What a Way to Kick Off the 2014 NFL Season: Packers vs. Seahawks

American sports fans fear not!  After months of inactivity, endless baseball highlights, and pointless preseason games, football is finally set to return with the cool, fall weather that awaits us.  Up first is Thursday’s heavyweight NFC encounter between the Green Bay Packers and the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.  Filled with great players, powerful teams, and a nice bit of historical controversy this game should warm the palates of football fans everywhere and bring a delightful return to the competitive regular season.

But first to the game, and what a game it shapes up to be!  Both teams have playmakers all over the field.  For Seattle, it’s all about their hard-hitting defense led by cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Earl Thomas, both of whom pack a serious punch.  The Packers defense also features stars, but in the form of pass rushers Clay Matthews and the incoming free agent Julius Peppers.  With such impressive guys on the defensive sides of both teams, we can expect a physical fight in which moving the chains could become problematic.

However, both teams also feature great running backs.  Eddie Lacy of Green Bay played admirably last season, especially after Aaron Rodgers’ injury.  Meanwhile, Marshawn Lynch is as tough as they come.  Both backs are strong and push the pile, which will exhaust the defenses and create time for both quarterbacks.

At the quarterback position both teams will feel confident.  Russell Wilson is still young but proved himself in leading his team to a Super Bowl title.  He has great poise and makes plays with his feet as well as his arm.  Rodgers is a former MVP that can torch any defense on his day.  He also has the better receiving options.

But defensively the Seahawks certainly have the edge, and that’s why they won the Super Bowl last year.  In all logic, Seattle should come out and win this home game at CenturyLink Field with its legendary 12^th man (loud fans).  But after a trip down memory lane, I believe the Packers will have the edge in this game.

2 seasons ago the Packers played the Seahawks early in the season under the watchful eyes of the NFL’s replacement refs, hired after a referee lockout that dragged into the regular season.  In one of professional football’s most embarrassing moments, Seattle won the game on a ridiculous Hail Mary catch that was actually intercepted by a Packers’ player. In what is now known as the “Fail Mary” game, Green Bay was robbed of a win and the NFL’s referee dispute was ended overnight as they quickly agreed to terms with the usual (top caliber) officials.  No doubt the end of that game will still be burning for many of the players on the Packers team (and perhaps some lingering guilt still remains deep within Seahawks players).

This game is all about revenge for the Green Bay Packers, and they have the qualities to actually beat the Seattle Seahawks, even in front of their home fans and with their menacing defense.  Additionally, the new emphasis on penalizing over zealous defensive backs (like Sherman) should further aid Green Bay in their cause.  Yes, Seattle will be in a celebratory mood after a well-earned Super Bowl victory, but I think the Packers steal this game late in the 4^th quarter, 27-24.

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Can the Seattle Seahawks Build the Next NFL Dynasty Following Super Bowl Win?

After the Seattle Seahawks’ dominating and somewhat surprising Super Bowl performance over Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 43-8, the question on everyone’s mind is whether this team can construct the next NFL dynasty.  The last true dynasty to emerge in professional football was Tom Brady and his New England Patriots, who came to fruition a decade ago and are still very competitive to this day.  But Tom Brady never abused a team in a Super Bowl quite like what we just witnessed, and I suspect that 31 NFL teams are absolutely terrified about competing with the Seahawks in the near future.  Is Seattle going to be unbeatable?

They seem to have all the pieces of the puzzle: A great hard-hitting defense, a strong running game, and a quarterback capable of making plays when necessary.  Perhaps the most important hint that Seattle should find future success is their young age and promising careers up ahead, though as we will discuss, this could become their downfall as well.

The Seattle Seahawks have taken advantage of several great recent drafts and used free agency to fill the voids in order to make this team incredible.  While the early success of star players like Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Malcolm Smith, and Russell Wilson is an absolute joy to see, it will present a major problem in roughly 2 years.  Still on their rookie contracts, these key players make up just a miniscule fraction of the team’s salary cap.  But when it comes time for their first paydays, the team will be scrambling to manage their salary cap.

Because of these talented and cheap youngsters, Seattle has used their money on many highly prized free agents in the last few years, including Cliff Avril, Sidney Rice, Red Bryant, Chris Clemons, Percy Harvin, Marshawn Lynch, Brandon Mebane, and Zach Miller.  With each of these players making over $5million, there will be little room for re-signing their superstars unless drastic cuts are made.  Unfortunately, they may begin this year, as playmaking wide receivers like Golden Tate and Doug Baldwin are free agents.  Pass rusher Michael Bennett (who led the team in sacks) is a free agent, as are cornerbacks Walter Thurmond and Brandon Browner.  There is simply too much talent on this team for the general manager to afford.  And while that may seem to be a good problem to have, it could also destroy this roster.

