The coincidence of Pete Carroll's 68th birthday made for an easy storyline. What may prove a more noteworthy narrative in 2019 is whether a successful Seahawks season was born Sunday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, where the young guys learned how a championship mindset works.

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The disturbance in the purple force was palpable. The Huskies a week ago lost a conference game at home to underdog Cal, thanks to a combination of dropped passes, missed tackles and dubious play-calling that combined to scream "overrated" at eardrum-assault levels.

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If pro football were the PGA Tour, Quinton Jefferson's career to this point would be one long scramble in local qualifiers to earn the last spot in the weekly field. But Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, it was as if he won the tournament, and discovered the next tourney is on his home course.

The Seahawks play the Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field in his hometown.

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After quarterback and linebacker, the one position unit the Seahawks were all in on for 2019 was the offensive line. But after the first game Sunday, the Seahawks might want to claw back a chip or two.

Neither in run-blocking nor pass protection did the line distinguish itself, helping account for a modest 233 yards of total offense and the biggest disappointment in the unexpectedly tight 21-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, 4-12 last season.

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The Seahawks Sunday had the great good fortune to be facing one of the more notorious non-finishers in the NFL. Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton has an uncanny way of starting the race in a Lamborghini and finishing in a Corvair. Which, truth to tell, is the main reason the Seahawks are not 0-1 after losing at home to a 9½-point underdog.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- For a town dead to the NBA, Seattle showed it could still light up the game.

The two most exuberant moments in the induction ceremonies for the class of 2019 at the Naismith Memorial National Basketball Hall of Fame were reserved for ex-Seattle SuperSonics star Jack Sikma.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Growing up on a farm in Illinois, Jack Sikma daily awoke to the sounds of birds and the scent of flowers. Growing up in New York City, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar daily awoke to the sounds of birds coughing and the smell of trash.

From disparate worlds, the rivals spent 12 years in each other's grills, farm kid and Harlem kid meeting regularly in the low post in Seattle and Los Angeles. Friday night they meet again in more hospitable and salutary circumstances.

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If you have thrown a stick for a young Labrador retriever, then you know the exuberance of Pete Carroll in the first week of the NFL regular season. All things are possible. Joy and light abound. The world is written in exclamation points, underscores, italics and boldface.

And pleasepleaseplease throw the stick again.

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After the Seahawks over the weekend went 1-0 to start the NFL season with the acquisition of DE Jadeveon Clowney, the next personnel question arises: Who catches passes besides  Tyler Lockett?

Presumably, general manager John Schneider's first remark figures to be: Hold my beer.

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As the waterfall of oohs and aahs washes over the latest Huskies football hero, QB Jacob Eason, it is important to note, before his legend swells beyond recognition, that the most impressive pass he threw fell incomplete.

In Saturday's 47-14 walk-over (box) of Eastern Washington at Husky Stadium  -- the Big Sky Conference foe that University of Washington coach Chris Petersen tried in vain to hype into Notre Dame -- Eason in the second quarter had to corral a bad snap in shotgun formation. At the UW 35-yard line, he stepped to his right for a clear view of WR Aaron Fuller streaking down the sideline, beating single coverage.

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Pete Carroll isn't necessarily an impulse shopper. But I wouldn't want to be behind him in  the grocery store check-out line when he spots the candy bars, breath mints and National Enquirers.

The Seahawks coach does like his shiny objects, especially when they come with exclamation points.

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If there is such a thing as a last chance to make a good first impression, LB Ben Burr-Kervin patented the trick Thursday night at the Clink.

After an injury-hampered start to his Seahawks career, the former University of Washington All-America linebacker embraced a final chance, watering up the eyes of the Oakland Raiders as if he were tear gas.

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The Mariners season has been in magnum dwindle for so long that it's easy to lose track, especially in the formidable shadow of the sprained-ankle portion of the Seahawks season. But every once in a while the baseball gods like to cross the streams with some unscripted intrigue that looks as if it were intentional: James Paxton in his first return to Seattle since being traded to the Yankees, facing off against the youngster, Justus Sheffield, who was the Mariners' prize in the four-player November deal.

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The good news for fans Tuesday from Seahawks camp was that DE Ziggy Ansah, the heralded free agent signee destined to fix a flaccid pass rush, made it to his first Seattle practice.

The bad news was that two more members of the 2017 draft class, WR Amara Darboh and DT Nazair Jones, won't be part of the team, meaning only three from that group are apparently certain to start in the Sept. 8 opener: CB Shaquill Griffin, FS Tedric Thompson and RB Chris Carson.

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It wasn't possible to determine whether Chris Petersen was wearing burlap underwear. Just seemed like it.

"Timing is a little bit awkward," he said quietly. "I think that was a bit surprising."

Actually, it was the Huskies football coach who seemed awkward Monday, answering questions for the second time in four months about a quarterback wanting to leave his high-profile program to get more playing time elsewhere.

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Keeping in mind that the Los Angeles Chargers' star QB Philip Rivers had no part in the festivities, the Seahawks had themselves a revelatory romp Saturday night in Carson, CA. They appear to have confirmed a backup QB, embraced a boatload of talent at running back and are developing a defense capable of covering some of its talent deficiencies with a flashy package of blitzes.

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Far be it from me to tell Russell Wilson how to drop a dime on a receiver 40 yards downfield. But when Wilson steps off the the field and moves into the world of Seattle sports business, I'm a bit more comfortable in clearing my throat for a rousing, "Ahem . . . " when he throws into coverage.

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Aside from the usual passel of injuries that afflict every NFL team in August, the Seahawks have had a mostly quiet preseason. No holdouts, no real fights, few starting position contests or strategy shifts, and no off-field dramas or orations like those from the provocateurs of yesteryear, such as Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman or Michael Bennett.

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When the Kingdome was conceived in the early 1970s, the notion of a nine-acre roof made of concrete, unique in the world, seemed preposterous. It wasn't. At least, for 24 years and host to four major sports teams, it wasn't.

When in the middle 1990s the plans for a replacement baseball park were disclosed, they included a first-of-its-kind, giant steel retractable roof that ran on railroad tracks. How 1880s. How implausible. The project just passed its 20th anniversary.

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Disjointed as was the game Saturday night, the post-game delivered its own clank when Seahawks coach Pete Carroll disclosed that prized rookie WR DK Metcalf will need surgery to fix a knee problem that kept him out of the Seahawks' 25-19 exhibition loss (box) in Minneapolis. Carroll, however, said the surgery isn't major, and held out hope that Metcalf could return as soon as the Sept. 8 opener.

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