Warren Moon Confirms the Seahawks Still Haven't Gotten Over Super Bowl XLIX
Last week ESPN the Mag published a piece that exposed the deep and lingering intramural hatred among Seahawks players who are still blaming one another and their coaches for blowing Super Bowl XLIX. Defensive players saying Russell Wilson is protected by Pete Carroll and not held accountable. Richard Sherman screaming “You fucking SUCK!” at Wilson in practice. Carroll holding Michael Scott-like employee bonding meeting that Sherman ridiculed as “kumbaya.” A huge riff between the offensive and defensive units. Basically sounding like their locker room is the Mexican standoff in Reservoir Dogs, everyone pointing pistols of blame loaded with bullets of resentment at each other.
Some Seahawks have called bullshit on the article. Sherman said it’s all “gossip.” Michael Bennett called it “trash.” But Seth Wickersham who wrote it insists he’s heard from people in the organization who said he nailed it. And now we’ve got an insider on record saying it’s absolutely true. Warren Moon is on the Seahawks Radio Network and confirmed it on NFL No Huddle on TuneIn:
“They are still having a hangover from two years ago, if you can believe it or not, about losing that Super Bowl in the last minute with the interception on the one-yard line. And with a lot of guys, it just kind of rubbed them the wrong way and they just haven’t gotten over it. This team will not be able to move on and really do what they want to do which is win another Super Bowl unless they can somehow put that behind them.”
And there we have it. Straight from the mouth of a Hall of Fame quarterback who covers the team and presumably has sources. It’s been two years and the guys on the business end of Malcolm Butler’s interception still can’t move on. When he stepped in front of Ricardo Lockette to secure Wilson’s pass, he didn’t just win a championship, he destroyed the soul of an entire franchise. He reached down the throats of everyone in the Seattle organization, pulled their still-beating hearts out of their chest cavities and at them while they watched.
And changed the course of history. Seattle was a dynasty in its infancy and Butler killed it in the crib. They were set to become football’s Archaemenid Empire, and Butler was the Alexander who conquered them and wiped them off the map. Permanently. Because they will not be back.
Let this be a lesson for the next time a “player’s coach” type comes along, has a little bit of success, plays grabass with the media and gets all sorts of love in the press. Once things go south, they do not recover. Mouthy egotists who’ve been allowed to do whatever they want in the name of being “treated like men” will wipe their shoes on the guy because they only respect authority. Which is why the Patriots recovered from vicious karmic kicks to the balls like the Super Bowls That Shall Not Be Named and the 2015 AFC championship game. And why Seattle is still conducting a circular firing squad. Like I said when Wickersham first broke the story, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.