Sanity: Seahawks bid fond farewell to Matt Flynn, and I wish him the best of luck

I'll never forget the six months that Matt Flynn was, in my mind, the starting quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. Signed in March of last year, it wasn't until after three preseason games that it had become apparent he wasn't going to be playing very much, if at all, in 2012. That was a flynnteresting turn of events.

Heck, think of how much our mentality of the Seahawks and Russell Wilson has changed in the last five months alone. Can you believe that after the season was well under way, many people were still calling for almighty Russell Wilson to be benched for Flynn? Seems flynnsane, but it happflynned.

I searched for Wilson mentions on this website during the week following a 19-13 loss to the St. Louis Rams, in which Wilson was 17-of-25 for 160 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT and a comeback that fell just short. Remember that the comeback literally fell short when Anthony McCoy fell down and could have potentially been a 20-19 win with perhaps one less interception and one more touchdown for senor Wilson. Yes, his struggles were a lot more obvious after four weeks, and he later improved and the coaches changed the game around him but do you remember just how vehemently against Wilson starting many people were? Here's a reminder.

Many fans did not want to see him starting, please bring in Flynn you jerks. At least one anonymous author decided not to panic. But I supported Flynn for six months, and then Wilson won the job and so I supported him. I'm basically Ali Larter in Varsity Blues, except I don't cover up my naughty bits with whip cream. I prefer mayonnaise.

I did dream of Flynn, but the possibilities were not endless. I fantasized about, well, all the other Matt's. The Hasselbeck's, the Cassel's, the Schaub's, which is all well and good but not the kind of fantasy that causes me to lock my bedroom door and make up an excuse that I have to "read for 20 minutes." Words like "nice", "middling", and "slightly-above-average" come to mind, which I thought would be good enough to compete for the playoffs and a bit more, but it definitely felt like you could touch the ceiling. Whereas with Wilson, it really feels like he will never reach the ceiling. (short jokes)

That's not to say that I don't think the Raiders got themselves a good quarterback. I think Flynn is going to be slightly-above-average and I am happy to see him get a real chance to start, even though with his luck the Raiders will probably draft Geno Smith or Matt Barkley and Flynn's life will just become a loop of the Arrested Development "sad walkaway" gif. (I'll be stoked if somebody makes this the first comment because I am not going to throw it in here.) But if I am being real, I think of him a lot more in the Cassel camp than I see him in the Hasselbeck and Schaub camp, especially considering that the Raiders just don't have a lot to work with right now. Maybe he will bring some of that winning spirit with him, because if we're going to cherry-pick stats with Flynn, the Seahawks won by a combined score of 150-30 in the games in which he played! He's also about two years younger than 2012 rookie Brandon Weeden.

I will root for Flynn in Oakflynned just like I was fully supportive of him in Sea-matt-le, because at the very least he is a player that deserves another chance. You can't say that about just any player that is in the NFL, but for a quarterback that has spent five years as a backup and been successful in short stints, Flynn has actually earned this. He beat out fellow rookie Brian Brohm to become the Packers backup in 2008. He performed well in the preseason. He has well-documented success in two starts. He performed plenty good-enough to start for the Seahawks last year, had there not been that God-like person as his competition. It's rare to find a person capable of starting at quarterback in this league for even one entire season, and Flynn has shown that he might be one of those rare players that can do it and then some. If Drew Stanton can get a chance to start in Arizona (until now, probably) and Flynn can't get a chance somewhere, then I am Daenerys Targaryen and dragons can fly out of my butt. (I'll cross my fingers to see that in the deleted scenes.)

So I wish him well and hope for the best, because we were all set here. The Seahawks need a backup quarterback and that does not appear to me to be what Matt Flynn is. He's earned the right to start, and a guy like Tyler Thigpen is more in line with what qualifies as a backup, so as selfish as it might be to want to keep a player of Flynn's talents around, we must set him free.

Seattle is officially no longer flynnsane.

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