possibly could have been the precursor to the first video, in which he is seen dragging an unconscious Janay Palmer out of the elevator? Rice admitted he hit her, which is why he was charged, placed into a diversion program and suspended by Goodell.

But that second video sent shockwaves through the NFL and for some reason changed the way everyone viewed domestic violence.

Continue reading Like NFL, Carroll admits Rice video changed his view of domestic abuse →