After hollow victory, Seahawks postgame ‘celebration’ was an exploding cigar

As fans we’ve grown to expect a downtrodden locker room when things don’t turn out the way the players had hoped, particularly at the end of a season.

Sunday in Arizona, the Seahawks beat the Cardinals 21-20, but it wasn’t a joyous occasion because they failed to make the playoffs.

So you’d think videos and photos of the locker room would show long faces and frowns from players slowly getting out of their uniforms, some distraught, some upset that they failed to meet postseason expectations.

But after the game, we saw a photo tweeted out by News Tribune Seahawks beat writer Gregg Bell that featured eight defensive players smoking cigars and appearing to have a good ol’ time.

If you were trying to make sense of it before knowing any of the reasons why this was happening, you could assume these were “victory cigars” since the Seahawks, in fact, did post a victory over the Cardinals. And victory cigars are a time-honored tradition going back to the 1960’s when coach Red Auerbach would fire up a stogie when the Celtics won.

That, however, seemed unusual since it was a hollow victory - with the Packers beating the Bears in Green Bay, the Seahawks were eliminated from the playoffs.

There was another explanation. Safety Julian Love passed out cigars to his teammates to celebrate the birth of his son. In a tweet directed at Bell, Love said: “Insinuating that we’re celebrating not making the playoffs is weak, Gregg. These cigars were given to me to celebrate the birth of my son and I waited until the end of the season to share a moment with my guys.”

In Bell’s tweet, he didn’t insinuate that, simply saying: “Cigars - but not playoffs - in Seahawks locker room after last game rally win at Arizona.”

Love also told reporters in Arizona that the cigars were “just to celebrate. A lot of players know every year is emotional. There’s ups and downs. This team will not be the same next year. Just to celebrate your guys, your work all season. That’s all it was.”

So essentially Love came up with two stories in a lame attempt to explain the bizarre scene in the locker room.

Among the things I don’t understand:

* Love and his wife had their first child on Dec. 22nd. At that time, Love stayed in Seattle to be there for the birth while his teammates flew to Nashville for a Christmas Eve game against the Titans. After his son was born, he rejoined his teammates and was there in time for the game.

I don’t know, in the history of handing out cigars after the birth of a kid, if I remember right, it typically happens right after the kid is born, not two and a half weeks later.

It seems like if Love wanted to celebrate this memorable day in his life, he could have passed out those cigars after a practice, say between Christmas and New Year’s, and happily smoked at his house or somewhere else, anywhere else besides a locker room after the end of a disappointing season 18 days after his son was born.

* How could Love not see that the optics of smoking cigars in the locker room to celebrate anything was a bad move on his part? He seemed oblivious to that, which is mind blowing.

Former Seahawks punter Jon Ryan took issue with Love on Twitter, saying: “The Seahawk way is a bit different these days I guess. I could say a lot of things right now because I’m shaking with anger but I’ll just say I’m really disappointed.”

The comments on Ryan’s tweet ranged from complete agreement to thinking that he was making way too much of the Seahawks’ smoking situation.

I’m with Ryan. I keep coming back to reading the room, or reading the locker room in this case, and Love botched it big-time. Ryan responded to several people on Twitter by saying “there’s a time and a place” for smoking cigars after the birth of a child, indicating neither one was appropriate.

Maybe it’s much ado about nothing, but the clueless nature of it is the reason why it made headlines and should have never happened at all.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on KJR-FM 93.3, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.

This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 9:31 AM.