NFL Playoffs: Seattle Seahawks Make a Run By Playing for Pride

In the 90-year history of American football, no team has done what the Seattle Seahawks did last Sunday.

No team with a losing record had ever hosted a playoff game, much less won their division.

No team with a losing record had ever beaten the previous year's Super Bowl champs.

The Jets vs. Colts game that followed was thrilling. But the next day, even the sports headlines outside Seattle were about Pete Caroll and Matt Hasselbeck's Seattle Seahawks.

Leading up to Wild Card Saturday, a lot of yawning was going on. I myself even exchanged some barbs with a friend that lives in the Emerald City. He prefers soccer, and still mourns the loss of the Supersonics. His confidence in the Seahawks' doing much of anything was feigned.

The common opinion around the nation, too, was that it would be one of "those" games, where the team Vegas wasn't favoring had nothing to play for, much less a shot at winning. Playing for pride is the common phrase. But come game time, there were thousands at the Seahawks' stadium cheering the raising of the 12th Man flag.

A crucial injury to the Saints' secondary, added with a pinch of luck and some snazzy quarterback play from Hasselbeck, has led Seattle to the Bears this weekend, who have already lost to Seattle this season.

Personally, I won't be making the same mistake again. I might even root for them. It wasn't so long ago that Arizona of all teams (note the debacle they were this season) was one Roethlisberger-to-Holmes away from winning it all and surprising everyone. Except themselves.

I suppose that's the point.

Despite what's said about them, every last player in the NFL is a competitor that hates losing. If playing for pride is even something that happens, then it's much more likely that it happens every game.

The Seattle Seahawks resent being thought of as the losers that won. And it showed during that Marshawn Lynch run. So this weekend we might all be delightfully surprised all over again.

Look out, Bears.