Evidently, Manning reached out to the Seahawks, not the other way around. From the article (radio show audio is linked from article): According to coach Pete Carroll, the free-agent quarterback had previously reached out to the Seahawks to express his interest in playing for the team. "He had contacted me about wanting to talk about coming here," Carroll told "Brock and Salk" on Tuesday. "So that's how it started," Carroll said. "This was not just a blind shot. We had some set-up to it. It just didn't work out."