Top 10 Moments in Seahawks History

Any list like this is guaranteed to do one thing more than any other thing, and that is get people upset that their top choices were not included. I know this, because I have often been the one looking at such a list and wondering, “You &%& idiot! How could you not include....?!?” So I apologize in advance to those of you who will undoubtedly think of moments deserving to be in this list. For the die-hard Seahawks fan, this list should really be 50 or 100 items long. However, it is what it is – my list of the top ten moments of Seahawks history, along with my rationale for why each moment belongs on this list.

#10. Curt Warner's first run from scrimmage in his first regular season game.

Curt Warner was new Seahawks head coach Chuck Knox's answer to the Seahawks' history of struggles in the running game. Knox and GM Mike McCormick had traded the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks to move up in the 1983 draft to the 3rd overall pick of the draft. After John Elway and Eric Dickerson came off the board, the Seahawks selected Curt Warner from Penn State. There was a lot of buzz during the off-season and pre-season about the rookie phenom, but it was that first Seahawk offensive play of the first game of 1983 in Kansas City in which Curt Warner bolted for 60 yards that gave Seahawk fans a jolt of adrenaline and expectations for a new era, bolstering the hope and confidence that came with the hiring of Knox, and serving notice to the rest of the NFL that the Seahawks were for real. Warner went on to set a franchise record for rushing yards in a season and lead the AFC in rushing yards, and was second in the NFL only to his draft-classmate, Eric Dickerson.

#9. Shaun Alexander sets NFL record for number of TDs in a single half.

2002 found the Seahawks wallowing in sub-mediocrity, certainly not the sign of promise that people expected with the hiring of Mike Holmgren. Four seasons into his tenure as the Seahawks head coach, nobody knew a five year run of unprecedented success was just ahead. Coming off of three straight losses to open the season, with the Seahawks and their fans in desperate need of some hope and optimism, Shaun Alexander and the Seahawks offense unleashed the performance of a lifetime at home against the Minnesota Vikings. Scoring four times on the ground from inside the red zone and taking a Trent Dilfer pass 80 yards for another score, Alexander set the NFL record for touchdowns in a half with five before the first 30:00 of the game had expired. It also was the first time that one player had scored that many times in one game since the merger (the record for all time is 6, held by Ernie Nevers of the Chicago Cardinals in 1929). For those who never got over the Hutch debacle, it's also nice that this happened against a team that many of us have grown to love to hate.

#8. Chuck Knox hired as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

The Seahawks under their original head coach Jack Patera were fun to watch, and did better than anyone had expected an expansion team to do, but they could never get over the hump. They had two winning seasons of 9-7, but the most recent of those was three and a half seasons before the players strike in 1982, so Seahawks management chose that time to fire Patera and move in a new direction. Mike McCormick finished the season as head coach, was promoted to GM, and a secretive search for a new coach began. The hiring of Chuck Knox took the media by surprise, and pretty much everyone else as well. This gave the Seahawks some immediate legitimacy, as Knox had taken both the Rams and Bills to the playoffs. Could he do it again in Seattle? Time would only tell, but Knox wasted no time in establishing himself as the new head honcho, trading for several veterans, trading in the draft to get his marquis RB, even tweaking the Seahawks uniform (putting the wrap-around logo on the jersey sleeves), and infusing a new sense of hope and confidence to a team that had not had much of it. The Seahawks went on to trade their exciting, fun-to-watch haplessness for a more serious brand of football; and the rest, as they say, is history.

#7. Seahawks set NFL record for most interceptions returned for TDs in one game.

In the first game of the 1984 season, star running back Curt Warner went down with a torn ACL. With Warner out for the season, the Seahawks had to immediately change their game or submit to a losing season. Chuck Knox's Seahawks weren't about to submit to anything, and the entire rest of the team stepped up – the air attack, special teams, and the defense. Oh boy, did that defense step up! The Seahawk defense that year took the ball away from opponents more times, 63, than any other team in the Super Bowl era; and only one other team has ever had more takeaways than the 1984 Seahawks did. Ever. (The Chargers had 66 in 1961.) That averages out to four takeaways per game! And in this record setting season, one game in particular stood out; the November 4th 45-0 demolishing of the Kansas City Chiefs. Keith Simpson and Kenny Easley each got a pick-6, and Dave Brown got two of them, for a total of four (4) interceptions returned for TDs, and 325 return yards off of interceptions, both of which stand alone at the top of the NFL record books.

#6. Nordstrom family and city of Seattle awarded NFL franchise.

In the early 1970's, the NFL was considering expanding, and Seattle was one of the cities being considered for a new team, if they could manage to get a suitable stadium. Both because of and in spite of the political skulduggery that often accompanies stadium issues, construction on the Kingdome began in 1972, and the stadium opened in March of 1976. During this time, two potential ownership groups began lobbying for an NFL franchise. One quickly became the clear front-runner; Seattle Professional Football, Inc., bankrolled largely by Lloyd Nordstrom. With the essential elements in place, the NFL announced in 1974 that Seattle would be one of two new homes for NFL teams. Ecstatic Seattlites were then invited to help name the new team, and 20,000 people submitted almost 2000 names. The team adopted the name Seahawks and the blue-green-silver color scheme (a fact for which I personally will be forever thankful, given the color scheme adopted by the other NFL expansion franchise that year, the orange & cream Tampa Bay Buccaneers). They played their first regular season game to a sold out Kingdome crowd in 1976 – unfortunately, Lloyd Nordstrom died of a heart attack earlier in the year and never got to see his team play, but the Nordstrom family carried on and maintained majority ownership for the next 12 years.

