It may be fitting that nearing Halloween the Seattle Seahawks are 4-4. It’s all the gray and ambiguousness in the world and we, as Seattleites, just love that! Some see storm clouds, inconvenience and seasonal depression while others will sense crisp & renewed air, lessened expectations/plans, and cleansing rain.
The Seahawks looked ferocious and promising against the Falcons a couple weeks back. Then the squad got absolutely basted by the Buffalo Bills at home this past weekend in an embarrassing loss. It was the worst home loss for the Seattle franchise since before the Pete Carroll era… 😬 Some fans will hate to hear that I’m still bringing up Pete Carroll. But a portion of this fanbase believes that Pete should’ve never been fired in the first place… at least not yet. You can disagree and I won’t hate it but let me explain.
Carroll finally got to use all of the draft picks that came in the huge, franchise-altering gamble that was the Russell Wilson trade. We can look back now with 20/20 hindsight and act like it was no big deal, but that took a set of brass stones to pull off that move. All of that ammunition doesn’t necessarily pay off when the players are rookies… I believe that Pete Carroll should’ve been given one more year for all of that talent to coalesce and converge. Hell, he got to 9 wins and was fighting for a playoff spot in the final week of the season!
All of you fans bashing those of us constantly bringing up Coach Caroll as a comparison can go somewhere and take several seats. We are allowed to feel hurt about the firing of a franchise legend, one who put Seattle on the pro football map and delivered a trophy to a region where no other coach had succeeded before. We are allowed to expect improvement and promising play from his replacement. There are playmakers on this roster and Pete Carroll proved that.
I’m not just going to buy into Mike Macdonald because Seattle fans wanted something new, and some TV personality called him a boy genius… he needs to prove it to me before I have the belief in him that I had in the previous coach. Before I’m willing to pronounce it a win that we replaced Peter Clay Carroll.
Some of us do have heightened expectations now. That’s what happens when you have a good long marriage/relationship, the bar is raised. That doesn’t make me a fair-weather fan, as I will be in front of my TV every Sunday whether it’s torture or not… And no, Evan, I’m not willing to give him a pass for poor play. I don’t believe the Hawks have a poor roster!
On the other side, I am also sick and tired of seeing all the tweeters, screaming to blow up everything and trade our best players after each loss. It is the epitome of hyperbole.
I have come to the conclusion that I cannot be lying in wait to scorch the new coach at every turn just to prove my point. Of course I want the Seattle Seahawks to do well, that’s my team! I hope the man is good. It’s true that he may not have all of the personnel to fit his scheme on the roster yet. This off-season would be a good time to flush the parts and positions that don’t jive with his vision this year. I hope Coach Mike is willing to play young players and do the testing necessary to see who can be building blocks for the future.
Let’s give him this year to show promise and another year or two to really make his imprint on this team. It does take time to get out of the contracts of the previous regime, but the thing is this is not a completely new regime. John Schneider is still here as a prominent presence in the organization. The coaching factor is now a big variable.
Whether you have hopeful and protective feelings towards Mike Macdonald or whether you are slightly bitter and distrustful: let’s all sit back, not attack each other, and enjoy the ride. There is still a lot of season left to learn lessons and come to conclusions.
It’s on the new coach to keep showing why he was hired, and how he can continue to evolve and adjust the team. It’s possible that this team is not a contender for the playoffs like they have been annually. In that case, I do, hope we lose the bandwagon portions of the fan base, I’d love to advance in line for season tickets!
No matter what happens in the coming election, we all still need to live together work together and strive for our own goals. These athletes are better people than us if they can solve in-fighting between people from all over the country (hick boys to hood boys) better than we can, sitting at home or moving throughout our day. Everything doesn’t have to be life or death. That goes for football and politics, ya looneys. We can’t let the powers that be pit us against one another just for their own gain.
Real life is so unlike the circus hellscape that is Twitter / X / Elon’s playground. Take a chill pill, chase it with some H20 and let’s get ready to face each other out in real life. Sometimes we make the mistake of confusing our community with a warring tribe. Don’t.
