Book Excerpt - "World Champion Seahawks: We Are 12"

$40.00

Where do you find fans Paul Allen is the owner of the Seahawks, which he bought in 1997 to keep the team in Seattle.

Russell Wilson is the starting quarterback for the Seahawks, and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2012 and 2013.

Steve Raible is the radio play-by-play announcer and Voice of the Seahawks. He was drafted by Seattle in 1976 and played six seasons for the team.

Pete Carroll is the Executive VP of Football Operations & Head Coach of the 2013 World Champion Seahawks.

Cheering louder than a jet engine?

W o r l d C h a m pi o n S e a h a w k s

The wait is over!

For more than 30 years, Seattle had yearned for a championship. Seahawks fans showed unwavering support through the decades; Seattle came close in 2005, winning the NFC Championship and playing in Super Bowl XL, but the long-anticipated championship celebration was not to be. Until now.

Stomping hard enough to create a Beast Quake?

Helping to propel their team to finally win it all?

Only in Seattle!

Preface by Paul

Allen

Foreword by Russell

Wilson

Introduction by Steve

Raible

Afterword by Pete

Carroll

World Champion Seahawks: We Are 12 is the definitive keepsake coffee table book that fans will treasure from this dream season. Every dazzling moment is captured in this one-of-a-kind commemorative, including Russell Wilson’s elusiveness, Marshawn Lynch’s Beast Mode power, and the intimidating defense of the Legion of Boom. These enduring moments and more are set against the backdrop of Seattle’s loud and proud 12th Man, which delivered the greatest home-field advantage in all of sport.

More than 200 photographs and original essays by Seattle insiders show and tell the story of the Seahawks’ first championship in all its glory, from Week 1 through the momentous victory over the Denver Broncos.

World Champion Seahawks: We Are 12 is the ultimate collectible for fans who want to forever relive the greatest season in Seahawks history.

W or l d Ch a mp ion Se a h aw ks

Contents Preface

by Paul

Allen

Foreword

by Russell

Wilson

Introduction

by Steve

Raible

Chapter 1

The Regular Season Chapter 2

NFC Divisional Playoff Game Chapter 3

NFC Championship Game Chapter 12

The 12th Man Chapter 4

Super Bowl XLVIII Chapter 5

Celebration afterword

by Pete

Carroll

12 14 18 22 86 98 112 124 144 156

Foreword By

Russell Wilson

T

his Super Bowl season didn’t begin in the opener at Carolina. It didn’t start with training camp or even with our off-season conditioning program in April. It started on January 13 at around 4:15 p.m. in Atlanta as I was walking off the field following a disappointing loss to the Falcons in the Divisional Playoff game. That was a hard one. To come oh-so-close and have it slip away can cause some teams to crumble.

However, I choose to see the positive in negative situations.

All I could think about while walking off that field was getting in to watch film and starting to get ready for what I knew could be a championship 2013 season.

You see, losing to Atlanta last season didn’t break us. In fact, it did just the opposite. It brought us together and left no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were on the verge of something amazing.

When I was young I remember riding in the car with my father and talking about being great and becoming a champion.

He told me to ask myself, “Why not me?” He would routinely remind me, “Ask yourself, Russell: ‘Why not me?’”

14

That got me thinking at the time that in order to be great and do great things, you have to set the expectation and be prepared to be great.

So in training camp I shared that message with our team.

I asked our team, “Why not us?”

Why not us in the fourth quarter on the road versus Carolina, in the season opener against a team that came within a hair’s breadth of playing us at CenturyLink in the NFC Championship game? Why not us on the road in Houston when the game— to most—looked out of reach? But we tied it up with just over two minutes to go in the game with a 58-yard interception return for a touchdown and won it with a field goal in overtime. Why not set a franchise record against Tampa Bay by coming back to win another overtime game after trailing 21-0 in the first half? Why not go for it on fourth-and-7 in the NFC Championship game and throw a 35-yard touchdown to take a 20-17 lead in the fourth quarter?

Why not begin the season with an 11-1 record, the best start in franchise history?

15

Why not dominate at home with a 7-1 regular-season record while outscoring our opponents 233-110 in front of the greatest fans in the entire National Football League?

Why not lead the NFL in total defense, scoring defense, total takeaways, and interceptions?

Why not play our very best, and most complete, football game of 2013 in the biggest game and on the biggest stage the sport has to offer?

While I would love to use this space to run through the special qualities of each and every player that contributed to this championship season, let me just say this about our team: We were a group that dedicated ourselves 24/7 and had the awesome ability to leave no doubt about which team was the better club every time we hit the field.

