For a sports marketplace that lost an MLB team in 1970, an NBA team in 2008, and lost temporarily its NFL team for a couple of weeks in 1996, the theoretical threat of relocation of the Seahawks in the wake of the death of owner Paul Allen provokes an understandable twitch. Especially given the random ruthlessness that appears to drive the business of American pro sports.

READ MORE»

Talking with Tod Leiweke about Paul Allen, I said one guy I thought might have a chance to get to know Allen, who was hard to know, was Marshawn Lynch. Leiweke smiled.

"They clicked," he said.

Techno-geek and Beast Mode?

READ MORE»

Seahawks fans returning to Seattle from London dazzled by the reception they and the team received need to know that 21 years ago, the franchise was about to be toe-tagged, the remains likely sold to swells from Hollywood. After seasons of 7-9, 2-14, 6-10, 6-10, 8-8, 7-9, 8-8 and 7-9, no local rich guy wanted to be within a mile of the stink created by the franchise's cretinous owner, Ken Behring.

READ MORE»

To paraphrase a famous English athlete with jersey number 007, the Raiders were shaken, the Brits were stirred.

In London this week, the Seahawks found two things: A home away from home, and a turning point.

READ MORE»

It's a shame that the Seahawks didn't play the Rams in London. The underground there has a famous visual and audio warning to tube riders about the space between the cars and the station platforms: "Mind The Gap."

Had the Seahawks followed the legendary British admonition at the Clink Sunday, they likely would have delivered the season's first loss to the Rams. If the defense again mishandles the space between the run stoppers and the long-ball defenders Sunday against Oakland at Wembley Stadium, the Seahawks likely will be 2-4.

READ MORE»

To this day, the biggest single difference in the Seahawks from the glory days is the absence of RB Marshawn Lynch. Coach Pete Carroll and management won't admit to that publicly, and there's only eight of his teammates remaining, so the internal eyewitnesses dwindle. But one, WR Doug Baldwin, was willing Tuesday to testify to Lynch's ability to command a field and a locker room.

READ MORE»

Shopping malls are a little like newspapers -- once-formidable bastions of American culture now hanging on for dear life amid a tsunami of changes in technology and consumer behavior.

But suddenly, Seattle's venerable Northgate Mall, opened in 1950, is about to gain some economic high ground, rescued by the same people attempting a similar renaissance of KeyArena, a relic of the 1962 Worlds Fair. A 180,000 square foot ice-hockey practice facility, estimated to cost more than $$70 million, will be built there from private funds.

READ MORE»

Russell Wilson said he suspects the Seahawks are about to turn a corner, but the agonizing 33-31 loss to the undefeated Los Angeles Rams Sunday (box) denied him the pleasure of conclusive evidence. Nevertheless, RG D.J. Fluker made a blunt point about progress that suggests Wilson was closer to the truth than anyone suspected Sunday morning.

READ MORE»

The notion of QB Jake Browning as a runner tends to scare Huskies football fans because his four-year tenure has produced some vivid moments not unlike a giraffe falling down stairs. But without his critical rushes Saturday night, the Washington victory drought against UCLA in Pasadena would have added a 24th year.

READ MORE»

Upon the same KeyArena basketball floor at the same time Friday night stood Spencer Haywood and Kevin Durant.

You have to be of a certain vintage to appreciate the hoops majesty of the moment. As Haywood, in suit and tie, stood along the sidelines watching Durant warm up, I realized I was looking at the two greatest Sonics in the NBA's half-century in Seattle.

READ MORE»

Ten months after Hurricane Ram blew through football Seattle, there's still plywood on the windows, car parts on the side of the road and clothing hanging from trees. But despite the evidence, no Seahawk wants to talk about the damage to their NFC West world.

Asked if the 42-7 beatdown Dec. 17 was a major reason behind the many coaching and player-personnel changes in the off-season, coach Pete Carroll said simply, "No."

READ MORE»

The end of a nearly hundred-year drought for top-tier pro hockey in Seattle drew closer Tuesday when the city's bid for an expansion team in 2020 received a unanimous recommendation from the nine-member National Hockey League executive committee after a 90-minute presentation in New York City led by Mayor Jenny Durkan.

READ MORE»

As long as the topic isn't about house secrets or the latest national story about team dissension, Pete Carroll usually has an answer for just about every question. But as to the question of losing to injury the foundational Legion of Boom in a space of 11 games over two seasons, the Seahawks coach offered little but a shrug Monday.

READ MORE»

In the final seconds of the first half, after the Huskies missed a short field goal to keep their lead at 14-0, BYU was in desperate search for a way to avoid irrelevance. Instead, they ran into Mr. Irrepressible.

Actually, LB Ben Burr-Kervin caught them from behind. The national defensive player of the week roared up along the sideline behind RB Lopini Katoa as he crossed the BYU 20.

READ MORE»

“The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.” ― Jared Diamond

Pete Carroll and his staff aren't the first and won't be the last sports coaches to speak from both sides of their mouths when it comes to special treatment for superstar athletes. Practice is important, they say, but there's Earl Thomas, helmetless, vowing to stay out of physical contact in practice if he, in his own words, has so much as a headache.

READ MORE»

We pause a moment in the breathless accounting of Earl Thomas's thoughts and deeds to consider another bit of Seahawks preposterousness: Sunday against a solid Dallas defense, they allowed only two sacks of Russell Wilson and had a 100-yard rusher for what is believed to be the first time since Fred Flintstone's rookie year.

READ MORE»

Imagine a banker considering loaning money to a builder who proposes a renovation project for an entertainment building he does not own, and on land he does not own, while preserving by law the entirety of an architecturally significant 56-year-old roof, then forecasting financial viability in a location so plugged that the Donner Party would have turned back.

READ MORE»

The Seahawks offered up a multi-layered response Sunday to the crappiness of the season's first two weeks, including a run-game renaissance behind a Hobbit-sized backup center. But the 24-13 victory (box) over the remarkably inept Dallas Cowboys shivered in the shadow cast by the latest twists in the saga of FS Earl Thomas.

READ MORE»

Against Arizona State, a team that has beaten Washington 11 of the previous 12 meetings -- including a 13-7 loss a year ago in Tempe that was the Huskies' most inexplicable game of the 2017 season --  nothing can taken for granted, and every good thing must be cherished.

So despite a stylistically modest outcome, which began with an immodest dumpster-fire play, the 27-20 triumph Saturday night (box) at Husky Stadium was vital.

READ MORE»

As if moving the ball this season wasn't sufficiently difficult, the 0-2 Seahawks officially will be without WR Doug Baldwin (knee) and LG Ethan Pocic (ankle) Sunday, joining LB K.J. Wright on the sidelines for the home opener against the Dallas Cowboys. There's a chance C Justin Britt, listed as questionable, may not play because of a shoulder injured chasing a fumble Sunday in Chicago.

READ MORE»