Does all the hype around the Seahawks this season scare you?

[scutterhawk]

Nope, these players and their Coaches are setting the goals, and know that they have everything it takes to reach them.
This isn't your Daddy's Seahawks, Oh, and by the way, if the Seahawks do end up facing the Donkos in NY?, they will win that one too.

 

[hawk79]

Not really. But I do remember the only other year where there was this much hype was 1985. ('04 had some expections too but I don't feel as much). The only difference back then compared to now is that there wasn't the social media there is today. No internet, ESPN was fairly new and no blogs, message boards, ect. Mainly just magazines and news papers and the pre-game shows. But the Hawks WERE heavy favorites by alot of the pundits that season. We just came off of a 12-4 season, Warner was coming back, we had all 8 pro-bowlers returning including Krieg and Largent and we had a big time defense. What happened? 8-8 season (the famous 2-2 season). Yes, this team is better but teams always reflect the era in which they reside. The '85 squad was a great squad in it's own right. So, there was no reason not to think they couldn't handle it and make the Super Bowl. My opinion on what may have had the biggest impact that year is that they brought the team limit down to 45 players that year from 49 and that may have hurt them a little bit.

But, the hype was there. I saw all the pre-season shows on KIRO with the late Wayne Cody and KING with current Seahawk interviewer, Tony Ventrella. The reason I think this team IS different is it is much more talnented and they have some cohesiveness in many starting positions and they are willing to mix it up. As soon as Warner came back, Knox was right back to "ground Chuck" where in 1984, they became a passing team (and very sucessful one at that). I think they should have stayed doing that in '85 and allowed Warner to ease back into it. But that ancient history now.

I just hope they can manage the expectations better than the '85 squad did......nothing is guarenteed this year in the NFC....

 

[formido]

For awhile it irritated me when people said all this attention scares them. What superstitious nonsense! There is no rational world in which more people thinking your team is good means they are less likely to be good.

There's a semi-rational reason to be nervous if you think your team will be visited by what Jim Harbaugh calls Freddy P. Soft, a guy who sits on players' shoulders and tells them they're good enough. Maybe if players hear the press they won't work as hard and end up suffering a let down. The problem with this is that: 1) Much of Carroll's philosophy and process design pretty much makes this moot. If any team doesn't need appeals to fictional shoulder devils to ward off complacency, it's Seattle. 2) Dynasties don't have the luxury of being underdogs and this team deserves to be a dynasty. They might as well start winning when they're expected to now.

Eventually, I realized this is how some people subconsciously protect themselves from being hurt. If people talk you into thinking Seattle's definitely going to win the Super Bowl this year, it's going to hurt a lot if they don't. That's fair. Vegas has us at 17/2[1]. Even the favorites, Denver, are 7/1. Now, Vegas has been underrating Seattle lately, and if we're as good as some of us think, a nascent dynasty, maybe our odds are closer to 30% or 40%. 50%? In retrospect were the Pats at the height of their glory 50/50 shots to win the Super Bowl? Regardless, if you expect Seattle to win the Super Bowl and compare that to fantasy 50/50 odds, there's a reasonable chance the season is ending with a punch to the gut.

Seattle deserves every ounce of attention it gets and we should soak it up. I think officiating is biased on average toward teams that are expected to win, so it's even mechanically helpful. But no one anywhere, not even the press voting us #1, is guaranteeing the Seattle wins a Super Bowl. Even if they pick us to win, they still think we are 85% likely not to.

[1] http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/odds/futures/index.cfm

 

[SonicHawk]

I love the fact that there is hype.

I also love that we have national haters.

WE MATTER. WE FN MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kearly]

I am only concerned that they haven't ranked #1 in every poll all off season. The American education system must truly be failing us.

And the cool part is, I can say something so outlandish and not even feel the slightest hint of homerism.

 

[Zebulon Dak]

scares the bejesus out of me. not that I don't have faith in these guys, I do. I always do. I'm just so used to having it when the rest of the world doesn't. so yeah, it's scary. #HAWKGANG

 

[AROS]

As long as Lucy doesn't pull the football away at the last second, then I'm good.

 

[Blitzer88]

Simple answer........yes!

 

[Happy]

Hype is just clouds passing over the landscape. Has no effect on the games themselves.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

No. What scares me is how much media coverage a trainwreck of a team called the Jets get. If they ever get decent like Washington it will be way beyond ridiculous. The only solution to this that I see is us winning 3 Superbowls in a row. Even I don't think that's realistic.

 

[Subzero717]

Yes.

 

[Riley12]

As long as Lucy doesn't pull the football away at the last second, then I'm good.

There's my answer

 

[Vesuve]

Does this concern you at all? I guess being a Seahawks fan for so long has left me 'snakebit' in a sense.

It does not "scare" me.

But I don't like the hype. I don't like "high expectations."

That is when fans and players might slip.

Might sound like a cliche, but it's 'one play and one game at a time'

And of course, staying healthy.

I've never liked high expectations. It easily bites people in the azz.

 

[falcongoggles]

If one coach knows how to manage expectations it would be Coach Carroll. You don't play for multiple national championships and bludgeon teams for years if you don't know how to manage hype and players' egos.

 

[uncle fester]

Anyone who grew up in the Chuck Knox era (as eloquently stated by hawk79) is inherently suspicious of success.

Anyone who watched Dave Krieg is forever instilled with a nagging sense that something's about to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Thanks for that, Dave.

 

[Happy]

So, ground chuck spawned a generation of neurotic fans.

I wonder if he is aware of this.

 

[SeaTown81]

It does concern me. But not for the reason most would assume.

I don't have a problem with this team having huge expectations placed on it. I've heard both Russ and ET give the same response to this question. That the team has even bigger expectations for itself, so none of this factors at all. Some might take that as a canned response. But when your team is led by a guy like #3, I take the guys for their word and then some.

No, the reason the hype and expectation concerns me is the impact it has on the rationality of how fans will deal with any bumps or down points of the season. Fans are irrational to begin with. But you raise their expectations to insane levels, watch out. And the biggest reason of all, the influx of dumb, clueless fans that are drawn to a bandwagon when you have a hot, trendy team. I have already told myself that I am staying off of this site and not listening to sports radio for a couple days following any losses this year. Not for the reason I used to say that, because I would be so upset. But instead to avoid getting more upset about the irrational overreaction from fans.

I'm super stoked for this season and have big hopes for this team. But that doesn't change the fact that only 1 team wins a SB a year, and that the odds that it will be your team in a specific year are very small. Especially in a league of parity and unpredictability like the NFL. You could write a book on all of the teams that had big expectations who failed to meet them. I'm hoping that's not the Hawks. But if it ends up the case that this is just year 2 of Russell Wilson's journey to his 1st SB win, and not THE YEAR of his 1st SB win, so be it. I'm won't be jumping out of the window like many in this town will due to the insanely high expectations. The Hawks SB window is not 1 season for me.

Sports are highly unpredictable. Having high expectations is great. It means your team is good and doing it right. I'd die to have high expectations for the Mariners. But along with high expectations, IMO, should come the ability to understand exactly the difference between an epic choke job and simply just not being as amazing as everyone decided to predict. If the Hawks go to the playoffs and have a similar result as last year, or say lose in the NFC championship game, I'm not going to be calling this year a failure. But given the huge hype and expectation many fans now have, many will. And that's to me the unfortunate downside to all of the hype.

Cue the "Don't tell me how to be a fan!" and "If you don't expect immediate SB's, you don't have high enough standards!" posts. I know some of you are thinking it at this very moment.