Champions have to expect to be great. Prepare to be great and not be afraid to excel. Champions have to play that way on a week-to-week basis. Champions only look back to learn from mistakes and don’t look ahead to prevent mistakes.

Stay in the now, in the moment. That’s what the 2013 Seahawks committed to.

So, why not us? Super Bowl XLVIII Champions!

16

17

Chapter  1

The Regular Season 23

T

he road to the most successful season in Seahawks history began not in the opener against the Carolina Panthers in September or even the practice fields at training camp in late July. The first two steps in compiling the 2013 team that won Super Bowl XLVIII in such impressive fashion happened in January 2010 when Pete Carroll was hired as coach and General Manager John Schneider joined him eight days later.

With a singular vision, these two set about rebuilding the roster with the types of players that would allow Carroll to play his brand of football— fast, physical, aggressive—and do it with players who have unique qualities to fill specific roles.

It wasn’t as easy as the final product made it appear during the 43-8 victory over the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks made 284 roster transactions in 2010, 231 in 2011, 220 in 2012, and 215 in 2013. But the method to what could be perceived as this roster-management madness was on display for the entire world to witness on February 2, 2014 when the Seahawks dominated the Broncos at MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands to win the first Super Bowl in the franchise’s 38-year history.

“I witnessed a team coming together and growing in great maturity, and the kind of mentality that it takes to not be satisfied at any time, to not overlook stuff as they went through it, to have a very mature approach to it and to demonstrate that all the way through,” Carroll said. “Everybody said, ‘How are you going to win the Super Bowl when you don’t have any [players with] experience?’ Well, I don’t think they understand us and how we’re doing it. That was never even a question. We were ready to go perform like we’re capable and we went out and showed that on game day.

24

“That’s really the mentality that we need. So I’ve watched that happen.

This team has acquired that, and it’s something that’s very, very special.”

And it took a while to develop that, as well. After a pair of 7-9 records in Carroll’s first two seasons, the Seahawks went 11-5 in 2012 and came within 30 seconds of advancing to the NFC Championship game. That performance—which included going unbeaten at home, winning seven of their last eight regular-season games, and posting the first road playoff victory since 1983—led to the Seahawks being the trendy pick to advance to the Super Bowl this season even before Carroll and his players had their first team meeting in April.

“When this season began, the expectations were really elevated based on the year before,” Carroll said. “It just sent us to the next level of expectation of how to deal with the hype involved and concerns that follow this kind of attention.”

And handle those heightened expectations they did. The Seahawks opened the 2013 season with a victory over the eventual NFC South champion Panthers and never looked back. The players’ mantra was that every week was a championship opportunity, and the goal each week was to go 1-0. It served them well as they started 4-0 for the first time in franchise history and then hit the halfway point at 7-1, also a franchise first. In a Week 13 Monday Night Football game at CenturyLink Field, the Seahawks became the first team to clinch a playoff spot with a 34-7 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

But clinching the NFC West title and the conference’s top seed in the postseason had to wait until the regular-season finale against the St. Louis Rams at CenturyLink Field. After December losses to the 49ers in San Francisco and the Arizona Cardinals at home, the third time was the charm as the Seahawks dispatched the Rams 27-9.

And even the delay in achieving what seemed the inevitable played into the Seahawks’ modus operandi.

“As difficult as those losses were, I think it all worked out for the best for us,” Carroll said. “We had to keep our focus and that attention to detail all the way to the end.”

Once in the postseason, the Seahawks beat the Saints, again; and the 49ers, again; and the Broncos, and then some.

But it would not have happened without the players Carroll and Schneider had spent four years acquiring. In 2010, they selected the All-Pro tandem of free safety Earl Thomas and strong safety Kam Chancellor along with left tackle Russell Okung and leading receiver Golden Tate in the NFL Draft. They also made trades to acquire “Beast Mode” back Marshawn Lynch and Leo end Chris Clemons.

Then in 2011, they added All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith, linebacker K.J. Wright, and cornerback Byron Maxwell in the draft; claimed kicker Steven Hauschka off waivers; and signed wide receiver Doug Baldwin, tight end Zach Miller, and special teams captain Heath Farwell as free agents. The next year the draft delivered Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson, middle linebacker and leading tackler Bobby Wagner, linebacker Bruce Irvin, and guard J.R. Sweezy; and wide receiver Jermaine Kearse was signed as a rookie free agent. In 2013, defensive linemen Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, and Tony McDaniel were signed in free agency; fullback Michael Robinson and defensive tackle Clinton McDonald were released and re-signed; and Percy Harvin was acquired in a trade.

