Seattle Seahawks

Inaugural season: 1976

Home field: CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Washington

Owner: Paul G. Allen Trust.

Team colors: Navy blue, light green, gray.

Overview

The Seattle Seahawks are a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play in the 1976 season. One of the youngest teams in the NFL, Seattle experienced more lows than highs during its first quarter-century in the league. Known for its loud and passionate fan base, Seattle finally gave those fans something to cheer about in the early 2000s when the team began a fifteen-year run that saw them win eight division titles. The Seahawks made three Super Bowls during that time and won their first championship in 2013. The following season, Seattle was on the verge of winning a second consecutive title, only to lose on a controversial interception in the game’s final minute. Prior to the 2019 NFL season, Seattle had an overall regular season record of 344 wins, 331 losses, and 1 tie. The team also had a 16–16 record in playoff appearances.

History

Seattle had been trying to get an NFL expansion team since the 1950s, but as of the early 1970s had not had any luck. With the merger of the NFL with the American Football League in 1970, the NFL had planned to expand to two more cities by 1977, and Seattle was considered one of the favorites. Several groups of businesspeople competed to land a team, with one of those groups even going so far as to choose a name for the new franchise—the Kings. However, when that group could not come up with the financial backing, another group led by Lloyd W. Nordstrom of the Nordstrom department store chain was awarded a franchise by the NFL.

Franchise officials asked the public to suggest a name for the new team, leading to more than 20,000 entries with 1,741 different names. In 1975, ownership chose Seahawks, which is another name for an osprey, a bird of prey common in the region. When the Seahawks began play in September 1976, they were a part of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. A year later, the team was moved into the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, where it was placed with the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, and San Diego Chargers. Seattle played its home games in the Kingdome, a domed stadium with a capacity of more than 64,000. The team’s logo was an osprey head designed to incorporate the Native American art style of the Pacific Northwest. The logo was streamlined in the early 2000s but retained a similar look to its original design.

Like most expansion teams, Seattle struggled to win games in its first two seasons. The team did post back-to-back winning seasons in 1978 and 1979 but failed to make the playoffs. In 1983, Seattle hired former Rams and Bills coach Chuck Knox, who led them to a surprising berth in the AFC Championship game. Under Knox, the Seahawks also made the playoffs in 1984, 1987, and 1988.

In 1988, the Nordstrom family sold the team to real estate developer Ken Behring. During the 1990s, the team struggled on the field and lost money, leading to speculation that Behring could move the team to Southern California. In 1997, Seattle native and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen stepped in and agreed to buy the Seahawks for $200 million if taxpayers would partially fund a new $425 million stadium. Allen agreed to put $130 million of his own money toward the project. Allen’s commitment helped keep the franchise in Seattle, and in 2002, the team began playing in its new stadium. The facility, named CenturyLink Field since 2011, was designed with acoustic properties that amplified and reflected sound to give the team a distinct home-field advantage.

From the franchise’s early days, Seattle’s fans earned a reputation as loyal, supportive, and passionate about their team. They were given the nickname the “12th Man,” a reference to their ability to act like a twelfth player, helping the eleven players on the field with their crowd noise. In 1984, the team decided to honor the fans by retiring the jersey number 12, a nod to their role as the “12th Man.” The home crowd in Seattle has been known to get so loud that they set a Guinness world record for loudest stadium noise on December 2, 2013. The noise registered at 137.6 decibels, which is roughly equivalent to the sound of a jet engine on takeoff. The energy produced by fans jumping up and down during the game was also recorded as a magnitude 1 or 2 earthquake by a seismometer at the nearby University of Washington.

In 1999, Seattle hired Mike Holmgren as head coach. Holmgren had coached the Green Bay Packers to two Super Bowls in the 1990s, winning the championship in 1996. Seattle won the AFC West under Holmgren in his first year at the helm. In 2002, the NFL realigned, and Seattle was moved into the NFC West, developing new rivalries with the St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Arizona Cardinals. The Seahawks made the playoffs each year from 2003–2007, winning the NFC West four times. In 2005, the franchise made its first Super Bowl appearance, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21–10.

Holmgren stepped down after the 2008 season and was replaced by former Atlanta Falcons’ head coach Jim Mora. Mora posted a 5–12 record and was fired after only one year as coach. He was succeeded by Pete Carroll who coached the New York Jets and New England Patriots in the 1990s and the University of Southern California in the 2000s. In Carroll’s first year, the Seahawks finished with a losing record at 7–9 but still made the playoffs—one of only four NFL teams in history to accomplish that feat. In the opening round, Seattle stunned the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, 41–38, before losing to the Chicago Bears in the next round.

