Man, I feel bad for Tyler’s own Matt Flynn. Whether or not he’s capable of reaching greatness, we may never know.
If the Seahawks don’t undo what they did, their fans will constantly be asking, “What if the Seahawks never signed Terrell Owens. In fact, a few years from now, it could be a question asked by Dave Dameshek’s “N ‘if’ L”.
In fact, it’s way too predictable. It’s way more predictable than a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie.
T.O. comes in and says the right things at the beginning, buddies up with the quarterback (Flynn in this case), whispers sweet nothing into it his ear and gets his quarterback to throw a few passes his way to keep him happy, at least for a while.
It’s week 2, and TO is in a post- game press conference talking about how emotional it’s going to be to face his former team, the Dallas Cowboys. He blames his two dropped passes on Cowboys’ rookie cornerback Morris Claiborne saying the young corner held him.
He’s then asked about the star, and if we would’ve run to it and stand on it if he had’ve scored a touchdown. His answer? You guys are trying to make a story where there is none. The problem is, the media in this case is simply asking about his tweet during pregame.
Questions about Tony Romo are asked and he answers saying, “I went to battle for him. I shed tears on his behalf, and he kicked me to the side.”
The next question is about next week’s opponent, the Green Bay Packers and whether or not Flynn can beat his former team.
“That’s not a fair question and it’s not fair that he gets blamed for this loss or for next week if we do lose,” Owens says in tears. “You criticize him unfairly. That’s my teammate. That’s my quarterback.”
The media laughs thinking he’s making an obvious joke. They think that perhaps the disgruntled receiver might actually be able to make fun of himself, but no, he storms off into the locker room.
The Packers beat Seattle 27-10 as Owens played “hurt” and says put his “life on the line for the team.”
Because of his injuries and lack of productivity, Flynn finds new targets in Sidney Rice, Braylon Edwards and tight end Kellen Winslow as the Seahawks win a nail biter over the Rams in overtime.
Having not been asked to speak in the press conference after the game, Owens holds one of his own while working out in his driveway where he throws Flynn under the bus.
“We was on the road, and he and Kel (Winslow) and the receivers were drawing up plays for each other. He didn’t even look my way and I was wide open,” he says referring to a play in the fourth quarter late in the St. Louis game where Flynn connected with Winslow for a play that set up the tying field goal.
Week Five against Carolina saw Owens make four catches for 51 yards, and the talk goes away for a while. The Patriots, Niners and Lions all defeat Seattle.
Owens drops a pass over the middle then is seeing chewing out his quarterback and pulls the “I’ve been playing this game longer than you have,” card and starts calling for rookie quarterback Russell Wilson.
He goes down again in the Minnesota game late in the fourth quarter and says his quarterback intentionally threw a pass where he knew Owens would get hurt.
The Seahawks should have known better but for whoever knows why, they keep him on the squad, and the locker room continues to divide.
He misses the rest of the season until Week 17 where the Seahawks have a chance for the division with a win over St. Louis and 49ers loss.
Owens doesn’t make a single catch. In fact, Flynn doesn’t even look is way. Owens says if Flynn had of a thrown to
him, Seattle would be in the playoffs.
Truth is, Flynn was looking for Owens, but the receiver ran the wrong route and the pass was picked off.
Oh, and about a year later, TO releases a book telling his side of the story of what went wrong in Seattle and tries to coin the term, “Can’t win with Flynn” which was released right after his new children’s (I think) book.
Guess you can say the Seahawks and their fans were sleepless in Seattle, but man, they should’ve seen it coming. It was pretty predictable.
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In terms of regular saeson record, Seattle has been the best team in the NFC since they joined the NFC in 2001. 6 postseason appearances and 5 division titles since Mike Holmgren took over in 1999. If the team wasn’t in such a small market, they’d easily be one of the most respected franchises in the NFL.They reached their peak in 2005 where they dominated the NFL statically but got a little screwed over in the Super Bowl. Since then, they’ve still been very good, overcoming a decimating amount of injuries in 2006 to take the NFC Champion Bears in OT during the playoffs. In 2007 they won their fourth consecutive division title and had their fourth consecutive saeson with a playoff win (a streak only the Patriots have bested since 2002), despite having no run-game whatsoever. Since Favre retired, Matt Hasselbeck is arguably the best QB in the NFC, and despite his age, Walter Jones is still considered to be the best offensive tackle in the NFL according to experts. On defense, Kerney was #2 in the NFL in sacks last year and the trio of Julian Peterson, Lofa Tatupu, and LeRoy Hill compose arguably the best starting LB corps in the NFL. Seattle’s defense has the most sacks of any team but the Giants since 2005, and were #6 in scoring defense last year, contrasted to #22 in 2006 and #4 in 2005. Safeties Deon Grant and Brian Russell have transformed their pass defense from one of the worst in 2006 to one of the best in 2007 (#1 in passing TDs allowed in 2007), and Marcus Trufant is one of the top 5 corners in the NFL according to experts. Seattle rarely got much attention or praise before 2005, but since then they have been recognized as one of the best teams in the NFC. They might have lost some offensive firepower since their peak in 2005, but their star-studded defense has been transformed into one of the best in the NFL and they should be looking to send their future Hall of Fame head coach out with a Lombardi trophy this year.I do think they should have hung on to Alexander for one more year, but Seattle completely reformed its secondary after 2006 (got rid of starters Kelly Herndon, Ken Hamlin and Michael Boulware and brought in Deon Grant and Brian Russell) and it led to them being one of the best in the NFL last year. Seattle has had a lot of problems with their o-line since losing Steve Hutchinson and Robbie Tobeck in 2006, but former pro-bowler Mike Wahle and former Chiefs o-line coach Mike Solari should help transform this unit into one that is respectable again.Seattle should make the playoffs rather easily this year and be in the contention for another conference title and Super Bowl win if Holmgren’s last year is what he and Seattle fans are hoping it will be. If not, its still pretty hard to imagine them losing their divisional crown with their defense, and having won in 2006 despite losing Matt Hasselbeck for 8 weeks and Shaun Alexander for 6. No matter how you look at it, Seattle has been the most consistently good team in the NFC since the divisions were realigned in 2001, placing no worse than 2nd in the NFC West since joining the division, and posting only two losing saesons in the past 10 years.They’re a team that knows how to win, which is evidenced by the players they pickup in the draft (Tim Ruskell likes to go after high-character guys who have proven themselves by being multi-year starters in college as opposed to highly touted guys Lofa Tatupu is a perfect example, as are current rookies Lawrence Jackson and John Carlson) and via free agency (Julian Peterson, Patrick Kerney, Deon Grant, Brian Russell, Mike Wahle, and Julius Jones all wanted to come to Seattle for its reputation as a high-character team that is always contending in the playoffs, despite often being offered more money to play elsewhere).All in all, the Seahawks have consistently been one of the best teams in the NFC over the years, and that seems unlikely to change with Mike Holmgren in his final year. I expect them to win 11+ games this year and make another deep run in the playoffs, hopefully ending with a Super Bowl win. Once Holmgren retires, they will have to work a little harder and they’ll soon need to find the heirs to Walter Jones and eventually Matt Hasselbeck, but their defense should be one of the best for years to come with young stars Marcus Trufant, Kelly Jennings, Lofa Tatupu, LeRoy Hill, Darryl Tapp, Brandon Mebane and Lawrence Jackson all under the age of 30. Having their coach for 2009 already picked should help with the transition, but right now you can bet that they are focusing on this year and what its going to take for them to send their coach out with a Lombardi trophy.