Category Archives: NFL history

For 50-year celebration game, Bucs & Hawks have revitalized franchise QBs

October 3, 2025 cc 1 Comment

As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seahawks celebrate 50 years in the league together by facing off Sunday, both have a more immediate reason to celebrate: They have found their next franchise quarterbacks and those guys have them on track to make the playoffs.

This contest, while big in the early NFC playoff picture, is also a lesson in the NFL’s general inability to coach talented quarterbacks into productive ones.

Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold were the No. 1 and 3 overall picks in the 2018 draft, and both were completely unsupported by their first, failing franchises. They were teammates on another bad club for a few games after being traded from their original teams and then finally found places where they could grow into the franchise passers they are today – both secure as the offensive leaders in Tampa and Seattle.

They were victims of the NFL’s ongoing struggle to develop quarterbacks – especially in a system that sends top college passers to the worst teams.

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NFL history, State of the team, The roster

Hawks should take lessons on how 49ers and Rams keep getting to the Super Bowl

January 30, 2022 cc 1 Comment

“We feel this is the toughest division in football.” – John Schneider on the NFC West.

The NFC West has been the best division in football for several years now, so it is no big surprise that the NFC championship featured two teams from Seattle’s division.

The 49ers and Rams both have lost in the Super Bowl in the past three years, and now – after a pair of walk-off road wins last weekend — one of them (the Rams) is returning to the league’s championship game. It will be the NFC West’s sixth Super Bowl appearance in the last 10 seasons – another tribute to the best division in the NFL.

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Contracts, NFL history

Hey, Trader Joes & cap experts, Wilson is not going anywhere

February 8, 2021 cc 2 Comments

Russell Wilson, Seattle’s franchise quarterback, was named the NFL’s Man of the Year over the weekend, a long-deserved nod to his many charitable endeavors since he came to the NFL.

In Seattle though, he appears to be persona non grata with a section of frustrated fans who are still plotting (in their crazy heads) to get rid of him. Others are talking about him needing to take less money if the Hawks are ever going to get back to the Super Bowl. Basically, most of these people are saying they don’t believe in franchise quarterbacks.

To be clear: Wilson is not going anywhere. Nor should he since he is the reason the Seahawks keep making the playoffs every year (2017 excepted). And his salary has not stopped the Seahawks from getting back to the Super Bowl; coaching has.

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NFL history, Playoffs: At Green Bay

Hawks try to take the road less traveled

January 10, 2020 cc Leave a comment

“There’s a real confidence about us. We don’t care where we are playing.’’ — Pete Carroll, on his 8-1 road Seahawks.

A wild-card team has never hosted a conference championship game, but the Seahawks have a chance thanks to the Vikings’ upset of the Saints in New Orleans on wild-card weekend.

If Minnesota can win in San Francisco on Saturday, the Hawks will be playing for a home game next week. If the 49ers win, though, Seattle will then try to join the three teams that have won three straight road games on the way to winning the Super Bowl.

It all starts with exorcising a couple of curses in Green Bay.

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Coaches, NFL history, Super Bowl XLIX

Adjusted goal for Carroll: Do it better than anyone but Pats

January 22, 2018 cc Leave a comment

Belichick XLIX Pete Carroll’s goal since he arrived in Seattle has been to “do it better than it’s ever been done.”

Sorry, Pete, but there’s only one team that has done that, and it’s headed to the Super Bowl again.

So Carroll and the Seahawks will have to content themselves with trying to do it better than anyone but the New England Patriots.

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady continue to prove they are the best coach-QB combo ever, now on to their eighth Super Bowl together and a cinch for Team of the 2010s as they go for their third win in four appearances this decade and sixth win overall. That’s doing it better than it has ever been done.

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Contracts, NFL history

Sherman & Co. need to take NFL Econ 101

July 13, 2017 cc 6 Comments

As NFL players continue to grumble about how “underpaid” they are relative to the NBA (and MLB), Richard Sherman just doubled down with a challenge for players to be ready to strike when the NFL CBA expires after the 2020 season.

For a Stanford guy, Sherman is not very smart. He and these other whiners don’t even understand the economics of their own sport, they apparently can’t do simple math, and Sherman obviously has no grasp of the NFL’s labor history.

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Franchise history, It's bigger than football, NFL history

Does Vegas really want these fans?

March 27, 2017 cc Leave a comment

Not crying any tears for Raiders fans.

The Raiders’ pending move out of Oakland reminds me of my dad’s story from his ill-advised visit to the Coliseum for a Seahawks-Raiders game back in the early 2000s:

As he and my mom walked through the parking lot to the stadium, the air was filled with the stench of marijuana and other gag-inducing odors. Tailgating for Raiders games is apparently one big bong fest.

As my dad watched the game in the first half, the thug behind him kept spitting his chaw onto the back of Dad’s Seahawks shirt. What kind of a lowlife does that to a 60-year-old man?

I asked him why he didn’t get security to toss the miscreant out or have him arrested for assault. He said “security” had no interest in wading into the stands, where they would have been pummeled by drug-addled roughneck Raider fans.

At halftime, Dad took off the shirt and threw it away (fortunately, it was a sunny day) — then went and found seats where he wouldn’t be assaulted. I suspect that was a pretty tough task.

Enjoy the Raiders, Vegas!

Franchise history, NFL history, NFL rules

Seahawks at heart of key rule proposals

March 23, 2017 cc Leave a comment

The league owners meetings next week are in Phoenix, which is apropos considering a couple of the proposed rule changes come right out of a game last season between the Arizona Cardinals and the Seahawks.

In that game, Bobby Wagner did his best Kam Chancellor imitation, leaping over the line to block a field goal. The teams ended up playing the full 15-minute overtime and finishing in a tie — the first of two NFL ties last season.

That game provided a lot of impetus for the NFL competition committee’s proposal to ban leaping and cut overtime to 10 minutes.

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NFL history, Super Bowl XLIX

Will Hawks or any team challenge Patriots for decade’s best?

January 30, 2017 cc Leave a comment

Dynasties -- All four updated There’s a lot of talk this week about the dynasty Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have built in New England — whether they beat Atlanta in Super Bowl LI or not.

There’s simply no denying the Patriots have been the best franchise in the NFL for the past 16 years — and one of the great franchises in NFL history.

They certainly were the Team of the 2000s — with Super Bowl wins in 2001, 2003 and 2004 — and their win over the Seahawks in 2014 put them behind only Pittsburgh (six), San Francisco (five) and Dallas (five) in Super Bowl wins.

This is their NFL-record ninth Super Bowl appearance (Pittsburgh, Dallas and Denver each have eight). It’s the seventh under Belichick and Brady — no coach-quarterback combo has ever reached that many.

A win over the Falcons would make them a near lock for Team of the 2010s — an unofficial title that, added to their dominance of the 2000s, would cement them as the most dominant dynasty in league history.

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Franchise history, NFL history, State of the team, Week 16: Arizona

Hawks show no signs of being Super this year

December 26, 2016 cc Leave a comment

In Week 16 of the 2013 season, the Seahawks lost at home to Arizona — putting the pressure on to clinch the No. 1 seed in Week 17. They did that and then went on to win the Super Bowl.

This season was set up to be a carbon copy of 2013, but just about the only thing that has followed 2013 form has been the Week 16 home loss to Arizona.

Unlike 2013, this Seattle team has no shot at the No. 1 seed. And it needs help to claim a bye. In fact, this crew will be lucky to win the one home playoff game it is guaranteed.

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