Category Archives: NFL history

NFL history, Playoffs: At Green Bay

Hawks try to take the road less traveled

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logo-playoffs“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

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Belichick XLIXPete 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.

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

Contracts, NFL history

Sherman & Co. need to take NFL Econ 101

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Salary cap logoAs 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.

Continue reading Sherman & Co. need to take NFL Econ 101 →

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

Does Vegas really want these fans?

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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

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NFL logo and penalty flagThe 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?

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Dynasties -- All four updatedThere’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.

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

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

Hawks show no signs of being Super this year

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logo-arizonaIn 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.

Continue reading Hawks show no signs of being Super this year →

Franchise history, NFL history

Remember the Seahawks’ L.A. story?

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behringIt’s only appropriate that the Seahawks are going to be the first team in 22 years to play the Rams in Los Angeles.

L.A. fans are excited – or were before Monday’s debacle — about the return of the Rams, and plenty of people are making a big deal of Pete Carroll’s return to the site of his USC glory.

But this also marks a pretty major anniversary for the Seahawks, who actually were the last franchise to reside in Los Angeles – if only for a couple of unauthorized months 20 years ago.

As you may or may not recall, Ken Behring tried to move the Hawks to L.A. in 1996, just a year after the Rams and Raiders left. And it was that move that basically led to Paul Allen buying the team – and leading it to three Super Bowls and counting.

Here’s the Seahawks’ L.A. story from my book, “The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Seattle Seahawks”:

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Franchise history, Hall of Fame, NFL history

Easley poised to join rest of NFL’s all-1980s team in Hall of Fame

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Easley“It blows me away that Kenny Easley is not in the Hall of Fame.”

Paul Moyer, Easley’s teammate for five years in the 1980s, expressed his dismay while talking about the legendary Seahawk in our 2008 book, “Then Zorn Said to Largent.”

Well, Paul, it looks like you won’t have to wait much longer. Easley has been nominated by the seniors committee, meaning he has a great chance to make it next February.

You could call it an 86 percent chance. And if not this time, then maybe in a few years.

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Coaches, NFL history, State of the team

With Schneider’s help, Carroll will finish forging his legacy

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Draft -- Schneider and CarrollIt’s no surprise that John Schneider and Pete Carroll are going to be running the Seahawks for at least the next four seasons together. Where else are they going to find a better situation than the one they have built in Seattle?

As Schneider told John Clayton on Tuesday, “You look at all the really good organizations: They have great ownership and they have stability. And I think that’s probably what is most attractive here.’’

Schneider and Carroll have put together a team that is poised to contend for Super Bowl titles for at least the next three seasons (see the projected lineup) — and probably well beyond that. Schneider and Carroll have built an organization with similar staying power to Bill Belichick’s crew in New England.

Continue reading With Schneider’s help, Carroll will finish forging his legacy →