Saturday, March 12, 2005

An Opinion Piece

I am writing this post in light of the recent comments from Chike Okeafor and the Trent Dilfer comments given to KJR radio.

I have had, for a long time, a suspicion, that the reason the Seahawks have had so many difficulties landing good free agents had less to do with the fact that Seattle seems a long way away from anywhere, than it does the attitudes of the players and coaches. After all, players are used to flying, they are used to hopping on a plane to go to their favorite place to shop, hunt, fish, water ski, buy marijuana, etc..., so why should living in Seattle, (a great place to do any of those things) be a problem?
I remember very clearly when Holmgren first got brought in to coach, how, many of the players balked at what they percieved to be an innordinate amount of ego from him. (Not saying that's right or wrong, or that it's Holmgren's fault).
I remember hearing and reading quotes from players who saw Holmgren as an ego maniac.
Then came the massive purges, and I had hoped that the problem had been rectified. Unfortunately, many of the players drafted and brought to the team were of the same whining ilk as the ones released, ie. Simmons, Stevens, Robinson, I could go on.
I even remember how after John Randle was brought here, in his last remaining seasons in order to bring leadership and a winning attitude to the team, the resistance that he got from many of the players when he tried to be that leader.
I don't think that any one player or coach can be blamed for this, I think it's a widespread attitude problem that exists on the team, which resists hard work and accountability. I think that there are still several players here who have never bought into what Holmgren is preaching.
This problem cannot be fixed overnight, but it must be fixed if we are ever going to become more than just a mediocre team. Dilfer talked about it very plainly, now we here much of that sentiment echoed in Okeafor's statements.

For years now, the Seahawks have been a mediocre team with extraordinary talent. Though I would hardly call them Super Bowl contenders every year, last season they certainly had the talent to be. If underachieving isn't an indication of leadership problems and attitude problems, I don't really know what is.

The one hope that I have, is the statements made by Hasselbeck after signing his contract. He was elated that now he feels he can have some real say, some real control over this team. And that's how it should be. I sincerely hope that between Hass and Jones, (who are now going to be playing for the greater part of their careers here), one or both of them can take hold of the teams leadership reigns, and begin to set a winning tone on this team.

9 comments:

  1. I should mention too, that individual attitudes, like the ones expressed recently by Alexander, also should not be tolerated. If this me first attitude exists within a player, then he should be traded or released immediately in my opinion.

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  2. First of all, Blue, you can't see it but I'm giving you a standing ovation. Great post, couldn't have said it better myself.

    Monkey. I think you're exactly right, and I think that's what's holding up the signings and contributuing to the releases, bad attitudes.

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  3. Nice op/ed, monkey!

    I certainly hope that the 'ME' players get either corrected or purged. There has to be some validity to Dilfer's and Okeafor's comments.

    We need tough, committed, skilled players. Hopefully Ruskell can acheive with Holmgren what Whitsitt was uniterested in.

    BTW: Vinny, thanks for the ovation, but what post?

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  4. Aww Cr*p!

    ADD kicked in again, didn't read the author of the post, I'm so used to you leading things off Blue.(sorry no ovation for you)

    Sorry Monkey,the ovation's for you.

    Damn! I hate when I do sh* like that. Too many web sites.

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  5. LOL!!!

    It's cr*p like that that endears you to the rest of the clan, Vinny.

    Thanks for the phantom compliment. ;) My ego maintains it's turgid state.

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  6. Monkey - you touched on something I was thinking about today, which is I'm SO glad they wrapped Hass up long term, so that if he stays healthy, he can put his stamp on this team, the same way some other long term QBs did with their teams, like Marino, Elway, Simms, and Montana.

    I'm not comparing them to Hass on skill level, but each of these guys were in a comfortable position and tagged as "THE" guy for their respective teams.

    I don't think we've had a "THE" guy QB since the Kreig days.

    Either promising QBs get hurt, or high draft picks don't pan out, or wily veterans give us a year or two and then are gone.

    I'm SOOO Hopeful that Matt stays healthy, cuz this attitude thing will take awhile to turn around, but it will be much easier to do with some consistency under center.

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  7. Alba, your' comment on Matt staying healthy brings up a point that I haven't seen addressed lately, we 'must' improve our pass protection!

    Everyone's talking about fixing the D, but no one ever mentions the glaring problem with our O-line and their ability to protect Matt. We have a great left side(to run behind) but our QB is hurried way too much, leading to the majority of Matt's misfires and misques. We need a bada** pass protector on the right side, espcially if we lose Porky(which is a good possibility).

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  8. After what Linc predicted, and Ruskie seemed to reiterate, I'm betting Porky is a lock.

    And if you read Ruskies piece again about some guys not being available until June 1, perhaps there's life to the Turley dream you've been cooking for awhile.

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  9. Well, Porky's signed, all I want now is a madman at RT and i'm a happy camper with the Front Line.

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