They all joined the four holdovers from the team Carroll inherited— Pro Bowl center Max Unger, defensive linemen Brandon Mebane and Red Bryant, and punter Jon Ryan.

The Seahawks needed the depth this roster renovation created because 12 starters missed a combined 49 games during the regular season. So the success of the “Next Man Up” mentality also was in play for players like Baldwin, Smith, Kearse, Maxwell, and offensive linemen Paul McQuistan, Lemuel Jeanpierre, and Michael Bowie.

“It’s just the way we do things,” said offensive line coach Tom Cable, who played without the injured trio of Okung (eight games), right tackle Breno Giacomini (seven games), and Unger (three games). “There’s a process on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday, so if someone’s out, it doesn’t mean you change. You just keep doing what you’re doing. Because as a whole we’re greater than a few missing parts.”

From All-Pros to next-man-up replacement parts, what Carroll and Schneider created is a like-minded group of focused players that had their best seasons while forming a team—heavy emphasis on team— that produced a season like no other in franchise history. A season that was simply super, from start to finish.

25

Week  1 Seattle

12 7

Carolina

This matchup at Carolina pitted the NFL’s best defenses against each other on September 8.

Seattle (14.4 points per game) and Carolina (15.1 points per game) were the top two scoring defenses in the NFL in 2013.

26

Sidney Rice (left), Pete Carroll, and the rest of the team honor America during the national anthem prior to kickoff.

TOP

BOTTOM Mike Morgan drenches himself in water to cool off in the 87-degree Charlotte heat.

OPPOSITE Bobby Wagner (left), Byron Maxwell (middle), and K.J. Wright helped keep Panthers quarterback Cam Newton contained.

27

Richard Sherman breaks up a pass intended for Carolina’s Steve Smith.

28

Left

Byron Maxwell signals that Seattle recovered a fumble. Right Jermaine Kearse celebrates with a teammate after his 43-yard touchdown reception.

29

Week 2 San Francisco

3 29 Seattle

Seattle forced a season-high five takeaways versus San Francisco in its win at CenturyLink Field on September 15, helping the Seahawks lead the NFL with 39 takeaways on the season.

The 12th Man fans were out in full force for a game that was circled on the calendar as soon as the schedule was announced.

TOP

BOTTOM LEFT Former Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander whipped fans into a frenzy while raising the “12” flag prior to kickoff.

BOTTOM RIGHT The 12s set the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd noise in an outdoor stadium at 136.6 decibels.

OPPOSITE Seattle’s defensive unit waits for the 49ers offense beneath ominous clouds— evidence of the lightning that caused a one-hour delay toward the end of the first quarter.

30

31

Satellite imagery displayed on the big screens at CenturyLink Field shows fans the thunderstorm that caused the game delay. Right Assistant head coach/offensive line coach Tom Cable and Marshawn Lynch each contributed to the Seahawks rushing for 172 yards and two touchdowns.

Left

32

Cliff Avril strip-sacks San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the second quarter; K.J. Wright recovered the ball for Seattle, which set up a 30-yard field goal by Steven Hauschka.

33

The PostSeason 85

Chapter 2

T

NFC Divisional Playoff Game

he Seahawks already had dispatched the Saints 34-7 in a Monday Night Football game in Week 13 at CenturyLink Field, a victory that made the Seahawks the first team to clinch a playoff berth. But since that lopsided affair, the offense had struggled against a trio of Top 10 defenses—scoring only 17 and 10 points in losses to the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals—sandwiched around a 23-0 victory over the New York Giants.

So the question entering the postseason rematch on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon was: How could the Seahawks score enough points to beat a New Orleans offense that had averaged 27.1 points in its 15 other regular-season games?

Answer: The NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense did not allow the Saints to score enough points to beat the Seahawks.

“Seattle was playing their defense,” Saints Coach Sean Payton said.

“One of the things they do a good job with is they don’t do a lot. They kind of keep the ball in front of them. They’re patient and they force you to be patient. Seattle is a tough defense; they have been all season long.”

While the defense was stretching the Saints’ patience to the breaking point, the Seahawks jumped to a 16-0 lead as Marshawn Lynch scored on a 15-yard run and Steven Hauschka kicked three field goals.

And, after the Saints cut the lead to 16-8, Lynch broke a 31-yard scoring run to cap a 140-yard rushing performance and make it 23-8 with less than three minutes to play.

