The Seattle Seahawks are a professional football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the National Football Conference (NFC) as part of the NFC West in the National Football League (NFL). The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team. The Seahawks have three Super Bowl appearances: Super Bowl XL, where they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl XLVIII, where they beat the Denver Broncos, and Super Bowl XLIX, where they lost to the New England Patriots.
On June 15, 1972, Seattle Professional Football Inc., a group of Seattle business and community leaders started by Herman Sarkowsky and Ned Skinner, announced its intention to acquire a National Football League (NFL) franchise for the city of Seattle. Almost two years later on June 4, 1974, the NFL awarded the group an expansion franchise.
The name Seattle Seahawks was selected on June 17, 1975 after a public naming contest.
Membership[]
In the 1976 season, the Seahawks were joined by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the NFL's newest expansion teams. Seattle began play in 1976 in the NFC West division but switched conferences with the Buccaneers after one season and joined the AFC West. This realignment was dictated by the league as part of the 1976 expansion plan, so that both expansion teams could play each other twice and every other NFL franchise once during their first two seasons.
In 2002, the Seahawks were returned to the NFC West as part of an NFL realignment plan that gave each conference four balanced divisions of four teams each.
Fail Mary Game[]
On September 24th 2012 The Packers traveled to Seattle to take on the Seahawks in a Monday Night Football game. With 8 seconds left in the game the Seahawks had the ball at the Packers 24 yard line with a 4th and 10 situation and trailed the Packers by a score of 12-7. On the final play of the game, Wilson threw a pass into the Packers end zone. Several Packers and Seahawks leapt to catch the ball, including Tate. Tate pushed off of Packers defender Sam Shields, knocking him to the ground, but did not draw an offensive pass interference penalty. As the players leapt, Packers safety M. D. Jennings and Seahawks receiver Golden Tate both went for the ball.
The two officials near the play conferred and then simultaneously made separate signals; side judge Lance Easley raised his arms to signal touchdown, while back judge Derrick Rhone-Dunn waved his arms to signal timeout. Because Rhone-Dunn signaled timeout so as to stop the already expired game clock, Rhone-Dunn indicated that he desired further investigation of the play before rendering a verdict whereas Easley, from his angle, found sufficient evidence of a simultaneous catch with which to call a touchdown. The ruling on the field was officially a touchdown, with Tate and Jennings maintaining simultaneous possession.
Replay official Howard Slavin initiated a video review, as is required of all scoring plays. According to an NFL press release after the game, "The aspects of the play that were reviewable included if the ball hit the ground and who had possession of the ball. In the end zone, a ruling of a simultaneous catch is reviewable." Referee Wayne Elliott determined that there was not adequate evidence to overturn the call, so the ruling stood as a touchdown. As the teams and sports media swarmed the field, the Packers left the field and reported to their locker room, but were required by officials to return to the field for a mandatory point after attempt per the NFL rules."
Behind their defense, which was in turn led by their secondary the "Legion of Boom", running back Marshawn Lynch, and quarterback Russell Wilson, the Seahawks went an NFC-best 13-3, then defeated the New Orleans Saints 23-15 in the divisional round, then defeated the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 in the NFC title game to reach Super Bowl XLVIII. This was the first and only cold weather Super Bowl played outdoors.
The Seahawks defense went up against the Broncos record setting offense, led by Peyton Manning, who set NFL records with 55 touchdown passes and 5,477 passing yards.
On the first play of the game, Manning failed to corral a snap from shotgun which went into the end zone for a safety after the Broncos recovered it. From there, Seattle never looked back, thanks to two field goals, a rushing touchdown by Lynch, a 69 yard interception return for a touchdown by reserve linebacker Malcolm Smith, Percy Harvin returning the second half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, and two touchdown passes from Wilson. The defense limited a Denver offense that had scored 606 points during the regular season to just one touchdown.
Smith was named Super Bowl MVP after making 9 total tackles, recovering a fumble and returning it seven yards, and his interception return for a touchdown.
Note†: The Seahawks current stadium, Lumen Field, (since 2002), was previously known as Seahawks Stadium (2002–04), Qwest Field (2004-11), and Century Link Stadium (2011-2020).
Team history[]
