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 Have you ever noticed that one store location in your local strip mall that never seems to be able to maintain a tenant? One month it's a Builder's Square, the next it's a Circuit City and the following month it's vacant again.Well, I seem to have the same effect on the SeahawkBlue Adopt-A-Seahawk program! As site historian and perennial alba-agitator ADP will quickly point out, it all started with reserve full back Chris Davis in 2005. Davis was coming off a knee injury and already a long shot to make the team due to some guy named Wiburt Tissue, but he played his college ball at Syracuse so I thought I'd adopt him as my own. Not long after the ink was dry on the birth certificate, Mr. Davis was asked to brush off his SU diploma and begin life after football. Not to be dissuaded by this Sudden Infant Done syndrome, another running back on the roster caught my eye with his full speed ahead approach and propensity for the vicious hit, so Josh Scobey was welcomed to the family...and quickly fumbled the opening kick off of the 2005 season! But much like his adoptive father's stick-to-it-ness, Josh kept running straight ahead and hitting like a freight train, and picked up one of the first Moonlight Graham awards for his efforts. A little more than a season later, Josh is now playing for the Buffalo Bills, and if things don't work out there, I may find that MGA trophy in a Western New York pawn shop. Mainly because he was a heavy hitter who shared a birth month with me, and perhaps a subconscious effort to hedge my bets, I also adopted Kelly Herndon in the 2005 season too. As more and more fans called his play into question, like any good parent, I stood up for him and gave him my blind loyalty and support. Today, the Seahawks gave him his walking papers. So like a black character in a serial killer flick, or the Anthony Edwards character in Top Gun, if you're a young Seahawk player and you see me and my adoption attorney coming your way, you know you're dead meat! For the good of the organization, I've decided to live the rest of my Seahawk life childless, and just be a good uncle to the other adoptees. You know, the one that always has pockets full of candy and is willing to bounce the kids on his knee for an obscenely long time! [Comments taken in SeahawkBlue Forums] Labels: albaNY Hawker  Anyone who follows the team closely, or has read the Raible/Sando book on the Seahawks, knows that the sun is setting on the sweltering stories of summer training camp in Cheney. What fans might not have realized, until reading the latest blog entry from Sando, is that you'll have to wait until the Summer of 2008 before you can watch your favorite football team practice at training camp. The reason? The new training facilities in Renton will not be completed until 2008, and the additional pre-season game in China is forcing the Seahawks to hold training camp in Kirkland this year, which is too cramped to provide access to the fans. As Seahawks fans, I guess we now know how Steve McNair felt last summer when he was barred from the Titan's training facility! On one hand, I can understand this, as it doesn't make sense to shuttle back and forth between Eastern and Western Washington when you have to make a trip to the other side of the globe to play an exhibition game. On the other hand, plain and simply, it sucks! Other than historic mediocrity, the face of this franchise since its inception has always been the blind and loyal support of its fanbase, and to exclude the 12th man from the advantages of training camp may come back to haunt the club in the regular season. I can see it now, as folks are spilling beers, dropping hot dogs and straining vocal chords, all because they didn't have 6 - 8 weeks in the summer to get themselves back into cheering shape. And who knows, in a tight home game against a formidable opponent, the crowd might not be able to muster up that all important false start penalty, as they're icing their throats or checking the game program to see who all these new guys are in the defensive backfield, or why Grant Wistrom is now playing linebacker. But true to form, the ever faithful members of Seahawk Nation will "take one for the team," and continue to support the club regardless of their limited access to their favorite players during the off season. Let's just hope this move proves to be as inspiring and fortunate for the 12th Man, as it did for new Ravens QB! Labels: albaNY Hawker, Renton, training facility  In honor of President’s Day, since we don’t have anyone on the roster named Washington or Lincoln, we should take a moment of appreciation for the Seahawks Commander and Chief, Tim Ruskell. A little over two years