Doug Baldwin, Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril, other Seahawks Super Bowl winners in the house
Doug Baldwin and Cliff Avril, in Seahawks hoodies, talked with friends and fans on the field.
Coach Pete Carroll hugged Kam Chancellor, Richardo Lockette, Jeremy Lane, Rocky Seto and Tom Cable down there. John Ryan and Tony McDaniel were there, too. Lockette was with who appeared to be his parents — at least judging by the middle-aged man wearing a blue 83 Seahawks jerseys with PAPA LOCK on the back.
Michael Bennett and Lakewood’s Jermaine Kearse greeted friends and family with hugs and smiles on the suite level.
One level below, Golden Tate went nostalgic talking about the past.
Then Malcom Smith, Super Bowl 48 MVP, raised the 12 flag. Another sold-out crowd roared.
The Seahawks brought back almost all available members of their Super Bowl-winning team from the 2013 season for a 10th anniversary celebration this weekend. The players who won Seattle’s only NFL championship were inside Lumen Field Sunday for the Seahawks’ game against the Carolina Panthers.
Seattle wore white jerseys over blue pants for the first time for a home game at Lumen Field. That’s the uniform combination the team wore while steamrolling Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 48.
At halftime, the Seahawks held a ceremony with all those present from that Super Bowl team on the field.
K.J. Wright was the first to speak to the roaring crowd, from a podium flanked by the Super Bowl trophy from that season standing on a table to Wright’s right. Wright, the retired Pro Bowl linebacker, led the fans in a “SEA! HAWKS!” chant. Bennett grabbed the trophy and held it toward the gray Seattle sky. The crowd roared again.
The Seahawks hosted events Friday, Saturday and at the game Sunday commemorating the season they won it all, in Carroll’s third year transforming the franchise.
“I’m really proud to see these guys come back with the kind of energy that they have. They’re excited about being here and proud of that time,” Carroll said entering the weekend. “We’ll do the best we can to celebrate that.”
Oh, yes, the current Seahawks noticed.
“I hope so,” Carroll said. “We often talked about that we’ve got history. We do have standards that were established quite a while ago that we continue to update and try to make the most of. We’re not hesitant to bring back the past. We show them a lot of stuff over the time that they’re with us because we’re trying to build on it because it is a part of the heritage.
“I want it to be part of the richness of the program.”
The Seahawks, of course, haven’t been back to the Super Bowl since coming within 1 yard and an infamous Russell Wilson interception from winning a second one in a row at the end of the 2014 season. This weekend reinforced how difficult it is to win it all in the NFL, how no matter the talent, everything has to be just so to win a title.
“We’ve been reinforced with consistency and haven’t been reinforced with a championship,” Carroll said. “It reminds me how precious it is and how difficult it is to get things right and find the path to good health that’s necessary to capture the most of the season, and to capture the chemistry that it takes.
“These guys are beautiful souls that they bring to this thing.
“It isn’t all the same. As times change and guys change, it isn’t exactly the same. So much of this is about the people that are in the middle of it all. It’s not just about X’s and O’s or formats or ‘Competition Wednesdays’. It’s about the people.
“To get the right mix that draws the most out of the other guys, is really what we’re always shooting for and trying to recreate. It’s a coach’s challenge. It’s a challenge.”
Jamal Adams among inactives
Injuries dictated six starters were inactive for the game Sunday: tight end WIll Dissly (shoulder), nickel defensive back Coby Bryant (toe), left tackle Charles Cross (toe), cornerback Riq Woolen (chest), right guard Phil Haynes (calf) and Jamal Adams (coming back from his torn quadriceps tendon).
Adams practiced fully this past week. Carroll said his three-time Pro Bowl safety is as “close as he can get to going.”
“He’ll be in the middle of it next week for sure.”
Next week, the Seahawks play at New York, in specifically in the New Jersey Meadowlands against the Giants on Monday, Oct. 2. Adams starred for the Jets in that stadium, until they traded him to Seattle for two first-round draft choices just before the 2020 season.
Adams making his season debut in New York, playing for the first time in 12 1/2 months, would be very Adams.
This story was originally published September 24, 2023 at 12:41 PM.
