12th Man Rising
FanSided

12s should be thankful the Seahawks are as good as they are

By Todd Vandenberg

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 21: Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll (L) and General Manager John Schneider participate in a ceremony honoring the players, coaches and executives of the Super Bowl XLVIII champions in the East Room of the White House May 21, 2014 in Washington, DC. Obama honored the Seahawks and their 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos last February. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 21: Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll (L) and General Manager John Schneider participate in a ceremony honoring the players, coaches and executives of the Super Bowl XLVIII champions in the East Room of the White House May 21, 2014 in Washington, DC. Obama honored the Seahawks and their 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos last February. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

This is the one holiday where the focus is on giving thanks, and the 12s certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. Besides the Seahawks.

It may seem odd at first glance to say that the 12s have much to be thankful for this year. It’s been a few years since the Seahawks were 5-5 and their playoff chances were up in the air. Like literally a few years. It was in 2015 that Seattle stormed back from a 5-5 record to win five of their last six games to make the postseason. I don’t know if we’ll see that happen again this year, but we already have a lot to be thankful for in 2018.

The obvious thing to be thankful for is the Seahawks themselves. That’s all too easy to say, though. I think we should go a little deeper than that. It isn’t just the style of play, or the excitement the Hawks bring. It’s the entire organization. It started with the great stewardship by the late Paul Allen. Not many teams have a pair of leaders like Pete Carroll and John Schneider, either.

More from 12th Man Rising

Listen, when you’re 5-5, obviously things could be better. No, the Seahawks didn’t just win what was probably the most spectacular Monday Night Football game ever. I hate the Rams as much as the next guy – and this is the next guy – but I have to give them credit for that win. We can all still be very proud of our Seahawks though. The future is bright in Seattle.

Besides, think of some of the alternatives. Count your blessings, 12s. You could be fans of the Raiders or the Browns. I know, it’s terrifying, isn’t it? True, the Browns don’t have the league’s worst record, and the Raiders actually doubled their win total last week. But this is about much more than one bad season.

Seahawks organization isn’t the laughingstock of the league

No, this is about utter suckiness on an institutional level. I’ve made it clear more than a few times how moronic I thought it was to give a network talking head the biggest contract in coaching history. Suffice to say, Jon Gruden is the Trent Dilfer of Super Bowl winning coaches. Except that Trent isn’t an obnoxious would-be genius.

Of course, Chucky couldn’t do it without the brilliant aid of the Raiders owner, Mark Davis. Davis combines the haircut of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges with all the sophistication of a pie in the face. Except the pie is smarter.

Things could be even worse, though. You could be a Cleveland fan. This organization is so awful that their fanbase is excited they’ve improved to 3-6-1. It’s a pity, because they deserve so much better. The Browns organization is so bad, they kept Hue Jackson after he ran up the stellar record of 1-31 over his first two seasons. Owner Jimmy Haslam made the incredibly short-sighted comment that he considered 2018 to basically be Jackson’s first season. Then he fired Jackson after the Browns dropped to 2-5-1. He gave him two mulligans for two of the worst seasons in league history, then fired him halfway through his “first season”.

So Haslam thought Jackson was a better coach when he had a .03 winning percentage over two years than when he got his team to .31 percent this year. Jackson literally improved his winning percentage tenfold over the previous two seasons, but suddenly that wasn’t good enough. Of course Jackson should have been fired. He should have been canned after 2016, though. And if Haslam was concerned that he’d have a reputation for a quick trigger, he had every justification to fire Jackson after the 2017 season. Now Haslam just has a reputation as a meddling idiot, which suits him well.

Be thankful, 12s. You root for an organization that has clear vision of who they are, and have for the most part stayed true to that vision. They may have made a few missteps here and there, but the Seahawks have never jumped the rails like a couple of organizations I could name. Oops, already did. It’s truly sad as both of those teams have long, proud traditions. Still, it could have been worse. Haslam could have hired Chucky.

Home/Seattle Seahawks News