The Road Back, Part 1: Fresh Eyes
by John Morgan on Jun 6, 2010 3:59 PM PDT
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PrintSeahawks fans should know 1983. Many of us may not remember it. Many of us did not yet exist. Some of us existed but were babies or small children. Others were cognitive but not yet Seahawks fans. But all Seahawks fans should know 1983. It may not have been Seattle's most successful season, though it was close, but it was surely the Seahawks first great season. It was great not just because Seattle finished farther in the playoffs than they did in any other season but 2005. It was great not just because it began Seattle's run of contention throughout the eighties. It was great because it was so unexpected, but much of what made it unexpected also made it possible.
New Head Coach
It is debatable whether Jack Patera was a bad coach, but by 1982, he was no longer good for the Seahawks. Chuck Knox was a successful coach but had his detractors. Most famous of which was former Los Angeles Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom. He thought Knox's philosophy was too conservative. Eventually Knox left the Rams to sign with Buffalo. He was successful but still embattled. By his own recollection, part of what attracted Knox to Seattle was general manager Mike McCormack's willingness to buy into Knox's coaching philosophy.
Some of this might sound familiar, Pete.
Apart from their back-stories, what connects Carroll and Knox is that both coaches took over talented teams hamstrung by critical deficiencies. Both coaches replaced coaches that had lost their teams. Whatever Patera's knack for creative play calling, he was a stern and guarded boss that didn't inspire his players. Both Knox and Carroll, in different ways, started their Seahawks careers by reestablishing an emphasis on the best players playing. For both, that meant new players and overlooked players playing in new positions. Knox instituted a 3-4. He reshaped the offensive and defensive lines. There wasn't the same kind of roster turnover or outspoken veneration of competition that we've seen under Carroll, but like Carroll, Knox was largely free of lived-in biases. He didn't know the team, its fans or its players and hadn't promised anyone anything but competitive football. He delivered.
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I wondered what ever happened to Patera
Thanks to Wikipedia, there are few mysteries left in life:
“After being fired by the Seahawks, Patera never took another coaching position and is completely retired from football. He currently resides in Cle Elum, Washington with his three dogs. He and his wife, Susan, are divorced after 44 years of marriage. They have four children.”
Seahawks Fans Cannot Be Cured
Caption win again.
What really makes it is the reaction shot on Pete’s face— you can see just the slightest grimace as he’s imagining a squeezed nut.
I turned eight right before the 1983 season started, and remember it well.
Wondering what part 2 will be. Fresh legs?
inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
I'd be happy with a Knox like era
The Chuck Knox era gave us pretty good football, and great quotes like “Football players win football games”.
'83 was incredibly awesome
Curt Warner’s 1,449 yards as a rookie, first playoff game and win (on Xmas eve! I was there!), Knox carried off the field after the Miami road playoff win. So great.
Very interesting parallel between Knox and Carroll.
I remember the 83 season very well. A few thoughts. The Hawks in 2010 don’t have the stud RB like in 83 (Warner) or the HOF WR talent (Largent). The DL in 83 was very good Green, Nash, and Bryant and the secondary led by Kenny Easley was a ball hawking unit. Don’t know that this team has that type of potential but we’ll see. Thanks for the memories. Yes, I can still see Knox being carried off the field in Miami. What a great win!
Pete will be too (or I really hope he will be)
I can’t claim to remember the Chuck era, I was 5 and living in Texas. There is some precedent to a new coach producing good results. The cupboards were pretty empty in Miami and Atlanta and both made it to the playoffs based on a pretty good draft.
I am looking forward to lots of shots of Pete rocking the long sleeve shirt underneath the polo and running up and down the sidelines.
Good bye Big Walt.
But we didn't know thats what we had going into 83
Warner was a rookie. A highly touted one, but no one expected that out of him. Plus, if I remember right a lot of people were worried that he wasn’t big enough and couldn’t be the every down back. Warner is very similar in size and style to Force. Ground Chuck definitely helped him out. Largent was standard him, but that was also the transition year at QB. It wouldn’t surprise me if that is part 2, cause we went from Zorn to Krieg that year.
The DL was good, but it was out of no where. Green went from 3 sacks to 16 and it was the first year Nash and Bryant contributed to the team. No one would have looked at those three in 82 and said that they were a stud line. They would have said our line consisted of two second year players who hadn’t started a whole season and a DE who had maxed out at 3 sacks.
Easley had shown what he was worth in 82, but still wasn’t the starter.
