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I had 2000 spare dollars to fly home for the parade.
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What's a "dynasty"? The Founding Father has given us a systematic way to think about it.
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Defining "DYNASTY"
1) He looked up the word, and "dynasty" simply means "series of championships." He accepts this definition. Based on that, his own bar is rather loose. If a team won three pennants in a decade, he's willing to talk about that as a dynasty.
If the 49er's went to three Super Bowls in a row, losing two of them, he'd probably accept that as a "lesser dynasty" or somesuch.
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1a) This goes AGAINST my own 1970's understanding of the word, in which ONE team CONTROLS the sport for a number of years.
Just off the cuff ... the 1970's Steelers won like 4 of 6 Super Bowls, and did so in such a way that other teams were terrified of playing them. This is what I think of when I think of "dynasty," the MAJOR dynasty, the UNQUESTIONED dynasty.
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1b) This may not be possible in the modern NFL and MLB.
I'd consider the Brady and Belichick Patriots to be about the best you can do in the modern NFL - 8 AFC Championship games, 5 Super Bowls, 3 Super Bowl wins ... but they're not exactly CONTROLLING the sport, are they? Chinese "dynasties" certainly controlled the continent.
I therefore disagree with James' semantics. If we went no further than this, I'd be prone to saying that "dynasties" are obsolete.
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1c) However, Bill James, after allowing that "a series of championships" is the only entry card on the back end, he will then --- > go on to set up a fuzzy-logic "points system" by which "dynasty points" are earned, and he'll LIST the dynasties in order of strength on the front end.
This triangulates the philosophical issue. Now we are at least communicating and exchanging ideas, beyond a bleacher-seats yelling match.
Using this system, he might tell you that the 00's Patriots were the 4th-greatest dynasty in NFL history. This statement carries a lot of instructional value. A Patriots fan might very well be able to say, "Hey, we did as good as Lombardi did."
SSI accepts this. The TARGET for a Pete Carroll, nowadays, is to set up "the team of the 2010's." If you're that, you're a dynasty, right?
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Domination
Using my obsolete definition of "controlling the sport" -- like the 1970's Steelers, and Cincinnati Reds, and Jordan Bulls, did --
-- in the year 2014, the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49'ers did indeed co-control the sport. The Seahawks:
- Went wire-to-wire as #1 favorites
- Lost only 3 games, all in tight finishes that could have gone either way
- Easily "scripted" a victory over Brees, who is a recent Super Bowl champion
- Had a glorious NFC title bout against a titanic rival, complete with poster finish
- Blew out the Denver Broncos, who came in with "The NFL's Greatest Offense Ever"
That is about as well as I've seen an NFL team control the sport since ... I dunno when. The tragic 18-1 Patriots?
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Comin' UP
I think I read that the last two Super Bowl winners, to be as young as the Seahawks, were the 1974 Steelers and 1981 49'ers. Both won three more Super Bowls.
Field Gulls ran a stat that showed the Seahawks scored 2.2 points per possession, or something -- but 3.6 with Percy Harvin. As SSI has maintained since September, a Seahawks offense with Percy Harvin would be a completely different proposition.
Dr. D believes that this Harvin situation is comparable to (say) the Miami Heat with or without Dwayne Wade. The 2014 Seahawks, on paper, could be MUCH better than the 2013 Seahawks. This has been SSI's consistent position, that Percy Harvin would transform the Seahawks, morph their offense into something completely different and far superior.
Honestly, if Harvin plays 12+ games in 2014, you've got a situation somewhat like the current Miami Heat --- > adding Kevin Durant.
(Token analytical point: watch the Harvin KO return in slo-mo. The two Broncos approaching him from his left, are madly scrambling to get the angle on his N-by-NE sprint; Harvin, running 25 MPH, applies the brakes and cuts NW in a superhuman fashion and one of them literally falls down. Harvin makes it appear impossible to tackle him when he is "at speed".)
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Flavor Text, Dept.
1) The Seahawks have also got an "eternal rival" right within the division, the 49ers. This rival does not and will not back down. You've got a 1976 Steelers-Raiders war going.
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2) They're unique in terms of the 12th man participating. The Joe Montana 49er's did NOT put the fans on the field with them!
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3) They're unique in terms of the number of FUN PLAYERS to watch.
- Lynch
- Percy
- Golden Tate is the hardest* player in the NFL to tackle
- Doug Baldwin's and Jermaine Kearse's touchdown runs were dee-lish
- Russell "last name" Wilson is fun to watch in a DIFFERENT way, the Capt. America persona
- That's just on offense
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4) The spirit and personality of the Seahawks is ideal. They are gladiators, no quarter asked and none given.
