What Should Seahawks Fans Be Thankful For?
Nov 17, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll observes pregame warmups against the Minnesota Vikings at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Although overeating and football tend to dominate the Thanksgiving landscape for most of us, in theory the holiday is about taking a second to appreciate the things we have in life. In that spirit I thought I would take a second to appreciate what Seahawks fans have to be thankful for. The Seahawks have the best record in the NFL right now so there are a lot of things to choose from. In the interest of your sanity I’m going to keep it to five. Here are the top 5 things I’m thankful for as a Seahawks fan:
1) John Schneider and this front office.
On a very, very basic level this team is good because it has good players. That’s pretty intuitive. How did they get so many good players you ask? They drafted them. Schneider, with a great deal of involvement from Pete Carroll, has been filling this roster with cheap, young quality players and this year he has supplemented that with free agents like Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett. The 2012 draft class was an embarrassment of riches that has set up this franchise for years to come. There could definitely be arguments made against the Sidney Rice and Zach Miller contracts, but missteps by Schneider in roster construction have been few and far between. When you find a franchise quarterback in the third round a lot can be forgiven anyway. That brings us to number two:
2) Russell Wilson
We have gotten to the point in his second year in the league where we are probably taking Russell for granted. Wilson’s playmaking ability and poise are pretty unbelievable and he is the perfect guy to lead this physical, run-heavy offense. Wilson could undoubtedly throw for more yards and touchdowns, but this team has been designed to be run-first so Wilson must take a backseat at times. When called upon to drive this offense by himself he excels and, to be honest, there’s not a lot to say about Wilson that doesn’t come off as inane gushing.
3) Pete Carroll
When Pete Carroll came to the Seahawks with his spotty NFL track record and uber positive demeanor I have to say that I was skeptical. However, he has turned the Seahawks around and now leads possibly the best team in franchise history. He has gotten players to buy into his system and seems set up to be the coach of this team for a long while. I also appreciate his tendency to go for it on fourth down because that’s something virtually every coach should be doing more of.
4) The Legion of Boom (The best 75% of it at least)
The less said about Brandon Browner here the better. Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor are pretty amazing to watch and pretty comforting to have back in the secondary. I find myself continually amazed by how much ground Earl Thomas can cover and how he can seemingly be everywhere at once. Kam Chancellor is my favorite Seahawk, although the type of hits that made him famous might get him flagged as the NFL continues to change. Richard Sherman is arguably the best at what he does and definitely the most entertaining.
5) The 12th Man
This might sound like I’m doing a little bit of pandering, and maybe I am. However, the fact that the Seahawks have such an unbelievable home field advantage is a credit to all the fans that come out. Other teams are scared to play at CenturyLink Field, they even have to practice differently to simulate it. Russell Wilson has yet to lose on this field and hopefully the 12th Man can be a factor in disrupting his counterpart enough to keep that streak going on Monday.
Nothing said here is new or profound. However, it is worth sitting back and appreciating how good Seahawks fans have it once in a while. The 12th Man has experienced a great deal of suffering over the years and is now the envy of fans everywhere. Consider that you could have been born a Raiders fan or a Bills fan or a Jaguars fan. This season may end in heartbreak, most promising seasons do, but today life is good.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a Go Hawks!