Leaving out one non-player shows fallacy in recent Seahawks Mount Rushmore claim

Creating Mount Rushmore for sports teams is rather meaningless, but that does not make it fun. This article isn't being written to disrespect the recent video NFL Throwback put together to make their choices of who would be the Mount Rushmore of every NFL team. The picks are certainly not bad, but in the Seattle Seahawks case, a different look is needed.

NFL Throwback added quarterback Russell Wilson, linebacker Bobby Wagner, wide receiver Steve Largent, and left tackle Walter Jones for the Seahawks. One cannot point to any of those players and say that person is a bad choice. Largent and Jones are in the Hall of Fame. Wagner will join them five years after he retires.

Even Wilson is not a terrible choice though his Hall of Fame credentials are certainly diminishing the longer he plays. He has never received an MVP vote, for instance. He is the best quarterback in Seattle franchise history, but he also was not the reason the team went to back-to-back Super Bowls in 2013 and 2014; the defense was.

Seattle Seahawks Mount Rushmore should include this head coach

One might argue that since Wilson may or may not be a Hall of Famer the fourth member of Seattle's Mount Rushmore should be defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy or safety Kenny Easley. Both were dominant players at their positions and both have been inducted into Canton. Wilson was a great player but he made the mountain as much for the position he played than the high-end player he was.

A true Mount Rushmore should be the four faces of the franchise's history. NFL Throwback is sure to mention that the film they created focuses only on players. But there are other important pieces of an organization that help a team win games besides players, of course.

Paul Allen could potentially be on the face of a mountain for the team because he may have saved the franchise from leaving Seattle. Allen let his coaches coach and his front office people do their thing, though, so having him as a face of the franchise might be slightly off. Instead of Allen or Wilson, former head coach Pete Carroll should be a real option.

Carroll is by far the winningest head coach in Seahawks history. He led Seattle to the organization's only Super Bowl victory and it was his defensive design that helped the team create the Legion of Boom. The coach was not perfect, but does the team win at a high level if they don't have Wilson? With the LOB, probably. Seattle does not win as much without Carroll.

That is because Pete Carroll was not only the coach, he was also in charge of personnel. He rebuilt a team on the verge of losing for years into a division winner in his first season. Sure, Seattle went 7-9 in 2010, but they won one of the most memorable games in Seahawks history when Seattle defeated the New Orleans Saints in a postseason game that featured Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode run.

Russell Wilson was great for much of his time with Seattle. Wagner, Largent, and Jones absolutely deserve to be on any Seattle Seahawks Mount Rushmore. But Pete Carroll, who missed the playoffs only three times in 14 seasons with the team, deserves to be on the mountain as well.

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