A Grip on Sports: The Seahawks have a chance today to write another chapter in their legacy as well as the region’s pro sports history books

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The calendar has flipped to 2026. But in the NFL sense, this is still 2025. The extension of the season that began just after Labor Day. And a chance for the Seattle Seahawks to continue the best professional sports year Washington has experienced this century.

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• No, that’s not presentism. And no, it isn’t hyperbole either. Even if the Seahawks don’t win in this afternoon’s home NFC title game against the Rams, 2025 may still go down as the best.

As the kids say, we have the receipts. They are right here, uh, under the Costco ones and that restaurant we ate in the other day. Somewhere. OK, found them.

For most of its existence, that is in the modern sports world, pro sports in the state have included three consistent major franchises in Seattle. Baseball, football and, because basketball and hockey have either left or just arrived, soccer. The Mariners. Seahawks. Sounders.

One or the other (or other) are usually at least decently successful. When the M’s and Hawks are bad, as they were together off-and-on the past couple decades, the Sounders have come through with wins, occasionally even the top North American prize, the MLS Cup. They won it in 2016 and 2019, years the Seahawks and Mariners majored in mediocrity.

Of course, though, success in pro sports in this country isn’t determined by how the local soccer franchise fared. It is football that dominates. Or baseball, if you live in the Northeast.

In Washington? Either will do. That’s why 2013 has held the “best-year” title for so long. The Hawks’ magical run to the dominating Super Bowl win over Peyton Manning and Denver. The defense. The Russell Wilson experience. The Beast Mode T-shirts. Pete Carroll’s gum. Bobby Wagner’s quite excellence. Michael Bennett’s offsides.

It didn’t matter much the M’s were 20 games under .500. Or the Sounders were meh, though they did finish fourth in the CONCACAF Champions’ League.

The Seahawks won the freakin’ Super Bowl.

That was enough to overcome the 2001 M’s, with their record-tying 116 wins and American League championship appearance as the best-ever year in Seattle pro sports. (The Hawks were 6-10 that year and the Sonics were also under .500).

If Wilson had just not made that final pass the next year, 2014 would have earned the top spot. And may never had let it go.

Sure, the Sonics were long gone. Hockey wasn’t yet in the picture. But another Super Bowl win? Over the dynasty that was the Patriots? That would have been almost enough by itself. But add in the Mariners’ year that almost was – they missed the postseason by a measly game – and the Sounders’ success – another Supporters’ Shield and their fourth U.S. Open Cup – would have lifted 2014 into rarified air.

Alas, Wilson did throw the ball. To New England’s Malcolm Butler. And the disappointment infected Seattle like a virus for years.

The cure is finally available today. A win over the Rams and a return trip to the Super Bowl – in which, ironically, either the Broncos or the Patriots will be the opponent. It is an inoculation that everyone can agree will wash away the ugly taste of seeing Tom Brady kneel out Super Bowl XLIX.

Add in the Mariners’ best-ever year – an American League West division title, a postseason series victory and coming within one win of their first World Series clinched that designation – and 2025 has a shot at being the top pro year.

Heck, even the Sounders won something in 2025. They won the Leagues Cup title, a fairly new invention, sure, but the one North American trophy that had eluded the franchise.

The ascension of 2025 is not a certainty, though. Even a win today only opens the door. Only begins the barroom debates. Only starts the boring Internet arguments. Only allows the Hawks the opportunity to leave no doubt.

Win today. Win in a couple weeks. And 2025 ascends to a level that will be hard to match.

Lose today? Then 2025 also reaches a new height, one that may never be matched. One no region with professional sports wants. The year of coming this close. Twice.

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WSU: Saturday night was a perfect time for the Cougar men to end what had been two weeks of failure. Last-place Pepperdine was in Pullman and David Riley’s team seem poised to end its four-game losing streak. But being this is college basketball and neither team is a dominating one, winning still came down to one thing in the second half. Getting stops. The Cougars did. And pulled away late to earn a 95-79 win. Greg Woods was in Beasley and has this game story. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano is still alive. And kicking, especially the Facebook dope who said he was dead. … Saturday was a day for freshmen stars to shine. Three of them had 40-plus-point games. … Washington and Oregon meet in Seattle today before the NFL playoff game. … Colorado scored 86 points last night and still lost to visiting UCF. … Utah couldn’t stop AJ Dybantsa (43 points) or BYU. … California shut down Stanford down the stretch and earned a 78-66 ACC win. … UCLA is still perfect at home in Big Ten play after topping Northwestern. … Arizona State bounced back for a big win over Cincinnati.  … Arizona’s depth proved too much for West Virginia and the No. 1 Wildcats remained undefeated. … Boise State took out its frustration on Air Force. … San Diego State did the same to UNLV. … It was more than 25 years ago the S-R’s Dave Trimmer did a series of stories on ACL injuries and why female athletes had more of them. I remember because I created a graphic illustrating the knee injuries and the reasons postulated behind the difference in numbers. Guess what? Nothing has changed. …. Oregon’s women stopped their losing streak against Penn State. … USC is struggling but the Trojans’ coach feel they are close. … Arizona finished their loss at Iowa State with just four players on the floor. Injuries and foul-outs were the reason.

