The Seattle Seahawks never get any national respect. It’s such a tiring recurring thought to a lot of us who grew up in the PNW. Well, they deserve some as reigning Super Bowl champions, right?
I mean, they are making the Hawks play on a WEDNESDAY to start the season, and almost had the season opener stolen from us by the Rams/49ers 👎…
Now they’ve got our squad on HBO’s training camp documentary, Hard Knocks. This used to be reserved for the worst teams every year and was avoided like the plague. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Well, sometimes it be like that; but the ‘that’ is a chance to tell the world who we are.
Ya’ see, this team has already played and won a Super Bowl while participating in a constant limelight. Over the course of the last 5 years, NFL teams have blitzed online engagement to an nth degree. Social media teams have blown up, the schedule release seems like a national holiday, and it seems like every single player has a podcast.
Access is the new wave, and it may have something to do with the expansion and proliferation of the sport of American Football, globally. It’s all too much to keep up with, if we’re all being honest.
Remember when I said the Seahawks have already operated within the limelight?
A local documentary called the Sound of the Seahawks rolls throughout the season. Hawks players will probably feel right at home.
Even the front office has gotten its shine, with the offseason documentary entitled: Before the Noise.
The Seahawks have become more accessible and a more integrated part of the Seattle community. Think about just the food: Legion Restaurant, Big Walt’s Kitchen, Bam Bam’s Smash Burger.
Leo Williams was out on the diamond for the Opening Day with the Seattle Mariners. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was at the weigh-ins for the Israel Adesanya UFC fight in Seattle. Multiple star Seahawks players have openly campaigned to bring the Seattle Sonics back to town. They are weaving themselves in deep, into the fabric of the town.
Doesn’t hurt that the Seahawks have one of the strongest cultures in today’s NFL. I didn’t stutter. It’s led by John Schneider, hand-delivered and gift-wrapped for a new owner / ownership group. It’s set in stone in the hearts of one of the more excitable and sports-thirsty fan bases in the country. Every time there is a chance for Seattle fans to show out for a new team (I just want to talk to Dwayne Johnson and the XFL) or sporting event, we do! Clock that.
Check the stats. Then, I want you to put the word out, that we back up. Put the word out that we stand by our teams, as a city. We are a sports town. This opportunity in front of a national audience could serve to seal that knowledge and help to keep the good times rolling. The Seahawks are up for sale by Jody Allen, if you hadn’t heard.
The good news is that the Portland Trailblazers just sold (also from the Allen Estate). Peep this, from Bleacher Report on the sale of the Blazers: “Even before the sale agreement was announced in September, ESPN’s Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst reported Dundon’s intention to keep the Blazers in Portland as part of the deal”.
We need that kind of an agreement and understanding from the jump!
Seattle has other, large things on the horizon. Sea-Town will host World Cup games in the near future for an international audience! When the Sonics come back, there will be celebration in the streets. Ok, maybe at least my street and a few dive bars on and around 99.
This is a TV show that has won the Sports Emmy 19 times over the years. It’s a big deal.
Fans can expect a healthy dose of Witherspoon, JSN, Kupp, Barner, Love, Emmanwori, Murphy, Zabel and both Charbonnet and McIntosh’s respective recoveries from injury.
Will the affable young white boy, Rylie Mills have some golden interactions with surly vet, Jarran Reed? They are going to dote on Derick Hall and all his hobbies, aren’t they? Can we get Drew Lock a meet and greet with Jeezy? Can we get a 2nd-date (team) update on DK Metcalf to ask him if the grass was really greener? Is Ernest Jones IV destined to fight a whole offensive line in a joint practice? Will they cover Schneider’s drunken jabs at SB MVP, Ken Walker on the way out the door? This may be just the beginning of Sam Darnold’s redemption arc.
Hard Knocks may feel like more of the same of what we’re used to as 12’s… but it is a coming cultural zeitgeist. One that’ll have a few Californians and New Yorkers consider a trip out to catch a game sometime, and maybe see MOPOP, the waterfront, Pike Place, the needle and the Fremont Troll.
They did miss the Ride the Ducks.
We see some of the new players coming into the league talking about having watched the Legion of Boom as kids… (yikes for us millennials doe…). My Haitian Florida homie from Tampa Bay talks to me about having watched Seattle games for the first time when Marshawn Lynch was authoring earth-shaking TD runs. That’s the mark our previous Super Bowl-winning team left. It stands as one of the more prominent thing people in other parts of the country (and world, to an extent) know Seattle for.
The wild thing is that people don’t even know Mike Macdonald yet. BOOOOO to “East Coast Bias”. I didn’t quite believe it when I authored this tweet:
I believe that 1 of the 6 views on that X(tw)eet was none other than Kyle Brandt 😤. If that is assumed to be true, he set out to prove me wrong, that the rest of the country truly does not pay attention to Seattle.
Okay, STOP THE COUNT! Prove me wrong he did. Touche Mr. Brandt 🧐, I hereby cease. I cease and desist all of my complaints about the aggravating narrative that Seattle is some secluded outpost of passing interest, forever toiling under the radar of the NFL landscape. I’m going to embrace that $h!t. Underdogs, we like it that way!
Give our team a national feel-good story to ruin. Talking our talk (when we deserve to) in the direction of the beloved darlings of the national media is the only way Seattle ever truly gets any respect or attention. Whether it’s Gary Payton at M.J., Richard Sherman at Brady, Doug Baldwin at Prime, Devon Witherspoon at the world. We. Did. Not. Care.
You are dealing with a team that is riding the cutting edge of modern defensive football schematics. That’s kinda a thing around these here parts… Pete Carroll constructed and conducted the Legion of Boom (with help). Now, the gloom of Mike Macdonald’s Dark Side team will be on full display.
On the John Schnieder show on 4/2, the namesake GM said, “it will allow people to see how beautiful the city is”. Seattle is the Emerald City, and I hope to see it shine in a unique fashion and glint. It’s also known as the Rainy City. Through the fog, a studied, eclectic, focused, forward-thinking and devoted city is there for the highlighting.
From rain, to grunge, to fish, to coffee, to stars like Gary Payton, Ichiro, Ken Griffey Jr., Shaun Alexander and the Legion of Boom… let’s give them something else to talk about.
The Seahawks have A+ juice at this moment in time. You can’t have the secret sauce, but the juice will be flowing. The entire country is now free to be blessed with a peek into how Seattle gets down. It should further help to defend and reinforce our way of life.
Curse be damned.
