Day in and day out these guys eat, breath and sleep football, whether it’s practices, meetings, media, working out or games, football is their life. When you are with your team more than your immediate family, they become what many might label your second family. Maybe that’s why the Seattle Seahawks are so successful; they demonstrate what a home away from home truly represents.
Hundreds of questions on the successes of the two teams competing for the World Championship are being presented during media week in Arizona. The common denominator that the Seahawks credit their successes to is loving your brother, perseverance and finishing. Pete Carroll comments on how the team has “turned our focus to kind of the essence of team, which is really playing for one another,” whether that’s on the field or off. What do I mean by off the field? I started to listen to the guys in the press conferences as they stood up for Marshawn Lynch, starting at the top with Pete Carroll. He defended him saying, “I think that you’re seeing a demonstration of a guy being himself and not being what everyone wants him to be.” Something that Carroll feels strongly about; allowing the players to be unique.
Also, Doug Baldwin stating his case for the hopes of Lynch getting the MVP at the Super Bowl. Followed by Max Unger, who states “The Marshawn that we know obviously tries to be different to media…Unfortunately you guys don’t get a really good picture of who he is in the locker room and as a guy. He is the best. I think if you ask anybody in that locker room they will say the same thing, one of the best guys to be around.” And the list of guys ‘loving their brother’ or defending Lynch continues. This is a refreshing take on the daily backstabbing you usually hear in the news. As the media, maybe we shouldn’t focus so much or harp on Lynch for not talking to the media, but rather take notice that every teammate would take a bullet for him.
The family mentality seems to start at the top with Pete Carroll. Will Tukuafu, gets a bit of enthusiasm in his voice, when asked about the comradery and family-unit of the Seahawks. Tukuafu immediately addresses his appreciation for Coach Carroll and states, “he gets us in and gets us working, so we can get home and spend time with our family. When you have a coach that supports your family, it makes you want to play that much harder.” Earl Thomas also praises Coach Carroll for his ability to communicate with an open heart, stating that with that, solutions will come.
From Coach Carroll the linage proceeds down to the captains, as Kam Chancellor talks about the core of the family unit. “I always say that you are as strong as your weakest link. There’s no weak links. I feel like if the whole unit is on the same page, the whole unit will do the same thing, the whole unit is going after the same grind…We’re a strong and very powerful unit.” And as a captain, or older brother, Chancellor says he is, “always trying to teach them (the younger players) ways that I learned through the process or I correct them if I see them doing or picking up bad habits. I always tell them it’s about the progress and if I can help a guy, I help a guy.”
In every family, there are distinct variances in persona, just like there are with the Seahawks family. This solid unit it made up of a distinct framework, as Bobby Wagner explains, “I feel like it’s a balance. Everybody balances each other out. You have people who are loud, you have people who are quiet, you have people who are reserved and you have people who aren’t reserved. You have all types of guys on this team and that’s what makes it special because we don’t try to make you be a certain way. We like who you are and accept who you are.”
Families start to create their own language at times, and that’s exactly what the Seahawks defense has coincidently created. Bobby Wagner says, “It (the defenses language) definitely develops over time. It started when we got our core group and you start to get a feel for how each other talks and how each other communicate. The more and more we played with each other; the more we understood how each other would play a certain play. It gave us opportunities when we can take a chance because we know somebody else has our back.” It’s the ability to be able to read someone to know his every move. To spend so much time with someone that you understand what they are going to say before they say it. It’s the sense of family that this team has created.
The Seattle Seahawks value each other as family. Family is what you make of it and they have made their team a priority. They hold each other to the upmost esteem, ‘loving your brother’ through having each others back, respecting one another, teaching each other, learning from one another, and listening, which is why they are competing for the World Championship two years in a row.
Twitter: @MorganMoe Dean
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