Hawks Look Past Chiefs But Only To Note There May Be Life After K.C.

Coaches aren’t permitted to comment on the relevance of any football game other than the one that immediately confronts them.

There’s something preventing that in the union by-laws, evidently.

Accordingly, Seattle Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson stressed on Monday his team will be strictly focused on the Kansas City Chiefs.

But he conceded that his players might be watching a few other games out of the corners of their eyes as they need some help to make their first playoff appearance since 1988.

To capture a wild-card berth, the 8-7 Seahawks must not only win at Kansas City (12-7), but must also somehow see to it that either Miami, Indianapolis or San Diego loses.

“The most important thing is we have to win,” Erickson said. “If you’re an outsider looking in, though, you see that (Indianapolis) plays New England (6-9), (Miami) plays St. Louis (7-8), (San Diego) plays the Giants (5-10) and we play Kansas City. If you’re sitting out there looking at this (it’s obvious) where your odds are going to be.”

Seattle faces a full range of possibilities - from not earning a berth at all, all the way to hosting a first-round playoff game.

Most likely, though, if the Hawks can top Kansas City, they will be the final wild-card pick and have to travel to Buffalo - the last team to clinch an AFC Division championship.

And now that the Hawks have won six of their last seven games and actually have become one of the hottest teams in the AFC, Erickson can pinpoint the reason for the change in fortune: the fact that there have been no changes.

“We’ve all hung in there since the beginning and we’ve all done the same thing,” Erickson said. “We haven’t changed our routine, we’ve practiced hard, we’ve practiced in pads at least two times a week. When we were 2-6 we practiced the same as we do now.

“Nothing has changed and everybody has stayed on a pretty even keel; there was never any panic, never any ups and downs as far as the practices were concerned. A lot of times people panic if things aren’t going well, but we just kept continuing to get better and we’ve improved a lot.”

Erickson isn’t concerned that the division champion Chiefs will be heavily favored. The thrill of being in the playoff race in the season’s final week is enough to keep the team invigorated.

“It’s exciting for us; it’s fun to be going back there playing for something,” Erickson said. “You start in July, you go through the season and get to the 16th game, and now there’s even more vigor than there was at the beginning because we’re playing for something.”

Lies, Behring said

Rumors out of Los Angeles that the Seahawks have reached an agreement with officials of Hollywood Park to relocate the team are “absolutely ridiculous,” owner Ken Behring said Monday.

Behring said he is continuing to work with King County on upgrading the Kingdome and keeping the team in Seattle.

NFL owners voted last summer that the league would control any move to the L.A. area and that individual owners could not independently negotiate such a relocation.

KFWB radio reported Monday that sources within the NFL office had said that negotiations between the Hawks and Hollywood Park were “hot and heavy.”

Friesz still at controls

John Friesz will get the start at quarterback again this week, although former starter Rick Mirer will likely be close to fully recovered from a shoulder separation.

“We’re playing pretty well right now,” Erickson said. “We’re not going to make a change as long as we continue to play well.”

Friesz passed for 220 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions in Sunday’s 44-10 win over the Raiders. He has bumped his quarterback rating up to 89.6, which would be fourth in the AFC behind Jim Harbaugh, Dan Marino and Vinny Testaverde if he had the requisite number of attempts.

Beyond that, Friesz has been sacked only once in 94 attempts.

Friesz appeared to win the starting job before the Arizona game, but went down with a shoulder separation himself. Mirer had a short rally and regained the position while Friesz healed.

“This is the same scenario,” Erickson said. “When John got hurt in the Phoenix game and Rick came on and played well, we weren’t going to make the change. John is playing well now and we’re not going to make a change.”

Say what?

The only real problem Friesz had on Sunday was with his hearing.

His helmet microphone kept going on the fritz, meaning the Hawks had to signal in the plays.

“That happened to us 10 or 12 or 15 times,” Erickson said. “We wasted two timeouts because of it in the first half. You hate to waste timeouts but you don’t want to get a penalty over it.”

Friesz’s baby boy Hunter, meanwhile, was hearing more than he wanted in the noisy Kingdome.

“I guess it was too loud for him,” Friesz said. “He didn’t really cry, but he was nervous and he didn’t like it so they took him down to the nursery. It was fun for him being there. It’s something to put in his baby book, I’m sure.”

Hawk notes

Erickson decided to give game balls to the most deserving Seahawks.

“Everybody,” he said, explaining that the entire team and staff were recipients of game balls. “I announced it when Mr. Behring was in there and he said it was OK. It was just such a team win, it was hard to distinguish who should get one - everybody deserved one.”

Hawks rookie Joey Galloway stands only 11 yards short of 1,000 receiving yards. Teammate Brian Blades already has cracked the 1,000-yard mark. The Seahawks have never had two receivers go past 1,000 yards in the same season.

In spite of his 105 yards on Sunday, Hawks back Chris Warren is still in second place in the AFC behind Patriots rookie Curtis Martin.

Martin has 1,384 yards to Warren’s 1,339. Warren’s average of 4.5 yards a carry, though, is half a yard better than Martin’s.

Erickson said fullback Steve Smith will probably undergo surgery this week for back problems.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos