There was a lot of uncertainty heading into the offseason. We had some key free agents in Lynch, Bryant and Hawthorne. We still had Jackson as our QB. We re-signed Lynch and Bryant on March 5th and 13th respectively. We added Matt Flynn on March 18th and we celebrated. We have a QB! Finally we had reason to be optimistic.

Football 'experts' gave us no love and didn't even give us a glance. They mocked us during the draft at picking Irvin with the 15th pick ahead of highly touted Ingram, Mercilus and Upshaw. They snickered at us drafting a 5'10" QB in the 3rd round. We debated these picks amungst ourselves in these forums for months leading up to the season. We didn't know what we had. We relied on these so called 'experts' to tell us what we had and according to them it wasn't much. The players thought differently, the players we brought in were football players... hard working football players who believed in themselves, who fought the odds their entire lives, who had something to prove.

Something started happening in pre-season... these players started to gel. They started to understand the concepts and what the coaches were trying to accomplish. We finished 4-0 in the pre-season and at the helm our 3rd round QB that very few gave a chance to be an NFL QB save for John Schneider and Pete Carroll. There was separation in 12 nation. Matt Flynn supporters vs. Russell Wilson supporters. Durring the beginning part of the season Wilson went through the customary growing pains and still debated about our QB.

The one constant with us was the belief that our D led by the Legion of Boom would carry us. Big wins against GB and NE gave us hope and something to talk about... big losses in week 7 at San Fran and the last second loss in week 8 at Det ate away at us. We were in those games our offense was starting to show life and we won the next 2 heading into the bye week. Wilson looked good, our OL was winning the battles and creating lanes and again we were optimistic and hopeful, but something else started to happen... it seemed the collective 12 was gelling.

Gone was the bickering over QB play. Conversations were about matchups and a playoff push. We were in the thick of it. We only lost 1 game since week 8. The players and coaches made that happen on the field, but our road was no different than theirs.

WE were there week in and week out too. WE felt the pains of the losses. WE celebrated along with the players in victory. WE were there through controversies. WE are in the playoffs. WE have a number on our back too! WE ARE UNITED by that number, WE LIVE by that number... THAT NUMBER IS 12!

Wherever you are watching tomorrow when the kicker makes his run to the ball before the kick... Raise a glass and scream the number 12 as he kicks... Let the players hear you in DC. To Victory!