You look left, you look right and you see expectations soaring for the Seattle Seahawks. Pundits and talk show hosts alike are using Mt. Olympus-sized rhetoric to describe our football team. It’s an exciting time for Seahawk fans everywhere. The pre-season home opener against the Denver Broncos had the atmosphere of a playoff game. Radio stations in the Seattle area have begun starting their pregame shows a full two hours before the game starts and trust me, everyone is tuned-in. Last year’s amazing performance has led to bedlam in the Emerald City for what lies ahead for the squad.
Well, such fandemonium needs a talking to. Seahawk fans, this is the pep talk I think you need to hear.
It’s a losing proposition trying to play the devil’s advocate in sports. It’s not like I want to be your mom here and I definitely don’t want to be Skip Bayless either, but it must be discussed. Even though the hype for this team is very real, there is a fine line between fan consciousness and ignorance.
The countdown to the season begins and my advice to Seahawk fans is to take a N.A.P.
Well, that is just the simplified acronym. You don’t have to actually take a nap, unless you want to. It stands for how a true Seahawk fan should feel. Be Nervous, Afraid, and Prepared. Just like taking a real nap, if you N.A.P. as a fan you will increase your fan-health, your fan-intelligence and your fan-productivity.
Every Seahawk fan knows what the team has in its arsenal offensively and defensively. All the positives have constantly been thrust in our faces. Any known weaknesses are few and very, very far between. A lot of the attempted discussions of weaknesses are as hard to talk about as they are to find. Feelings of nervousness and fear don’t exist when everyone is boasting with vibrant confidence and dreams of a Lombardi trophy are dancing in their heads. So I’ll just come out and say it; the Seahawks will lose. Not a lot, but they will lose games.
I differentiate between being nervous and afraid simply by evaluating whether the Seahawks are playing at home or on the road. Nervousness is defined by a feeling of anxiousness and agitation. Afraid is defined by fear, aversion and concern. Home games make me nervous, road games are concerning. That is because there is such a huge disparity for the Seahawks play at Century Link Field compared to their play at opposing team’s stadiums and the statistics prove that.
All 5 of the regular season losses last season came on the road, 3 of those losses were to sub-.500 teams. The other 2 losses were to NFC playoff teams. This year they play 5 teams on the road who achieved winning records last year including a 7-9 Carolina Panthers team that had the hardest strength of schedule in the league last year and looked extremely strong in the pre-season this year. The other two road games are against divisional under dogs the Cardinals and the Rams who are dying for a breakthrough. That gives us a total 8 out of 8 road games against solid, hungry teams which should be tough and potentially scary to a Seahawk fan.
They have the tenth toughest strength of schedule in the league this year. Only 3 teams from the top-ten strength of schedule last year made the playoffs. Six of the remaining seven teams didn’t even have a winning record. That shouldn’t scare any Seahawk fans but it should make them nervous.
Be nervous during home games against the 49ers, Vikings and the Saints but be concerned for almost every road game. Be concerned for the season opener and the murderous consecutive games on the road later against the Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts. It is a consciousness in knowing this team’s track record that will help you define your game day emotions. With that being said, the third letter in our N.A.P. time acronym and by far the most important is to be prepared.
Be prepared for the whole kit and caboodle, Seahawk fans. God knows what will happen for about 75% of the teams in the NFL, including ours truly.
Nervousness and fear both lead directly to your preparedness as a fan. Be prepared for wins and losses that will make you scream for joy and scream in agony. The Seahawks have proven they can beat the best teams in the league and lose to some of the worst. They beat themselves more often than other teams did last year and it was still the 3rd best record in franchise history. The two better records previously posted by the Seahawks in 2005 and 1984 both saw a decline to single digit wins the following season. Besides those three seasons, the Seahawks have had three other seasons with at least ten wins but they were all followed by seasons that saw a decline in the number of wins. This means that the Seattle Seahawks have never had consecutive double digit victory seasons, ever. That’s a fact. If, that’s a big if, they don’t win double digit games this year; you may not be expecting it, so be prepared. That doesn’t mean they won’t make the playoffs, it doesn’t even really mean anything.
A popular belief is that they will defy this trend but a lot stands in their way. If you are prepared to feel nervous and afraid on occasion you will be able to withstand the twist and turns of this exciting season the Seahawks have in front of them. We can attempt to predict, know and explain why a team will win or lose a season by spraying facts on paper but a team’s record and eventual outcome, as a fan, isn’t up to us.
It’s anybody’s game and everyone wants a crack at the most hyped team in the league. The Seahawks have a target on their backs. No matter whom the opponent is and how easy the game looks the Seahawks still have to play all sixteen. Everyone knows how much teams in this league change from season to season so none of our parlaying matters until the ball is hiked. The only fact that truly remains relevant is that football, like every sport, is rather unpredictable, unknown and unexplainable. The best way I figure to deal with that great void is by telling you to always N.A.P.
So just be nervous, afraid and prepared for everything 12th man and anything can happen, even a Super Bowl.
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