Seahawks’ win streak no fluke
KIRKLAND, Wash. – With the possible exception of the University of Washington’s Rose Bowl run in 2001, football fans in and around Seattle haven’t seen anything like this in more than a decade.
The Seattle Seahawks are rolling like never before, with nine consecutive wins under their belts and a high probability of hosting two playoff games in January.
But this ride has been a familiar one for some of this year’s Seahawks.
Six players on the active roster know what it takes to be on a team that rides that magical carpet all the way to the Super Bowl. That doesn’t include Mike Holmgren or his seven assistants who have coached in the Big Game.
While seven weeks still separate this team from its eventual destiny, the players and coaches who have reached the ultimate goal are already feeling a sense of deja vu.
“The No. 1 similarity is the chemistry of the team and the attitude of the guys,” said safety John Howell, who was a member of the Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. “You don’t have that separation from your big-time superstar players to your role players. No matter your experience or your salary, it’s just that guys get along.”
Howell, defensive tackle Chartric Darby, wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, punter Tom Rouen, center Robbie Tobeck and defensive end Grant Wistrom are the only active Seahawks to have played in a Super Bowl. They see some similar traits.
“There are some similarities,” said Tobeck, comparing this year’s Seahawks to his 1998 Atlanta Falcons team that made an improbable run to the Super Bowl. “What we had heard all the time in Atlanta was that we hadn’t played anybody. Well, anytime you’re playing an NFL game, you’re playing somebody.”
That’s been the tag on this year’s Seahawks, whose nine-game winning streak includes victories over seven sub-.500 teams.
Tobeck’s Falcons beat the rap by getting all the way to the Super Bowl, while Howell’s Buccaneers flew under the radar until beating the mighty Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
“We were beating teams, but there was still that they’re-not-really-that-good type of thing,” Howell said. “Then toward the end of the season, people were like, ‘Hey, they’re really good.’ That’s how it’s been here (in Seattle).”
But with each successive victory the Seahawks (11-2) have built the kind of confidence that breeds champions.
“Confidence is always a big part of it,” said Rouen, who won Super Bowl rings with the Denver Broncos in 1997 and 1998. “You go out expecting good things to happen and making them happen. It’s a good, positive attitude, and guys start giving that little something extra to make things work.”
Wistrom has been in two Super Bowls. His St. Louis Rams won it all after the 1999 season, then lost to New England two years later.
“We both had great offenses and a good, young defense that was becoming better every week,” Wistrom said, comparing the Rams to the Seahawks.
The Seahawks might be playing well enough to win a Super Bowl, but no one seems to notice right now.
Except for some of those who have been on this ride before.
“People still didn’t really give (the 2002 Buccaneers) the credit that we deserved until we won a Super Bowl,” Howell said. “Maybe that’s the way it will be here, too.”