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Said All That to Say This
The Seattle Seahawks' franchise, leaving 2013 and going into 2014, has provided its fans the greatest experience that it is possible for a fan to have. In terms of this equation ...
[Realized dreams, 2013 season] + [Hopeful dreams, 2014 ff] = Sports pleasure
... There isn't any such thing as a sports team that is more fun to watch. The phrase "As Good As It Gets" is tossed around a lot. But take a look. You will never see a sports team top this, amigo.
SSI heartily recommends that all you Mariners fans choose to invest more time and energy into the 10's Seahawks. Life's short. Choose to be happy. :- ) It's not like you live in Green Bay and are simply jumping ship. You have sat through Seahawk droughts and watched the games. You know who Cortez Kennedy was.
Become a Seahawk fanatic. That's free advice. Your life will be better. On your deathbed, you won't regret it.
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This Imminent Dynasty didn't happen by accident. It wasn't easy to get Pete Carroll from USC, for example. (It would indeed have been easy to get Tony La Russa.)
The Seahawks have not satisfied their customers; they have delighted their customers. But then, they fully intended to do so.
Be Afraid,
Jeff
Comments
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The contrast could not be any more stark could it?
3
On every level. Lincoln ought to be embarrassed by what Allen has accomplished in a few short years. I don't even need Lincoln to accomplish it in a few short years. I just wish he'd "get after it" and surround himself with strong, impassioned leaders, the baseball equivalents of John Schneider and Pete Carroll. He'd rather run with accountants who owe their careers to his benevolence.
4
I could tell Peyton Manning lost the Super Bowl mentally before it began. During the team introductions I could see the shadows of doubt swirling in his mind. Rather than being comfortable and confident, his eyes were turned inwards reflecting self doubt. It was written all over his face. The stress and doubt was outwardly apparent. Meanwhile the Seahawks knew their destiny. They knew they had arrived. You could see the body language and the eyes that reflect the soul.
Outstanding job by the national media to down play the Sherman incident. He was amped and was realizing his childhood dreams. He will not let another football player stand in the way of his dreams. He stuffed the little trash talker and shut his mouth.
What is a Dynasty? It's up to the fans to create it. Love and fan fervor is where it begins. The talent and team chemistry will follow.
5
This article made me REALLY want to go home for the parade.
I was able to pull it off with miles, so I booked 4 hours before the flight to Seattle from Japan.
And what a PARTY it was in Seattle!
The only thing in my memory that can match that much energy and enthusiasm for the home team is The Double and 1995, the 1996 Sonics and NBA Playoffs, and maaaybe 2001 (the AL West clincher game was a bit muted for obvious reasons). Cammy's 18 inning HR is another one that quickly comes to mind.
Yes, I was lucky to be at all of those.
And there wasn't even a game involved! It was a parade!
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To be honest, I'm a total bandwagon fan of the Seahawks since 2012. I never got on board the 2005 team because Holmgren, Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander were boring/generic and I was finishing up university and looking for a job.
And the Seahawks being perpetually meh in my childhood 90's, along with the success of the M's and Sonics, made it hard to care about a sport that seemed full of mindless jocks and equally mindless fans. Even Huskies Football seemed more relevant.
Really, I could only pick out about 5 players in the parade. I forgot Steve Raible doesn't rock a mustache anymore. And I was in poor cheering form... You don't get much practice as an M's fan.
All that paints a sad portrait of a fan. But I don't care.
Seattle won!
They decimated the league with style AND substance.
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However, as a baseball fan first, the saddest thing is that this victory parade could have been the M's in 1995.
Or 1996.
Or 1997.
Or 1998.
Or 1999.
Or 2000.
Or 2001.
Or 2002.
Or 2003.
Just as many would have shown up for the Mariners.
Maybe more, if you think of all the soccer moms and families they've target all this time.
The Seahawks are awesome because they have an owner, a GM and a head Coach on the same page and the players have rallied around the team.
The M's had a team, a manager, and even a GM in for the haul, along with more hall of famers than fingers on a hand.
But ownership never crossed the bridge.
The M's have never been all in it together. The M's have always been 2nd class winners. The M's don't know how to win.
And the home team never won.
And it's ugly.
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Winning matters a lot more now.
Ironically, we can probably even thank the M's for their infamy.
It definitely made the Seahawks' win that much sweeter.
This year, I don't plan to attend any M's game unless I'm here with guests from out of town.
And you'd think, with so many years invested in the M's, my closet would have a Griffey 24, an Ichiro 51, a Gar 11.
My first Seattle jersey is a Sherman 25.
6
Talk about a conceited self absorbed person. What a turn off. This Seahawks team is actually a team.