The Seahawks were one ill-timed interception from winning Super Bowl XLIX, which would have been their second straight championship. Two years later, Seattle remains stuck on one Lombardi Trophy.
With the notion that the Seahawks' championship window is already closing as a backdrop, ESPN's Seth Wickersham wrote last month about Richard Sherman's frustrations. Specifically: the kid-gloves treatment star quarterback Russell Wilson allegedly received from coach Pete Carroll. That dynamic was manageable when the Seahawks destroyed Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. The tipping point came a year later when, with 26 seconds left, the ball at the Patriots' 1-yard line and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, the Seahawks called a pass that ended up in the arms of Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler.
Wickersham wrote, in part:
According to interviews with numerous current and former Seahawks players, coaches and staffers, few have taken it harder than Richard Sherman. He has told teammates and friends that he believes the Seahawks should have won multiple Super Bowls by now. And with just one trophy and the window closing fast, he has placed responsibility for that failing on the two faces of the franchise: Wilson and Carroll.
In a recent interview with USAToday.com, Sherman took issue with anonymous sources.
"He asked a few questions to a few cowardly people," Sherman said. "And I'll be calling you cowards if you're afraid to put your name on it. If you have a comment, if you've got something to say, you've got something to ask or something and you're not willing to put your name on it, you're kind of a coward. But maybe they're not cowards and maybe these people never existed. Because who knows? You don't even have to exist. You don't have to prove anything in this world anymore.
"And that's what I mean when I say there are a lot of TMZ-like media going on because guys like this -- nobody is going to ever question him if they come to find out, hey, he could have fabricated this whole story and, I mean, outside of him saying there was an interaction at practice, none of the rest of it was true. But heck, what did he have to lose? I think it's really unfortunate that's it's come to that."
Meanwhile, Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, who also happens to work for the Seahawks' radio network, admitted recently that the Butler interception still haunts the franchise.
"They are still having a hangover from two years ago, if you can believe it or not, about losing that Super Bowl in the last minute with the interception on the one-yard line," Moon told Brian Webber and Kordell Stewart of "NFL No Huddle" on TuneIn. "And with a lot of guys, it just kind of rubbed them the wrong way and they just haven't gotten over it. This team will not be able to move on and really do what they want to do which is win another Super Bowl unless they can somehow put that behind them.
"There are certain guys on the team that just haven't been able to do that and until they are able to do that they are going to continue to keep having a very good football team but a team that is going to probably come up short of their goals because of not being able to let go of the past and letting those things become a hindrance to their success."
Whether it's Wickersham or Moon telling the story, the overarching point remains the same: The Seahawks should have more than one title and there are frustrations about why they don't. As always, winning fixes everything and no one remembers this story if Seattle is hoisting the Lombardi Trophy next February.
