How having no wi-fi, except for team doc’s, became Seahawks’ latest bonding experience
If the Seahawks’ current perch atop the NFC in the playoff standings propels them into the Super Bowl, they may look back to their roaring, impromptu bonding time on a tarmac in North Carolina as a reason they got there.
Sunday evening in Charlotte, Seattle’s players, coaches and staff massed beneath their charter jet. They were readying to board their flight home from their 30-24 victory over the Panthers. To avoid lines and delays from gawkers and autograph seekers inside commercial airports, the Seahawks and other pro teams go through customized security screenings at the stadiums before they board their buses or on the tarmac at the airport. Then they go directly onto their planes.
This time, the Seahawks got off their bus but did not go directly to their plane. The crew was not yet through its pre-flight preparations to receive them.
As the they waited on the tarmac, the Atlanta Falcons were rallying from two scores down trying to beat San Francisco in the fourth quarter in Santa Clara, Calif. If the 49ers lost, Seattle would take back first place in the NFC West, back on track to a home playoff game and first-round bye.
The Seahawks had been following the end of that Falcons-Niners game on their wi-fi connections during their bus ride from the stadium to the airport. But they lost their connections once they got off the bus and waited disconnected on the tarmac, far from the airport terminal.
Their chartered jet does not have wifi capability. It’s a wider-body plane equipped for its normal cross-oceanic flights, where wi-fi is problematic if not impossible. So while the Seahawks waited in the dark of the early Charlotte evening, they were also in the dark about whether the Falcons, coached by former Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, completed their rally past the Niners.
Paging Seahawks team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan.
“It was really a moment, it really was, for our club,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We got delayed on the tarmac and so we were waiting for a long time, and everybody was fiddling with their stuff. And the doc had the 49ers game on, somehow. He had some kind of super wi-fi. I don’t know what was going on.
“But as it turned out, as that (Falcons-49ers) game suddenly jumps back into it being able to go either way, everybody got going. There was a total mash of bodies leaning in trying to see (Khalfayan’s screen).
“And everybody’s yelling, ‘Don’t even flinch!’ because he’s got this unique wi-fi that nobody else had. Don’t know how that worked.”
Khalfayan was in a truly unique spot. All the 53 players, dozens of coaches and staffers, about 100 Seahawks in all, demanded he stay still, to keep providing the only live feed of Falcons-Niners they had.
Then they all saw on Khalfayan’s screen Matt Ryan throw a pass Austin Hooper appeared to catch in the end zone. Officials ruled it a go-ahead touchdown for Atlanta. But after a few moments of review, NFL replay officials in New York overturned that call to an incomplete pass. San Francisco still led.
Back on that tarmac in Charlotte, all huddled over Khalfayan’s laptop computer, the Seahawks were beside themselves.
“Then, they scored and then they took it away, and then the place went nuts,” Carroll said. “It was pretty crazy.
“About then, the plane started revving up. It was about time to go.”
Time to go on the plane with no wi-fi.
As they boarded, on the next play in Santa Clara, Ryan threw a last-second pass to Julio Jones. Jones leaned to the goal line with the ball. Officials ruled him down short of the goal line as time was expiring.
Another replay review for the Falcons. Another agonizing wait over Khalfayan’s screen for the Seahawks at the Charlotte Airport, this time while on board the plane. You know, the one with no wi-fi.
“Then they had the fourth-down play and they ruled it he didn’t score,” Carroll said. “Then, they showed the stop-action shot of the ball, it looked like it had crossed the goal line.
“The plane starts moving and the wi-fi freezes, and all we had was that pic that stayed on his laptop.
“That was it. We didn’t know what happened.”
What happened was the NFL reviewers in New York overturned that call, too. They gave Jones and the Falcons the touchdown that beat the Niners.
That’s how the Seahawks got back on track for all they want in the playoffs. Seattle had clinched a spot in the NFC’s postseason moments earlier, when the Rams’ loss at Dallas went final.
“We actually got going (into the air), I think it actually was (assistant wide receivers coach) Brad Idzik’s app, he said, ‘Hey, they scored!’” Carroll said. “(Assistant quarterbacks coach) Steve Shimko grabs the phone and goes crazy.
“It was a blast. It was really fun. It had already been announced that the Rams were falling. It was a really cool moment for the team, and they had a lot of fun with it.
“It was the kind of ride home you like.”
Carroll has been saying since the spring this team felt different, more tightly bonded. Because of that, the 68-year-old coach doesn’t see the Seahawks’ 11-3 record, their franchise-record 7-1 mark on the road and 10 tight, one-score victories this season—the most in the NFL since the 1978 Houston Oilers—as accidents.
It’s a bond he thinks can take these Seahawks a long way.
They—and we—will see over the next month if it can take them all the way to the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl, in Miami at the start of February.
“In those kind of instances, these guys are just like all of us. They just want to have fun, enjoy, and kick butt,” Carroll said.
“It was a really good moment. A cherished moment. Everybody will always remember that.
“Thanks to DQ. He did a nice job there for us. We didn’t even know about the second touchdown after that.
“The wi-fi was froze. So we didn’t know.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 1:41 PM.