ago, the Seahawks organization was in a major turmoil, when they finally impeached an unpopular and clueless member of the Front (could it be oval?) Office named Bob Whitsett. Kind of like the final days of the Nixon administration. Enter Tim Ruskell, a relatively unknown commodity (well, to everyone except for Deuces) and Seahawks nation didn’t know whether to expect another bumbling product of the Peter Principle, like Gerry Ford, or an skilled communicator and effective leader like Ronald Regan. The answer came when the Seahawks trickled-down all the way to the Super Bowl. And as excited and impressed as Seahawks fans were about their new President and GM during that Super Bowl run, the second year of the Ruskell administration was quietly more impressive, although it didn’t generate quite the same approval ratings across the board. Losing Steve Hutchinson at the beginning of the 2006 campaign was a little like getting caught with his pants down, although Mr. Ruskell spared us the indignity of a beret-wearing chubby intern with a soiled dress. There are also no indications that Mrs. Ruskell aspires to run the Seahawks herself some day, even amid reports seeking an entry-level position with the New York franchise. But the Seahawks faithful again started Trusting In Tim as he adeptly worked the roster, as starter after starter was lost to injury, and his signature high-motor, quality character guys stepped up and nearly willed Seattle back to the NFC Championship game. With the first significant changeover on the Seahawks coaching staff, the depth and breadth of Tim Ruskell’s fingerprint continues to expand, and hopefully Bruce DeHaven and Jim Mora will contribute to the organization in the same way as the free agent pickups and Ruskell-era draft selections have contributed to the team. So as we enjoy this Holiday, usually monopolized by car dealers and white sales, let us all pause on the eve of free agency and the draft, and all say Hail to the Chief! Labels: albaNY Hawker, Front Office  This country has a long and storied history of bigotry, from slave trade to Japanese interment camps, Polish jokes to Blonde Jokes, and Jets v. Sharks to Bloods v Crips.However, education, political correctness, and bleeding heart liberals like Dr. King, Al Franken and myself have helped put an end to a lot of it! Which is part of the reason why Americans get so involved with sports. Sports give you the opportunity to hate a man, based solely on the color of his uniform. Sure, he may be leading the league in six statistical categories, and a sure bet future hall-of-famer, but if he's not wearing Seahawk Blue, then naturally HE SUCKS! And just like every other form of bigotry, it doesn't have to be rational. If that same player winds up in playing for your favorite team, sure the initial stages might be as awkward as when Sidney Portier "Came to Dinner", but when the regular season begins, you'll be cheering for him as loudly as you booed him as recently as last season. To wit, this recent response to a list of potential players to be cut from their current team at positions that may benefit the Seahawks: "Coakley might make a good waterboy on the Seahawks roster... Timmerman could be Walter Jones' ball washer."While the original list included six players from five different teams, it's interesting to note that the respondent only took issue with the two associated with the St. Louis Rams. The other two teams were the Giants and the Vikings. So in essence, is he saying, I would rather have my daughter marry someone who is arrogant and over-hyped, or someone who is warmly dressed but prone to nautical sexual deviance, than someone whose family tree has several lines going between each family member, including the livestock and household pets? Yes, with the First Amendment, our forefathers (or in the Rams case, four fathers) gave every American the right - ney, the DUTY - to voice our opinion as loudly and boldly as possible, no matter how illogical, nonfactual or just plain crazy it may be! Historians and scholars still engage in spirited debate over how the actions of Thomas Jefferson can be directly traced to The Watchdog establishing himself as a regular poster on a Seahawks web forum! But this right is being taken away in almost every facet of polite society, by those ambulance chasing, money grubbing, poison-pill concocting lawyers - everywhere that is - except for sports. So I implore every blue-blooded Seahawk fan to get angry, channel that hate and get behind your favorite team - all 53 of them - including the bastard, red-headed step-children like Bryce Fisher and Grant Wistrom! [Comments taken in SeahawkBlue Forums] Labels: albaNY Hawker |
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