So what I am saying is that we went into the 83 season with a lot of question marks and people stepped up in a large way. JM probably has parts 2-5 of parallels between the seasons. That doesn’t mean we will have similar results to 83, but its always possible.
My perception of that off-season was a little different...
I was very optimistic because we had good young talent— and landed Chuck Knox.
The only questions or concerns I had was that Chuck was known for being conservative on offense and opportunistic on defense. Took advantage of other teams mistakes, which I thought was why he was always so good in the regular season but couldn’t win a SB (-because the better the opponent, the less mistakes they made).
Knox was already a legend. If I remember, it seemed Chuck was averaging about 10-12 wins per year, and I was thrilled we could land him. I would take that any day, and worry about playoff success if and when we got there. I was pumped!
But after a shakey start, I’ve really warmed up to Pete & Co. and think we’ll be much better from game one. I am pumped!
NFL Films has a has a great feature on that '83 team.
The Cinderella Seahawks.
I'm gonna go calm submissive on your ass.
I was 12 years old when Knox took over
I remember the song they wrote for the AFC Championship game, based off of a David Bowie song:
“Kreig goes back to pass
He hits Largent
In the end zone
We’re on our way… to Tampa Bay
4…3…2…1…
Goodbye Raiders
It soon will be
Seattle Seahawks
Champs of the AFC"
There was a massive buzz at school. I did not live in Seattle for the Holmgren years, so this was my experience of football magnus opus.
It is what it is...
Much thanks
I still get pumped when I hear that song. It was so much cooler to be young and pumped for the Seahawks than it is now. Now there is so much expectation. Then there was just a clean slate. You could dream big and damn the numbers. We had Warner and Largent, and the rest would take care of itself. Good times.
Of course, game one 1984 brought that to and end when Warner blew his knee out.
It is what it is...
I really became a Seahawks fan the 1984 season
the parallels between Carroll and Knox may be a bit generic, but important. Both inherited some talent. Knox did and Pete has signaled that he will be no respecter of previous arrangements.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
I envy the older guys sometimes
Being born in ‘87, my earliest memory of Seahawks football is the Rick Mirer era. No wonder I was more attached to the M’s, and never really connected with the Hawks till Holmgren came around.
Is that the light at the end of the tunnel, or the headlights of an oncoming train?
ditto
I was born in 86
I was a fan before Holmy however, but it wasn’t really until there were threats of the Seahawks leaving town that my love for them really started to pour out…and thankfully Holmgren followed soon thereafter.
My team as a young kid though was the Sonics…being 9,10 years old during that 95-96 season…oh man so huge for me. I still have yet to watch a single minute of NBA basketball since they were taken from us.
I Bleed Blue and Green
we ain't lettin' y'all sink no threes'
NO! Not in our house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZDUh9yboqI
Your culture is primitive; yet so funky!
The Sonics were fun then, but not the Mariners?
Those 95 Mariners changed my relationship with baseball from playing in the sand at tee-ball to being able to score a game and keep track of my own stats when I was playing.
The M's rocked back then for sure
But I was a basketball & football player as a kid so I had a stronger connection with both of em over the M’s.
I’ve always been a M’s fan, but no matter what year or era, they were always 2nd or 3rd fiddle to the Hawks and Sonics.
I Bleed Blue and Green
I lit yellow and green smoke bombs off
when the Sonic won it all in ‘79. God, I was 8. I remember my dad’s huge stereo system . We would listen to the Sonic games religiously. I started a Sonic fan, and then grew into a Seahawk sycophant. M’s were a sideshow while I was young.
It is what it is...
It was Griffey for me
I didn’t and still don’t like baseball that much but he was fun to watch.
Good bye Big Walt.
Sure, but now we're old and you are young
And we had to live through the Rick Mirer era too. After being teased with a taste of greatness.
I was born in 86.
The biggest thing I remember is I thought Rick Mirer sucked and Freise was great, because Mirer would start, we’d be losing.
Then Freise would come in and we’d start moving the ball.
That and I thought there were two types of plays. Put the ball on the ground and everyone jumps into the pile, trying to get it. And throwing the ball really far, trying to get it in the end zone.
That's pretty accurate, but...
the experts know there are subleties like which direction to put the ball on the ground, or who should do it, or which side to throw the really long pass to. Plus there’s a new innovation where you throw an incompletion about 5 yards deep.