“To be in the NFC Championship game, it means a lot,” quarterback Russell Wilson said after the victory that sent the Seahawks to a conference championship for the third time in the franchise’s 38-year history. “Obviously, it’s a testament of our hard work, the preparation as a whole. But I think the thing for us is we haven’t done anything yet.

That’s our goal; we have 60 minutes of football left.”

86

New Orleans

15 23 Seattle

The Seahawks controlled the majority of the NFC Divisional Playoff game against New Orleans on January 11 and held off a late Saints’ rally to advance to the NFC Championship game. Marshawn Lynch rushed for a Seattle postseason record 140 yards en route to becoming its all-time postseason leader with 599 yards in seven career postseason games with Seattle.

87

Above

90

Percy Harvin makes one of his three catches as the rain continued to come down. OPPOSITE Linebacker Bruce Irvin tackles New Orleans running back Khiry Robinson.

91

Chapter 12

T

he 12s took their impressive show on the road during the most successful season in Seahawks’ history.

Starting with the regular-season opener against the Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina and continuing in growing numbers through Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey on February 2, the team’s 12th Man fans traveled as never before.

It was the logical next step in a love affair with a team that began even before the Seahawks’ inaugural season in 1976. It first reached a frenzied peak when the No. 12 was retired in 1984 to honor the fans, making the Seahawks the first professional sports franchise to do so. It included the adoption of a noise penalty in 1989 because of the din generated at the Kingdome and waned during the 1990s when the Seahawks posted winning records only twice and former owner Ken Behring attempted to move the franchise to Southern California. It was rekindled during the five-season stretch in the 2000s when the Seahawks won four division titles and advanced to the playoffs five times, but faded again as the team combined for nine victories in 2008 and 2010.

Then it reignited during the most recent four-season stretch that

112

included two division titles, three playoff appearances, and the only Super Bowl championship in franchise history.

But the 12s as road warriors is a new avenue in loyalty, devotion, and, well, 12-ness. They would out-cheer the home crowd during the game. At the end, they would line the field and salute the players with “Sea-Hawks! Sea-Hawks!” while waving 12th Man flags and holding up homemade signs. The players reciprocated by bowing to the crowd and slapping high-fives.

“The 12th Man is just something special,” quarterback Russell Wilson said. “Every game we’ve played away this year there has been an unbelievable crowd. That brings us energy.”

Expanding their role was obviously next for the 12th Man, which already had turned CenturyLink Field into the best home-field advantage in the NFL. “We feel like when we’re in that stadium we can’t be beat,” said special teams captain Heath Farwell, who played his first six NFL seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and his home games at the Metrodome. “There is something to be said for that. We feel dominant in there.”

Chapter 12

During the 2013 season, the 12th Man set the Guinness World Record mark for loudest crowd roar in the home opener against the San Francisco 49ers and then re-set it in a Week 13 Monday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints.

The 12s also set the CenturyLink Field attendance record four times—Week 2 against the 49ers, Week 13 against the Saints, and then in the playoff rematches against the Saints and the 49ers—and ran the consecutive sellout streak to 95 games.

“When we play at home magic happens,” All-Pro free safety Earl Thomas said.

It has gotten to the point—again—where the 12th Man doesn’t just think it has an impact on home games, but the team’s beyond-rabid fans know they do.

Case in point: The league-high 132 false-start penalties against visiting teams at CenturyLink Field since 2005, including 11 against the New York Giants in a 2005 game.

To the point: The Seahawks’ second-best-in-the-NFL 66-30 home record since they moved into their state-of-the-art stadium in 2002, including the three longest home winning streaks in franchise history—14 in 2012-13, 12 in 2004-06, and 10 in 2002-04.

“The ground shakes up there and that’s pretty intense,” Titans tight end Delanie Walker said of playing at CenturyLink Field, which he did twice a season while with the 49ers. “It’s real loud. I mean, you can’t hear. You can’t hear the snap count. You can’t even hear the play in the huddle.”

Now, the latest statement of 12-ness is following the team to road games, as the 12th Man turned out by the thousands for games in Arizona, St. Louis, Atlanta, and San Francisco, and at MetLife Stadium twice—for the Week 15 game against the Giants and again for the Super Bowl. That passion spilled over to the

growing number of fans who lined the streets near SeaTac airport and were at Virginia Mason Athletic Center to welcome the team home from road games, as well as give them a hero’s sendoff.

“Everywhere we go, they’re showing up,” Coach Pete Carroll said.

“When we go back home, they’ll be hanging out in the middle of the night by the airport. They’ve been incredible.”

