1976–1982: Expansion era
As per one of the agreed parts of the 1970
AFL–NFL merger, the NFL began planning to expand from 26 to 28 teams.
[17]
In June 1972, Seattle Professional Football Inc., a group of Seattle
business and community leaders, announced its intention to acquire an
NFL franchise for the city of Seattle.
[18] In June 1974, the NFL gave the city an expansion franchise. That December, NFL Commissioner
Pete Rozelle
announced the official signing of the franchise agreement by Lloyd W.
Nordstrom, representing the Nordstrom family as majority partners for
the consortium.
[19]
In March 1975, John Thompson, former Executive Director of the
NFL Management Council and a former
Washington Huskies executive, was hired as the general manager of the new team. The name
Seattle Seahawks ("Seahawk" is another name for
Osprey)
was selected on June 17, 1975 after a public naming contest which drew
more than 20,000 entries and over 1,700 different names.
Thompson recruited and hired
Jack Patera, a
Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, to be the first head coach of the Seahawks; the hiring was announced on January 3, 1976. The
expansion draft was held March 30–31, 1976, with Seattle and the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers alternating picks for rounds selecting unprotected players from the other 26 teams in the league.
[20] The Seahawks were awarded the 2nd overall pick in the
1976 draft, a pick they used on defensive tackle
Steve Niehaus. The team took the field for the first time on August 1, 1976 in a pre-season game against the
San Francisco 49ers in the then newly constructed
Kingdome.
Members of the Seahawks special teams blocking a point-after-touchdown
The Seahawks are, to date, the only NFL team to switch conferences
twice in the post-merger era. The franchise began play in 1976 in the
aforementioned NFC West but switched conferences with the
Buccaneers after one season and joined the
AFC West.
This realignment was dictated by the league as part of the 1976
expansion plan, so that both expansion teams could play each other twice
and every other NFL franchise once (the ones in their conference at the
time) during their first two seasons. The Seahawks won both matchups
against the Buccaneers in their first two seasons, the former of which
was the Seahawks' first regular season victory.
1983–1991: Chuck Knox era
In 1983, the Seahawks hired
Chuck Knox
as head coach. Finishing with a 9–7 record, the Seahawks made their
first post-season appearance, defeating the Denver Broncos in the Wild
Card Round, and then the Miami Dolphins, before losing in the AFC
Championship to the Los Angeles Raiders. The following season, the
Seahawks had their best season before 2005, finishing 12–4.
[21] Knox won the NFL Coach of the Year Award.
In 1988,
Ken Behring and partner
Ken Hofmann
purchased the team for either $79 million or $99 million (both numbers
have been reported). The Seahawks won their first division title in
1988, but from 1989 to 1998 had poor records and did not play in the
post-season.
1990s era
In 1996, Behring and Hoffman transferred the team's operations to
Anaheim, California,
a widely criticized move, although the team continued to play in
Seattle. The team almost relocated, and was in bankruptcy for a short
period. They sold the team to Microsoft co-founder
Paul Allen in 1997, for $200 million, and in 1999
Mike Holmgren
was hired as head coach. He would coach for 10 seasons. The Seahawks
won their second division title, as well as a wild card berth in the
playoffs.
1999–2008: Mike Holmgren era
In 2002, the Seahawks returned to the
NFC West
as part of an NFL realignment plan that gave each conference four
balanced divisions of four teams each. This realignment restored the AFC
West to its initial post-merger roster of original
AFL teams
Denver,
San Diego,
Kansas City, and
Oakland.
Matt Hasselbeck played as the Seahawks quarterback from 2001–2010 and led the team to six postseason appearances and a
Super Bowl appearance.
In the 2005 season, the Seahawks had their best season in franchise
history (a feat that would later be matched in 2013) with a record of
13–3, which included a 42-0 rout of the
Philadelphia Eagles
on December 5, a game since referred to as the Monday Night Massacre.
The 13-3 record earned them the number one seed in the NFC. They won the
NFC Championship Game in 2005, but lost in
Super Bowl XL against the
Pittsburgh Steelers.
The loss was controversial; NFL Films has Super Bowl XL at number 8 on
its top ten list of games with controversial referee calls.
