Seahawks are finally having fun again

In what is hopefully a good sign for the upcoming season, the Seattle Seahawks are having fun on the football field this preseason.

Watching highlights, pouring through stats and generally basking in the awesomeness of a win by the Seattle Seahawks. It was a great way to spend a lazy Friday morning. (Apologies to everyone stuck at work today.)

And then Evan Daikoku made an incredibly salient point on twitter.

It was a response to this video posted by the NFL. It shows teammates celebrating with Travone Boykin after his rushing touchdown.

A year ago, when the Seahawks were coming off a heartbreaking Super Bowl loss, there simply wasn’t this level of energy. Guys were playing hard and doing their jobs, but it didn’t look like they were enjoying it.

Football is a game. Even for the people who do it for a living, it is still a game. Games should be fun.

I don’t care who you are; If you’re not having fun playing a game, you won’t be as good as it as when you are having fun.

This is an issue that comes up in the draft process. Teams and analysts work hard to determine which guys love the game, and which only like the game but love the fame and money. While not exactly the same, the effect is consistent.

Is there even a debate about this to be had? All of this should be self-explanatory in my opinion.

For the 2015 Seahawks, football had become work. It was no longer fun for many of them. They grinded through it like professionals, but a certain energy was lacking.

The team started to come around about mid-season. They had some success, and started having fun again. It just took a while for the team to overcome the way 2014 ended.

Compare that to the video clip above where guys lined up to shoulder-bump a backup quarterback.  Compare it to training camp practices where guys were flying around enjoying the daily work. One of my favorite scenes from training camp came from the formerly-mercurial RB Christine Michael:

He missed out on a drill to let the trainer look at something. Once they were done, Michael found linebacker Bobby Wagner, and the two were jawing at each other over god-knows-what. You could tell by the smiles on their faces that neither was being serious.

Michael then danced (literally) all the way across the field to line up for the bag drill. He got there to find a bunch of guys laughing at him. High-fives were shared between Michael and his teammates, and then everyone got back to work.

There simply wasn’t was bounce in everyone’s step a year ago. There also wasn’t that level of camaraderie evident throughout the workouts.

Next: Wilson's magical TD vs Dallas

I cannot tell you for certain that what we’re seeing will lead to better results once the real games begin. All I can say is that the Seahawks are having much more fun this year, and it makes watching them more fun as well.