• In football news, what Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Friday about Ole Miss and tampering wasn’t just ground-breaking, it seemed pretty damning. One has to wonder if the NCAA has any power. Or if the newly formed College Sports Commission can actually do anything. … The Big Ten’s football schedule comes out this week. What will Washington’s look like? … Oregon has added a legacy for next season. … Stanford’s new coach Tavita Pritchard sat down for an interview with the Chronicle this week. … Indiana’s national title gives hope to every struggling program.

Gonzaga: For two WCC games the loss of bigs Braden Huff and Graham Ike seemed nothing more than a speed bump for the eighth-ranked Zags. But Saturday’s opponent, USF, is better. And the Dons had an advantage. Two games worth of video to study. A chance to dissect the new-look GU offense. And find ways to attack the switch-everything defense. It still wasn’t enough. But, thanks to a closing stretch in which the Bulldogs melted a little, USF had a final look to win. But missed. And Gonzaga held on for a 68-66 win. Theo Lawson leads the S-R’s coverage with this game analysis. And also offers his thoughts in the recap with highlights, done in concert with the folks in the office. … Jim Meehan has three takeaways at the buzzer and a story on Jalen Warley’s mammoth contributions. … Tyler Tjomsland has the photo gallery. … There is also a look at how players with local ties fared in the NBA last night. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the Bay Area women’s teams had a good day.  

EWU: As Big Sky play has worn on, the Eagle men seemed to have found a formula that can lead them to a competitive effort each game. And, as in the case of Saturday in Cheney, a win. The key? Get physical. Dan Thompson has the story of how that translated into a 75-67 takedown of visiting Sacramento State. … The women were in Sacramento and couldn’t overcome a nine-point halftime deficit in a 61-54 defeat. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, one game after routing conference-leading Montana State, the Idaho State women dropped a home game to Montana in overtime. … The Bobcats bounced back with a win at Weber State. … The Montana men are back on track after a home win against Idaho State. … Montana State rolled over visiting Weber State.

Idaho: Say this for surprising Portland State. The Viking men find a way to win the close games. They did again yesterday in Moscow, holding off the Vandals for a 69-66 decision, their seventh consecutive this season. Peter Harriman has this coverage. … The Vandal women rolled over the last-place Vikings in Portland, winning 84-66.

Chiefs: Dave Nichols was in the Arena last night to witness a quick Spokane start and then, well, nothing. The Chiefs didn’t score after the first 3 minutes, 39 seconds and lost to Kamloops 5-2.

Whitworth: The Pirates stayed two games up in the Northwest Conference men’s basketball standings by posting another double-digit win. They defeated visiting Pacific Lutheran 76-65 Saturday.

Preps: There were a few games Saturday featuring GSL schools. We have a roundup to pass along. … Former Central Valley High star Dylan Darling’s late 3-pointer helped St. John’s top Xavier 88-83 on the road yesterday. It also gave Rick Pitino his 900th career win.

Seahawks: You may have noticed I didn’t off an opinion today on who will win. Mainly because my opinion isn’t going to make an iota of difference. But it sure seems to me if the Seahawks hold on to the ball, they will roll. Not earth-shattering, I know. And it’s not earth-shattering that I would rather defer to Dave Boling, who actually knows something about the game. He believes this is the Seahawks’ game. And explains why in this column. … We have a bunch of stories from the Times or The Athletic to pass along, many of which we already linked but are on the S-R’s website today. There are also other stories that ran in the Times today, including Matt Calkins’ column. He is also in the Hawks’ camp. … There are also other stories from this morning that are worth passing along. That includes stories from Los Angeles where Matthew Stafford’s performance is considering the key to a win.

Reign: The USWNT will play at Lumen Field this year for the first time since 2017.

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• I make dumb decisions occasionally. OK, quite often. Like one I made Friday. Sports editor Ralph Walter asked me if I wanted to write a TV Take today. For some unknown reason I answered in the affirmative. What was I thinking? Instead of enjoying the game with my son and wife, eating Seattle dogs and drinking Diet Pepsi, I will be pounding away at my laptop, watching alone in another room and rewinding segment after segment so I can get Tom Brady’s syntax down just right. And then spend the evening worried about mistakes I may or may not – ya, sure – have made. I need an agent to shield me from such decisions. … And I need an IT guy at my beck and call to fix issues like the ones that pushed this post back two hours. Until later …