Amid an unprecedented journey, Jim Zorn paused to reflect. Only he couldn’t. Mostly he just listened to the list of accomplishments and flashed a Gomer Pyle grin.
Three straight NFC West titles. Four straight winning seasons. Four straight playoff berths. The first NFC team since 1979 to win a playoff game the year after losing a Super Bowl.
If he were Gomer, it would be time now for Zorn to exclaim, “Shazam!”
With a playoff victory over the Bears on Sunday, this Seahawks group would become the first in team history to win multiple postseason games in back-to-back seasons.
Place it over there with the rest of firsts.
These are boon times for a franchise just coming to life at age 31. This is as close to nirvana as the Seahawks have ever been.
“Absolutely, I can appreciate it,” said Zorn, who’s such a Seahawk you figure he has limbs with talons.
He can’t explain it, however. Not now. Not while the stove is still hot.
“My problem with it is we’re not finished,” said Zorn, the Seahawks quarterbacks coach and the man who threw to Steve Largent in the team’s early years. “A lot of that discussion can go on afterward. You think about it years later. As a coach, you talk about it in story form, but you never paste it up on the wall. It’s not time to think, `Gosh, we’re really good.’
“Football is really lived weekly. Not only weekly, it’s lived daily.”
History lives in modesty and dies with bravado. Its makers seldom stop to admire it midway through the process. We must do it for them.
For the first time, this city has access to all of the NFL’s perks. It experienced the vigor of a Super Bowl run last season. It now understands the joy of being in the hunt year after year. It expects nothing less.
The 21st Century Seahawks play meaningful games, games that sports fans from here to Maine will remember. Their desire for a championship must be taken seriously. They matter. They matter more than they ever have.
How about this for evidence of a new day: The Bears, one of the NFL’s most celebrated franchises, enter this game hoping they have enough playoff experience to match these Seahawks.
The Bears have qualified for the playoffs 24 times in its history. Seattle? Nine.
And counting.
Four of those appearances have come in the last four years. Coach Mike Holmgren has led the Seahawks to the playoffs five times in eight seasons.
For certain, the Holmgren era has not been perfect. It took him longer than expected to get the Seahawks to the status of perennial playoff contender. But they are there now, even though this season was so inconsistent.
And with quarterback Matt Hasselbeck still in his prime, running back Shaun Alexander only a year removed from an MVP season and enough young talent surrounding them, this team should be competing at a high level for several more years.
The Seahawks can be better. If they want to win a title, they must be better. So, for the most part, they grimace and keep pushing.
They can’t look back too much because they still must move forward. They can’t dream of the end because each step is so difficult.
This, however, is a special run. It would be better if it ends with a Super Bowl crown. But even without one, a new standard has been established for a franchise still teething on success.
The Seahawks have a chance to be trend-setters Sunday.
Again.
They know the routine.
Grimace now. Grin later.