[22] Before 2005, Seattle had the longest drought of playoff victories of any NFL team, dating back to the
1984 season. That drought was ended with a 20–10 win over the
Washington Redskins in the
2005 playoffs.
2009: Jim Mora's single season
In the
2009 NFL season,
the Seahawks finished 3rd in the NFC West with a 5-11 record. Shortly
after his first full season with the Seahawks, head coach
Jim L. Mora was fired on January 8, 2010.
[23] Mora was replaced by former
USC Trojans football head coach,
Pete Carroll. Shortly thereafter, Mora became the head coach for the
UCLA Bruins football team.
2010–present: Pete Carroll era
In the
2010 NFL season,
the Seahawks made history by making it into the playoffs despite having
a 7–9 record. They had the best record in a division full of teams with
losing seasons (Seahawks 7–9, Rams 7–9, 49ers 6–10, Cardinals 5–11) and
won the decisive season finale against the Rams (not only by overall
record, but by division record, as both teams coming into the game had a
3–2 division record). In the
playoffs, the Seahawks won in their first game against the defending
Super Bowl XLIV
champs, the New Orleans Saints, 41–36. The Seahawks made even more
history during the game with Marshawn Lynch's 67-yard run, breaking 7 or
more tackles, to clinch the victory. After the run the fans reacted so
loudly that a small earthquake (a bit above 2 on the Richter Scale) was
recorded by seismic equipment around Seattle.
[24] The Seahawks lost to the Bears in their second game, 35–24.
The
2012 NFL season started with doubt, as the Seahawks lost their season opener against the
Arizona Cardinals, after the highly touted Seattle defense gave up a go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter, and rookie quarterback
Russell Wilson
failed to throw the game winning touchdown after multiple attempts in
the red-zone. However, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks went 4–1 in their
next five games en route to an 11–5 overall record (their first winning
record since 2007). Their 2012 campaign included big wins over the
Green Bay Packers,
New England Patriots, and
San Francisco 49ers.
The Seahawks went into the playoffs as the #5 seed and the only team
that season to go undefeated at home. In the Wild Card Round, the
Seahawks overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the
Washington Redskins.
This was the first time since the 1983 Divisional Round that the
Seahawks won a playoff game on the road. However, in the 2013 Divisional
Round, overcoming a 20-point, fourth quarter deficit wouldn't be enough
to defeat the #1 seed
Atlanta Falcons.
An ill-advised timeout and a defensive breakdown late in the game cost
the Seahawks their season, as they lost, 30–28. QB Russell Wilson won
the 2012 Pepsi Max Rookie of the Year award.
2013: First Super Bowl championship
In the
2013 NFL season, the Seahawks continued their momentum from the previous season, finishing tied with the Denver Broncos for an NFL-best
regular season record of 13–3, while earning the NFC's #1
playoff seed. Their 2013 campaign included big wins over the
Carolina Panthers,
New Orleans Saints, and the
San Francisco 49ers. Six Seahawks players were named to the Pro Bowl: Quarterback
Russell Wilson, center
Max Unger, running back
Marshawn Lynch, cornerback
Richard Sherman, free safety
Earl Thomas, and strong safety
Kam Chancellor. However, none of them were able to play in the Pro Bowl, as the Seahawks defeated the
New Orleans Saints,
23–15, and the
San Francisco 49ers,
23–17, in the
playoffs to advance to
Super Bowl XLVIII against the Denver Broncos. On February 2, 2014, the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl Championship, defeating Denver 43–8.
[25] The Seahawks' defense performance in 2013 was acclaimed as one of the best in the Super Bowl era.
[26]
The following season, Seattle advanced to
Super Bowl XLIX, their second consecutive Super Bowl, but they were dethroned of their title by the New England Patriots by a score of 28–24.
They got off to a slow start the next year starting 0-2 and 2-4
through 6 games but finished 10-6 on the year clinching a wild card
berth. They beat the Minnesota Vikings 10-9 to advance to the divisional
round. Against Carolina, they were down 31-0 at halftime before scoring
24 unanswered points. Their comeback attempt fell short and they failed
to make the Super Bowl.
Since moving into the NFC West, the Seahawks have had considerably
more success, having won 8 of 15 division titles, and making the
playoffs in 11 out of 15 seasons.
