Seahawks History: Zorn Made Difference Between, Outside of Lines

1. A player’s statistics when they played for Seattle and that is it. For example Warren Moon and Jerry Rice were arguably two of the greatest players to play for the Hawks, however, they put up the majority of their numbers with different teams, therefore, they would not make the list.

2. The number of years they were a Seahawk. Loyalty is an important factor for my list.

3. Moxie. Statistics aren’t everything. Some players have the ability to compensate for a slight lack of skill with attitude. How much does this player give the fans on game day? A leave-it-all-on-the-field type of player gets credit for this.

Number 2: Jim Zorn

Zorn threw more interceptions than touchdowns his first 3 years in the league. He was a backyard quarterback who seemed to draw up most of his plays in the dirt with a stick. He played 9 years for the Hawks and started for 8 of them.

Zorn’s biggest claim to fame is that he was the first quarterback for the Hawks which carries a level of mystique blurring some of the interception totals. Zorn finished his career in Seattle with 111 touchdowns and 141 interceptions. I know right!? How does a player continue to keep their job for 8 years when he has never had more touchdowns than interceptions? The lowest difference between the two in his entire career was 15 (this is not during a season but at any time in his entire career).  And then there was his win-loss record which was a miserable 40-60 with the Hawks, but for some reason fans still love this guy, and to be honest, I am one of those fans.

Only Jim Zorn has the stones to “hip-hip-hooray” the Washington Redskins team during his brief stint as their head coach (1:21), he drove a yellow volkswagon bug to the games when he was a starter for the Hawks, and he treated the fans like they were just as much a part of the team as he was.

His finest quality as a quarterback was his ability to make things happen. Zorn was ranked the 8th most mobile quarterback on the NFL network. His creativity was by far his strongest quality, unfortunately, it mostly came out on broken plays. The previous video link says it best: “Zorn was a perfect quarterback for an expansion team.”

So if his stats are inferior to Krieg’s, why is he listed higher than him?

The thing that really sets Zorn apart from Dave Krieg is his contribution to the career of Matt Hasselbeck. Zorn was the ambassador of the West Coast Offense for Hasselbeck. He was the quartebacks’ coach during Hasselbeck’s most successful seasons.  He’s a squeaky clean guy just like Matt, yet he remains competitive.  They were a perfect match and Hasselbeck benefited immensely.

Zorn’s contributions as a player as well as a coach elevate him beyond his Seahawk statistics allowing him to pass Krieg.

Plus the fact that he was and always will be my favorite sports team’s first QB as well as the only qb who should be in the ROH.