#5. Final minutes of 1983 Divisional playoff game in Miami.

In the Seahawks' first ever playoff run, they made it farther than anybody expected, going all the way to the ACF Championship game before being eliminated by the eventual Super Bowl Champion Raiders. In the Divisional game against Miami in particular, the underdog Seahawks refused to be pushed around by the heavily favored Dolphins. Instead of being blown out, the Seahawks stayed in the game and kept it close (there were six lead changes in that game). After QB Dave Krieg threw a 4th quarter interception, however, the Dolphins took the lead and appeared to gain the momentum at a crucial time. But the Seahawks weren't intimidated. In one of the most exciting, scream-inducing, adrenaline-pumping single minutes ever, Krieg launched two passes to world-class receiver Steve Largent, including a 40 yard bomb that set up a 2 yard Warner TD run to steal back the lead and the momentum. Then the Seahawks stole the ball from the Dolphins on the ensuing kickoff, kicked a field goal, stole the ball AGAIN on the following kickoff, and ran out the clock to secure the win!

[This is cheating, but...]

#5b. Final minutes of 1983 regular season finale at home vs Patriots.

For the first time in their history, the Seahawks controlled their own playoff destiny going into the last game of the season. The Patriots never stood a chance. The Seahawks and the Kingdome crowd were pumped, the 12th Man going nuts as they realized their team would be in the playoffs for the first time ever. After the game, the players returned to the field to thank the fans and share the moment with them.

#4. Paul Allen buys the Seahawks.

After the wonderful Nordstrom years, the Seahawks entered a period of darkness and gloom. In a move the Nordstroms later admitted was a mistake, they sold the team to the devil (Ken Behring). It was a disaster both on and off the field. The most abysmal episode was the attempt by Behring to move the team to the city of angels and smog. Fortunately for the 12th Man, the Seahawks were locked in an ironclad lease with King County, and a judicial injunction was issued keeping the team in the Pacific Northwest. But Behring still owned and controlled the team. In 1996, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen purchased an option to buy the Seahawks, providing hope where none existed. By this time, the Kingdome was starting to fall apart (well, chunks of the ceiling fell during an earthquake), and one of the things that needed to be settled before Allen would buy the Seahawks was the commitment to build a new stadium. With the promise of significant cash contribution from Allen, the stadium vote passed in June 1997, and Allen bought the team that same month. A huge cloud lifted and heavenly choirs sang hallelujah. Well, not really, but that's what it felt like.

#3. Giants game.

To the 12th Man, no further identification is needed – they know exactly which Giants game this is. This was the awakening at Qwest, the moment of self-awareness. During the Kingdome years, Seattlites were known for their ear-splitting volume. But for a couple years at Husky Stadium and the first few years at Seahawks Stadium/Qwest Field, the Seattle crowd was merely loud – a typical home town crowd with a typical home-field advantage, nothing terribly special. But on this November day in 2005, Seattle fans discovered what they were capable of at Qwest, reaching sound levels unheard of for an open air stadium, and directly contributing to 11 false starts called against the Giants. And those penalties, along with three missed field goals, pumped up the crowd and the volume even more. Having learned they could get that loud, they're now able to amp up whenever they choose. It is a source of pride for the 12th Man to induce false starts and peg the decibel meter, and it all started at the Giants game.

#2. Romo.

In 2006, the Seahawks broke the Super Bowl loser's curse and made it back to the playoffs, hosting the Dallas Cowboys in the Wildcard game. It was a fantastic game, close, hard-fought, suspenseful, everything an NFL fan could want in a game. With the Seahawks holding a one point advantage in the final minutes, the Cowboys drove to the Seahawk 2 yard line with just over a minute to play. The pass to Jason Whitten was originally ruled a 1st down, but it was close enough and the spot was questionable enough that the booth reviewed the spot – and overturned it, making it 4th down. A first down would give the Cowboys full control over the game clock, virtually eliminating the Seahawks' chances of getting the ball back before the game's end. A field goal would put the Cowboys ahead, but leave the Seahawks with over a minute to get another field goal of their own for the win. The Cowboys couldn't risk going for it on 4th down and not making it, so they chose to go for the sure three points. A field goal that is actually closer than an extra point – how could they miss, right? Romo, that's how. The snap hit him right in the hands, and that was apparently too much for him. He bobbled the ball, dropped it to the ground, then picked it up and started to run with it. He actually came very close to scoring a TD, or worse, getting a 1st down, but he was caught from behind by Jordan Babineaux (Big Play Babs) and tackled behind the 1st down marker. The 12th Man went absolutely nuts. The Seahawks went on to win the game. Romo had one last chance to redeem himself, but his hail-Mary was batted down, leaving him with a long lonely plane ride back to Dallas.

#1. Final minutes of the 2005 NFC Championship Game.

This entire game was something special. From the record-setting crowd noise (137 dbs) to the Seneca Wallace reception, to the three picks off Panthers QB Jake Delhomme, to the shutting down of Panthers receiver Steve Smith, Seahawk fans had lots of reasons to cheer and be proud and revel in this game. But in those final minutes of the game, when it started to sink in that nothing could keep the Seahawks from winning the game, and that the Seahawks would be playing in the Super Bowl, Seahawk fans were overwhelmed with joy and celebration. Years of waiting, years of excitement, years of heartbreak, all rewarded in this one moment. To quote a Super Bowl commercial, “It just doesn't get any better than that.”