No, just 12.

As All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman put it, “We appreciate them coming out—12th Man, thank you again for showing up and showing out.”

Chapter 12

113

118

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

119

Chapter  5

Celebration 145

I

t stretched before them as far as their disbelieving eyes could see.

Three days removed from winning Super Bowl XLVIII in such an impressive fashion, the Seahawks were being upstaged by their own fans on February 5. And the players and the coaches were loving every nano-second of a celebration that quickly became a love-in, 12th Man style.

The convoy of 29 military vehicles left EMP at Seattle Center on a cold, clear Wednesday to an impressive sendoff, in terms of the numbers of fans and also their ferocity. The closer the caravan got to CenturyLink Field, the larger the crowds got. What seemed like fans-a-plenty at the start was only a trickle; which became a brook; which became a stream; which became a creek; which became a river that was overflowing its banks; which emptied into the sea of humanity that engulfed the area in Pioneer Square near the stadium. In all, 700,000 fans were a part of the Seahawks’ Victory Parade.

“That’s kind of how our love for them is, it gets deeper and deeper and more and more,” said All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman as he climbed out of the LMTV—the last vehicle in the procession— that carried the Legion of Boom.

“We love the 12th Man.” And the 12th Man obviously loves the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks. In addition to lining the streets, fans clogged intersections, hung from trees, and were protruding from the windows of apartments and businesses along Fourth Avenue. They screamed. They hollered.

146

They howled. Chants of “Sea-Hawks! Sea-Hawks!” serenaded the players and coaches from every direction. As the Legion of Boom vehicle left EMP, the fans saluted them with rhythmic shouts of “L.O.B., L.O.B., L.O.B.” When All-Pro strong safety Kam Chancellor became the first of many to hoist the Lombardi Trophy over his head, the “L.O.B., L.O.B., L.O.B.” morphed into “Lom-bar-di. Lom-bar-di.”

“It was just constant intensity,” Coach Pete Carroll would say later.

“And fun.”

And then some. Once at the stadium, the players were introduced in reverse numerical order—from No. 99 defensive tackle Tony McDaniel to No. 3 Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson. The quarterback emerged from the tunnel leading from the Seahawks’ locker room with the Lombardi Trophy in hand and a look-what-we-did smile on his face.

It was that kind of day, when the just-crowned Super Bowl Champions could share their success—for one final time in the 2013 season— with the fans who had shared so much with them during the process.

And it was a day unlike any other in franchise history because the Seahawks had accomplished something for the first time in franchise history.

In the fleeting moments between the end of the parade and the beginning of the celebration before 55,000 season ticket holders in the stadium, Sherman broke into a huge grin and offered, “My mind is blown. My body is cold. But we’ve got the best fans in the world.”

147

158

159

$40.00

Where do you find fans Paul Allen is the owner of the Seahawks, which he bought in 1997 to keep the team in Seattle.

Russell Wilson is the starting quarterback for the Seahawks, and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2012 and 2013.

Steve Raible is the radio play-by-play announcer and Voice of the Seahawks. He was drafted by Seattle in 1976 and played six seasons for the team.

Pete Carroll is the Executive VP of Football Operations & Head Coach of the 2013 World Champion Seahawks.

Cheering louder than a jet engine?

W o r l d C h a m pi o n S e a h a w k s

The wait is over!

For more than 30 years, Seattle had yearned for a championship. Seahawks fans showed unwavering support through the decades; Seattle came close in 2005, winning the NFC Championship and playing in Super Bowl XL, but the long-anticipated championship celebration was not to be. Until now.

Stomping hard enough to create a Beast Quake?

Helping to propel their team to finally win it all?

Only in Seattle!

Preface by Paul

Allen

Foreword by Russell

Wilson

Introduction by Steve

Raible

Afterword by Pete

Carroll

World Champion Seahawks: We Are 12 is the definitive keepsake coffee table book that fans will treasure from this dream season. Every dazzling moment is captured in this one-of-a-kind commemorative, including Russell Wilson’s elusiveness, Marshawn Lynch’s Beast Mode power, and the intimidating defense of the Legion of Boom. These enduring moments and more are set against the backdrop of Seattle’s loud and proud 12th Man, which delivered the greatest home-field advantage in all of sport.

More than 200 photographs and original essays by Seattle insiders show and tell the story of the Seahawks’ first championship in all its glory, from Week 1 through the momentous victory over the Denver Broncos.

World Champion Seahawks: We Are 12 is the ultimate collectible for fans who want to forever relive the greatest season in Seahawks history.