Spectacular piece, John
I became a fan in 1983 at age 8, and the first game I ever went to was the regular season finale against the Patriots… after that I was hooked for life.
The 1983 highlight film on Hulu
"I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent." -Don Draper
by Johnny Peel (DKSB) on Jun 6, 2010 8:56 PM PDT reply actions
Wow this is awesome
I was not alive for this, but man I wish I had been. What an amazing season to see.
by ungoreatstefan on Jun 7, 2010 6:36 AM PDT up reply actions
Thanks for posting the Hulu link.
by nickfru1 on Jun 7, 2010 7:24 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
omnia ave
Peteo Carrolinguo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZDUh9yboqI
Your culture is primitive; yet so funky!
After reading the thread I think half of us were born in 1974-76
My first memory from 83 was when Zorn was benched and Krieg became the starter. I loved Zorn and refused to watch the first couple of games that Krieg started. Eight year old’s don’t get that their guys start to suck eventually.
I was in my late 20s that season...
I loved Zorn but Dave was exciting because he was more accurate downfield, and was making some awesome plays. It didn’t take long to become a Krieg fan. Still loved Zorn, though…
Nopee
Born in 67 .. But started following the Hawks in 79 and 80. But became a die hard fan when the Hawks drafted Easley out of UCLA. Being a die hard UCLA Fan and a huge fanboy of Easley, I decided to make the Hawks my team and the rest is history :)
Got the Miami game on tape,,,
,,,one problem
,,,,it’s on BETA!
I was at Kriegs first camp in Cheney. All the “yes sir” moments went largely without notice but you could sense the frustration and see it in Zorns face.
Best guy plays and we are going to run the ball was a Knoxism and Jim knew that was not what he did best. Knox was not one for non-traditional ways, so protecting a lefty from RT was going to change, scrambled jail-breaks and improv a thing of the past (not quite though). Had Zorn been replaced without the 83’ season being what it was, folks would have been more upset about it, afterall Seattle was still in transition as a community from NW daylight time to PDT.
I became a Seahawks fan in 1984
It wasn’t because the Seahawks had it all put together, but rather…I live in Baltimore and my whole life growing up I was a Colts fan. When Irsay moved the team out in the middle of the night, I declared myself an “Unrestricted Free Agent Fan.” I saw one game with Steve Largent making incredible sideline catches and said he’s my guy and the Seahawks are my team. In an era when the Steelers and the Redskins were trying to recruit the Baltimore fan base, I found my team on the other side of the country, and have rooted for them ever since…good times and bad.
by Rich2010 on Jun 7, 2010 8:32 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I have incredible nostalgia for this era
The first NFL game I ever watched was Superbowl XVII, in Jan 1983 (Skins over Dolphins) and I became a fan of the sport. But I didn’t have a team to cheer for. I adopted the Seahawks as my team week 5 of the 1983 NFL season. The friend who had turned me on to the NFL was a huge Browns fan. Week 5, on my 16th birhday, the Seahawks clobbered the Browns. I adopted them as my team. And that team delivered all season long, all the way to the AFC championship game. I obviously stuck with them since. And that ‘83 season wasn’t surpassed until 2005.
I don’t see the 2010 squad with alot of 83 retro potential but would love to be wrong. I think one of Whitehurst or Losman would have to come in and really perform beyond expectations to see ‘83 repeated (since the 1983 season was really the emergence of our ’QB of the future’, Dave Krieg)
A lot of us were under the age of ten during the those winning years.
So I think we’re safe from the bandwagon label.
I really became a fan in about 80-81
I think anything younger than 5 doesn’t count, but I don’t remember not being a fan, so I guess I can claim back into the 70s
I inherited my fanhood from my dad...
I was born in SoCal but my dad grew up in Seattle and was always a Seahawks fan. We moved here when I was 5, and I remember going to games in the Kingdome with more opposing team’s fans than Seahawks fans in the 90s. (At least that’s how I remember it)
Get off my lawn!
I became a Seahawks fan back in 1976 when my dad told me, “We’re Seahawks fans, now.”
Seahawks Fans Cannot Be Cured
Wasn't alive during 83.
I became a fan in 98 because of Joey Galloway. Within a week of loving football because of Galloway, I was a Seahawks fan first (and subsequently didn’t care about him leaving).
Now with more lemon bars!
For some reason I thought this topic was about fandom.
Apparently while reading through the comments I forgot what it was originally about and went way OT. Hah.
Now with more lemon bars!
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