After the celebration and merriment in Seattle concludes, they will have to make adjustments.  The team needs to focus on who their true stars are (Wilson, Sherman, Chancellor, Thomas, and Lynch in my opinion) and focus their big-money contracts on them.  The majority of the rest will either have to make serious financial compromises or take their talents and their paydays elsewhere!  While it will be hard for Seattle to replicate this type of success with new players, this has become the standard for the NFL in the salary cap era, and the Seahawks will have to put faith in their ability to keep drafting playmakers in the future.  Only if they can continue to find impact players through the draft will this team be able to survive its impending departures and truly establish a dynasty.  With the modern NFL having such an even playing field and with its salary cap complications, creating a dynasty is harder now than ever.  But after witnessing last night’s beat down, I think anything is possible with this Seahawks team!

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Are the Seattle Seahawks America’s Villains Heading to Super Bowl XLVIII?

To me, something strange happened last night as the Seattle Seahawks booked their ticket to Super Bowl XLVIII with an NFC Championship victory over the San Francisco 49ers; the Seahawks became the villains!  They will head to the big game in New York City with the vast majority of casual fans rooting against them.  Here are some things that swayed me in this thinking:

The NaVorro Bowman situation:  The All-Pro 49ers linebacker made an incredible play in the fourth quarter of the game, stripping Jermaine Kearse at the sideline and holding on to the ball, all while sustaining a potentially career-ending injury to his knee.  He fell on the play with the ball and should have been ruled down.  However, the officials made a grave mistake and didn’t rule him down, thus the injured player was swarmed by a scrum for the ball.  Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch ended up with it, but can we really applaud him for ripping the ball out of someone’s hands while they are in agony?  If anything, that’s just dirty play.  Adding insult to injury is that the obvious call was for some reason unreviewable (how is it that there is always a terribly controversial play that’s unreviewable?  Why don’t we just make everything reviewable?).  Further cementing disgust with this team from Seattle was that Bowman had popcorn thrown onto him while he was carted off the field...real classy, Seattle…

Speaking of classy, let’s talk about Richard Sherman, the self-proclaimed best cornerback in the NFL!  While there is no doubt that he made a tremendous play to win the game, his actions afterwards displayed the complete opposite of sportsmanship.  He hardly celebrated with his teammates before running over to pat 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree on the bum, then he went and gave a choke sign to Colin Kaepernick, and then he gave us a postgame interview for the ages, talking himself up and telling Crabtree to shut up.  Richard Sherman is an absolute clown and is now the most hated player in football!

But even before yesterday’s events, the Seahawks have been much maligned.  With 5 suspensions for performing enhancing drugs since 2010, they have been the most affected team.  They also have the most defensive back penalties this season, and have been exposed as cheaters, who hold onto receivers at an alarmingly high rate, knowing that many penalties go unnoticed.  Their head coach, Pete Carroll, arrived from USC where the school’s football program fell into disarray due to NCAA violations that he instituted (he ditched the school right before the mess became public).  The Seahawks have also benefitted from several high profile refereeing errors.  In addition to the Bowman incident, there was the heinous “Fail Mary” episode last year in which the Seahawks were erroneously granted a last second touchdown to beat the Green Bay Packers (I still growl whenever I hear talk about Russell Wilson and his incredible home record!).  And the way the team acted upon winning the game…it was like they had already won the Super Bowl.  Sorry boys, but the toughest test is up ahead…

If there is one hope for football fans, it’s that the “sheriff” is coming to town.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Peyton Manning is here to save the day.  If there’s any team that can put these annoying sea pigeons to bed it’s Manning and the Denver Broncos.  Go watch Manning’s postgame remarks after the AFC Championship game.  He speaks about how great his “team” is.  He is entirely thankful and humbled by the opportunity he has.  He doesn’t talk about how he’s the greatest quarterback to ever play the game (though he actually is), he doesn’t call out opponents and throw insults.  In fact he called Tom Brady, his defeated competitor, “great.”  He has been the league’s most beloved and respectable character throughout his great career.  And so America at large will clearly be supporting the Broncos in the Super Bowl.  Here’s to hoping that Manning abuses Sherman all day and throws for 400 yards and 6 scores, leading the Broncos to a thrashing over the Seahawks!  May Richard Sherman get burned on several obvious pass interference calls and go crying into the locker room without shaking anyone’s hand following the beating.

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