On the strength of a stifling defense nicknamed the “Legion of Boom,” the Seahawks won a franchise-best 13 games in 2013 and advanced to Super Bowl XLVIII. The Seahawks and their opponent, the Denver Broncos, were believed to be evenly matched, but Seattle dominated from the outset, winning 43–8 and capturing the team’s first Super Bowl title. The Seahawks returned to the Super Bowl in 2014 where they held a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots. After falling behind by four, Seattle drove down to the Patriots’ one-yard line with under a minute remaining. However, instead of running the ball, the Seahawks elected to pass. The ball was intercepted on the goal line and New England won the game. Carroll’s decision to pass was roundly criticized and referred to in some cases as the worst play call in Super Bowl history.

The Seahawks made the playoffs again in 2015, 2016, and 2018 but lost in the early rounds each time. In 2018, owner Paul Allen died of complications from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and team ownership was placed in a trust chaired by his sister, Jody Allen.

Notable Players

In the first years of the franchise, the team was led by quarterback Jim Zorn who played for Seattle from 1976–1984. In 1984, Zorn was replaced by Dave Krieg who led the team to its first two division titles in 1984 and 1988. When Krieg left Seattle after the 1991 season, he held most of the franchise’s passing records. Krieg was joined in the backfield by running back Curt Warner who made three Pro Bowls with the Seahawks from 1983–1989. From the team’s first season to 1989, wide receiver Steve Largent was Seattle’s best player, making seven Pro Bowls and leading the NFL in receiving yards twice. Largent still holds the franchise mark for career receiving yards with 13,089 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Defensive back Kenny Easley made four Pro Bowls from 1981–1987 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017. Defensive lineman Cortez Kennedy was named to seven Pro Bowls from 1990–2000 and became a Hall of Famer in 2012. Offensive lineman Walter Jones played for Seattle from 1990–2008 and was widely considered one of the best linemen in the NFL during his era. A nine-time pro bowler, he was inducted into the Hall in 2014. Easley, Jones, Kennedy, and Largent joined the 12th Man with the only retired jersey numbers in team history.

In 2001, Seattle traded for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck who eventually passed Krieg to become the team’s all-time leading passer with 29,434 yards. Hasselbeck quarterbacked the 2006 Super Bowl team before leaving Seattle in 2011. Running back Marshawn Lynch joined the Seahawks via trade in 2010, bringing a powerful running style that earned him the nickname “Beast Mode.” During the team’s 2010 playoff upset of New Orleans, Lynch’s bruising 67-yard touchdown run cemented the game for Seattle. Lynch played for the Seahawks until 2015 and was part of the team’s Super Bowl-winning squad in 2013.

Seattle’s Super Bowl defenses were led by defensive backs Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor. The team was quarterbacked by Russell Wilson, a dual-threat under center who was a formidable runner as well as passer. Since being drafted by the Seahawks in 2012, Wilson has made five Pro Bowls and set the franchise record for most career touchdown passes. Prior to the 2019 season, Wilson was less than 4,000 yards away from Hasselbeck’s team passing yardage record.

Bibliography

Banks, Don. “The Worst Play Call in NFL History Will Continue to Haunt Seahawks in 2015.” Sports Illustrated, 20 July 2015, www.si.com/nfl/2015/07/21/nfl-worst-play-call-seahawks-patriots-super-bowl-xlix-pete-carroll-marshawn-lynch. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.

Bien, Louis. “What Makes Seattle’s 12th Man So Special?” SB Nation, 22 Jan. 2015, www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/1/22/7871519/seattle-seahawks-12th-man-super-bowl-patriots. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.

Keeley, Sean. “When We Were (Almost) Kings: How the Seattle Seahawks Got Their Name.” Curbed Seattle, 15 Jan. 2015, seattle.curbed.com/2015/1/15/10002148/when-we-were-almost-kings-how-the-seahawks-were-named. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.

Memmott, Mark. “Seahawks Fans Cause Earthquake, Set Noise Record.” NPR, 3 Dec. 2013, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/03/248566190/seahawks-fans-cause-earthquake-set-noise-record. Accessed 2 Aug. 2019.

Ryan, Todd. Seattle Seahawks. ABDO Publishing, 2019.

“Seattle Seahawks.” Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2019, www.profootballhof.com/teams/seattle-seahawks/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.

“Seattle Seahawks Franchise Encyclopedia.” Pro Football Reference, 2019, www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/sea/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.

“Welcome to Seahawks History.” Seahawks.com, 2019, history.seahawks.com/. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.