Seahawks Turn Off Home Fans

Home might be where the heart is, but for the Seahawks this season, home has been where the losses are.

Not since, well, the World Series between the New York Yankees and Atlanta, has a team done more to muck up its home-field advantage. In three games at the Kingdome this year, Seattle is winless, increasingly fanless, but not quite hopeless.

In fact, the Seahawks are pinning all their remaining hopes for this so-far heartbreaking season on a three-game homestand that begins today against the San Diego Chargers. Coach Dennis Erickson calls it “probably as important a game as we’ve played since I’ve been coach here.”

After the Chargers, they host the Oilers and Vikings, three games they once viewed as their get-well stretch before reality intervened. Now it’s their “Win, or pack it in,” stretch.

“We have to have some success at home,” Erickson said. “We played well there last year at the end, for the most part. We’ve got to do that. In turn, playing well at home gets people in the stands, gets people excited about the team. What you do on the road, they watch it on TV. But what you do when you play at home is what pro football and your fans is all about.”

So far, all the Seahawks have done is make their fans nauseous. In their home opener, they lost 30-22 to Denver as Rick Mirer was benched at halftime. The following week, Kansas City crushed them 35-17. Their next home game drew the only sellout of the season; the only problem was, a majority seemed to be rooting on Green Bay to its decisive 31-10 victory.

The Seahawks are stuck in a vicious circle. They don’t win, so the fans stay home.

With small, subdued crowds at the Kingdome, in turn, the team loses some of the home-field advantage that could help spur it to victory. The losses mount, and the fans continue to stay home.