ATLANTA — Despair was thick in the Seahawks locker room, profound as any I’ve seen. Thirty minutes after the game, many players were in full uniform with towels over heads, staring into the floor as if solace might erupt from the concrete. Richard Sherman, the verbose cornerback who is fated to die in mid-sentence, waved
Author: Art Thiel
Art Thiel
Never having met a metaphor he could not twist beyond recognition, Art has been illuminating, agitating, amusing and annoying Puget Sound sports readers for a long time. Along with Steve Rudman, he co-founded Sports Press Northwest because it didnt seem right that the Google monster should aggregate daily journalism into oblivion without at least a flesh wound from somebody. Thiel and Rudman labored under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe until the print edition died an undeserved death in March, 2009. Art continued on at its online successor seattlepi.com while working on SPNWs creation. His radio commentaries can be heard Friday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoon on KPLU-FM 88.9. In 2003 he wrote the definitive book about the Seattle Mariners, Out of Left Field, which became a regional bestseller. In 2009, along with Rudman and KJR 950 afternoon host Mike Gastineau, Thiel authored The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a cross between historylink.org and Mad Magazine that has become mandatory reading for any sports fan who has an indoor bathroom. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University as well as two dead papers and a live one, the News Tribune of Tacoma, he has become a fan of entrepreneurial online journalism because it allows him to continue a lifelong passion to take the English language to places it rarely visits willingly, and does not involve the cleaning of kennels or stables.
49ers did their part, now the Seahawks must do their part for the West Coast slobberknocker matchup of great young QBs and two coaches who can’t stand each other.
Seahawks have been in playoffs seven of the past 10 years, but this round feels fresh. The whirlwind of changes under Carroll has finally brought calm, confidence — and Wilson.
Seahawks coordinators Bradley and Bevell will be interviewed for NFL head coaching vacancies while trying to keep their heads in Sunday’s playoff game in Atlanta.
The potential purchase of the Sacramento Kings by Seattle arena developer Chris Hansen came at good time for Mayor Mike McGinn, who announced his re-election campaign.
Rookie Bruce Irvin will get his first career start Sunday in Atlanta in place of Seahawks sack leader Chris Clemons, who needs surgery to repair his ACL.
If being down 14 points on the road in front of 85,000 people isn’t going to muss Russell Wilson’s feathers, it seems time to drop the rookie label and starting using “savvy vet.”
Seahawks fans found a good bar Saturday night, and a high standard to hit Sunday, outnumbered by 84,000 Redskins fans hosting their first postseason game since 1999.
WASHINGTON — For believers in sporting omens, here’s one for you: For the NFC wild-card playoff match Sunday against the Redskins, the Seahawks are staying at the same hotel on Capitol Hill as the Sonics when they won Seattle’s only modern major pro sports championship.
Rare enough that Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson have had such splendid rookie seasons. Then to meet in the playoffs . . . this is how great sports rivalries start.