What Happened to Seattle Sports Stardom?
The Seattle Seahawks have no stars.
The closest thing we've got right now is Matt Hasselbeck, but that's based on past reputation, not recent performance. He's got the charisma of a star, but lacks the luster and sheen generally required. Hasselbeck may be in the early stages of going supernova and his time with the team is almost certainly limited. The last legitimate "star" the Seahawks had was Shaun Alexander.
Now, don't hear me wrong. Walter Jones was a star. Steve Hutchinson was and is a star. They play in the trenches though, they won't ever be household names to the Sunday-only football fans. The Seahawks, and Seattle sports for the most part, lack a player whose skills and personality transcend sport and endear him to the nation. They also lack the opposite: a Bosworth, Haynesworth, or even a Brandon Marshall. Someone whose skills are undeniable, but who is divisive and controversial. The closest thing we've got now is Pete Carroll.
No. The Seahawks have no stars. Why not? There are plenty of reasons, but I'll offer a few that have been kicking around in my head for the last week or so.
SKILL
Not to sound like a jerk, but the bottom line is this: the Seahawks don't have many players with the skills and talent required of a "Star." There has been no Largent since Largent, no Easley since Easley, no Tez since Tez. Matt Hasslebeck had his moment in the sun, Shaun Alexander became the face of our franchise, and Mike Holmgren carried us into the national spotlight with his reputation preceding him and us. But on the current 80-man roster, the Seahawks have a convoluted mix of hope and disappointment, with a lot of players muddled in between the two.
The Tim Ruskell era is elucidated. We can look at Ruskell and his drafts now with a different eye, no longer betrayed by our own hopes and dreams that the captain of this sinking ship has a plan. The Ruskell era was a failure, one in which "playing" the draft became as important as "winning" a draft. One in which a misguided belief that the talent we have is better than the talent we will draft. One in which the team is always on the precipice of greatness, despite being wallowed in the depressing boonies of the NFC West. There were enough hits to give us some hope today, but the majority of Ruskell's picks were misses. He won with Tatupu and Hill early on, but from that point on it was a very mixed bag.
The draft is where you get stars. The draft is where we replaced middling players with middling players, took shots at special teams people, drafted people who "won't ever be a star" in the first round (Kelly Jennings, and yes, Ruskell said that). The draft is where you take the best talent available and have to hit with impact players at least some times. We almost always got them in the second, not the first round, under Ruskell. Our first round picks over the last five years reads like a gag reel: Chris Spencer (who may finally be coming into his own), Deion Branch trade, Kelly Jennings, Lawrence Jackson, and Aaron Curry (not yet an oops, but there is some concern). None of the first four have been impact players, and that's a big part of our problem.
MEDIA
There is very little dispute that the Seahawks don't get much play in the national media. Multiple times last year the Seahawks game was skipped over altogether on ESPN. We are increasingly viewed as washed up and overplayed, with no one paying attention to the fact that we were for five years among the three best teams in the NFL. We aren't any more. The illusion that Seattle is in South Alaska is very real -- many national media types will never make the foray out to the Pacific Northwest, they'll never sit on the banks of the lake and watch practice at the VMAC. They'll never see the passion the 12th Man has for this team and for ruining the other. Until you sit at Qwest for three hours on a Sunday, you can't understand the fanbase.
And really, what reason are we giving the media to come? The Seahawks have been atrocious on the field and off in recent years. The high character guys drafted and signed by Ruskell have faltered repeatedly. The team is viewed by some (thanks in no small part to Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk) as a Cincinnati-of-the-West. When you lose and lose and lose, the only media attention you will get is for the negatives -- Leroy Hill arrested, Tatupu DUI, Rocky Bernard domestic abuse, Houshmandzadeh shooting his mouth off, Carroll cutting his USC homeboys.
GAMEPLAN
The Seahawks of the last three years have been lost in transition. Ruskell and Holmgren didn't see eye to eye, Ruskell brought in his guy, his guy faltered, Ruskell was forced to resign, Paul Allen has cancer, Mora was fired, Carroll was hired, Schneider brought in, 125 roster moves, Tod Leiweke leaves... It's insane and very little of it appears "functional" on the face of things. How could this team possibly have a game plan? They did and it failed, then they didn't and they failed, now they do and... we'll see.
It appears that John Schneider and Pete Carroll have a game plan. They want to get younger and they want to leave no stone unturned. They want playmakers -- Golden Tate, Earl Thomas, Leon Washington, Walter Thurmond. They want a strong, mobile quarterback in the mold of Jay Cutler, but hopefully with less whinyface. They want a team that will compete on every single down, and they will cut anyone unwilling to live by that mantra. That is all very heartening as a fan.
SO WHAT?
Still, if the team is going to regain national status, if we're going to swap some 10 am starts with some primetime games, the team needs a player who matters. Someone exciting, someone lovable, someone hateable, someone controversial, someone with the smile of your pastor mid-baptism, someone--anyone--who can connect with the fans outside of Seattle and demand attention. It's okay to have multiple stars (Brady-Moss, Manning-Wayne, DeAngelo Williams-Steve Smith), it's okay for them to be jerks (Houshmandzadeh fits the mold IF he can deliver on his talent promises), it's okay for them to be almost anything except mediocre.
And right now, that's what we've seen from this team. Mediocrity. Niceness. Passive aggression. It's the Seattle way, but it doesn't work on a national stage. I'm tired of mediocrity and I know you are too. It's time for this team to get serious. I believe we're on the right path, but it's up to the fans to demand it. Demand the stars. Demand the elite WR we haven't seen since Largent. Demand the elite pass-rusher that we haven't had in a decade-plus. Demand the best quarterback play, the best linebacker, the best playmakers and play breakers. We've given every iota of fandom we possibly can to the Seattle Seahawks, through good times and bad. It's time we receive the best the NFL has to offer in return.
