Required Reading for Seahawks Fans!

Here's a couple books that I recommend to Seattle Seahawks fans!

1) Notes from a 12 Man: A Truly Biased History of the Seattle Seahawks by Mark Tye Turner

2) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Seattle Seahawks: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Seattle Seahawk History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) by Chris Cluff

3) Then Zorn Said to Largent: The Best Seattle Seahawks Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told the Best Sports Stories Ever T) with CD by Chris Cluff, Paul Moyer, and Dave Wyman

4) Super Seahawks [Paperback]

5) Let's Go, Seahawks! by Aimee Aryal

Grading the Draft

I have been very critical of NFL Commissioner Roger "Judge, Jury, & Executioner" Goodell. His policy of protecting the shield through disciplinary action without conviction borders on the line of downright absurd. This policy is only possible in the NFL, with the weakest players union in the four major sports. So when Roger Dodger wanted to change the format of the draft and move it to 3 days, I was more than skeptical. If it aint broke don't fix it right?

Having the 1st round in primetime was a brilliant move. The draft beat NBA playoff games on TNT, and were up 30% over last years 1st day coverage. Having the break between the 1st and 4th rounds, let teams reset and reevaluate their team needs and overall draft strategy. I watched the majority of the draft. Albeit some of it on DVR. I got up at 6am to watch on Saturday, not 4am like the diehards. But I thought it was great! 3 days is better than 2. Kudos to you Mr. Goodell. And I don't say that very often.

Draft moving to primetime: A


Teams that I think did well on draft day:

Seattle Seahawks: Had many needs when the draft started. Addressed just about all of them. Grade: A
Balitimore Ravens: Solid draft top to bottom. Grade: A
Detroit Lions: Got the best player in the draft in Suh. Grade: A
San Francisco 49ers: Love what they did in the first round. Mays might be a whiner, but a solid value in the 2nd. Grade: A
New England Patriots: Not so much for their picks this year, but how they set themselves up for next year. Grade: B+

Teams that I didn't do so well on draft day:

Minnesota Vikings: Puzzling moves all weekend long. WTF guys. Grade: D+
Jacksonville Jaguars: Reaches in all early round picks. Alualu is from Hawaii. But he could have been had much later in the first or even the early second. Grade: D
Buffalo Bills: RB was not a need. O-Line and QB were. So you take Spiller in the first. And passed several times on QB's again, and again, and again. Epic Fail. You guys just clinched 4th place in the AFC East. Congratulations. You suck. Grade: F-

My favorite moves of the draft:
Lions getting Suh at number 2.
Seattle getting Okung at number 6.
Cowboys trading up to steal Dez Bryant from Baltimore in the late 1st.
Panthers getting Clausen deep into round 2.
Patriots picking up picks in 1st and 2nd round of next year.
Raiders getting Jason Campbell for peanuts.
Seahawks getting Leon Washington for a 5th and 7th rounder. I thought he was worth a 2nd-to-3rd rounder.

My Homer Simpson "DOH!" Moves of the draft:
Tyson Alualu to the Jagz. Way too early.
Oakland Raiders had a good LB in Kirk Morrision. They could have traded back to get Rolando McClain 10 picks later. They do this every year.
Denver Broncos selecting Tim Tebow at the end of the 1st. They gave up way too much to move up. It's not that I don't like Tebow, it's that they passed on Clausen and gave up too much to get him.
Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings every time they got on the clock. WTF guys?

So the Seahawks had many needs entering the NFL Draft. Those included o-line (specifically a left-tackle), defensive end, wide-receiver, running back, safety, corner, and quarterback.

The hawks had the left tackle that could possibly play the next 10 years fall to them at number 6 with Russell Okung. There was a huge difference between the top 6 players, and what the Cleveland Browns had to pick with at 7 on Thursday. Thank you Washington and Kansas City. I hope we don't select anywhere near you jabroni's in the near future.

The Seahawks addressed the D-line with Robert Henderson (trade with Detroit), Chris Clemons (trade with Philly), Kevin Vickerson (trade with Tennessee), and EJ Wilson and Dexter Davis in the draft. Not big splashy names, but bodies that might be able to get the job done. When you don't sign a big time free agent you throw a whole bunch of guys against a wall and hope one or two of them stick. I think that's the strategy here. Or this will be the position (or maybe QB) that we will be selecting next year in the 1st round. Hopefully later rather than sooner.

Seattle got an absolute steal in the 2nd round with WR Golden Tate. They also picked up an intriguing prospect in Jameson Konz (H-back) out of Kent State. He's huge, coming in at 6-4, and weighs in at around 240 pounds. He ran a 4.4 40. He will get a shot at WR. Hawks also picked up pothead Anthony McCoy (TE) in the 6th round. He'll help out in Alex Gibbs 2 TE sets. He's a good blocker. Seattle also signed former 1st round WR's Mike Williams and Reggie Williams to free-agent contracts. The best move was letting Brandon Marshall leave Seattle without a contract after his visit in March. So glad they didn't sign him. Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't do. Injuries have decimated this group in the past. It looks like we have a lot of players to choose from at the WR position.

I hate Julius Jones. Never liked the guy. So I like the moves to sign LenDale White and Leon Washington. Washington more than LenDale. I'm not completely sold on Forsett as anything more than a 3rd down/change of pace back. I feel a lot better about the position today, than I did on last week Wednesday. Hope LenDale can stay away from the Tequila in Seatown. I like the bellcow running back to be about 230 pounds. I'm not fond of 200 pound running backs.

Seahawks got Earl Thomas (1st) and Kam Chancellor (5th) at the safety position. And Walter Thurmond (4th round) at cornerback. The Seahawks got burned bad in the defensive backfield last year. These guys will help. Marcus Trufant isn't getting any younger.

Which brings us to the last position of need, quarterback. I flat out didn't like the Charlie Whitehurst move when we made it in March. Moving back 20 spots in the second, giving up a 3rd next year, and handing a guy a 2 year, 10 million dollar contract, when he has no regular season snaps, is just downright crazy in my eyes. Especially considering what was available at that pick in this years second round. I like the Whithurst move even less today after the draft, then I did prior to the draft. I would have preferred Clausen or McCoy. But we'll see.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider did a great job for the Seahawks. They picked up a lot of players that can help out immediately. They got starters. I agree with just about everything they did with the exception of the Whitehurst move. Seahawks are on their way back. Just hope that Pete can coach these guys up and get them to execute his system. The NFC West could be and should be wide open this coming season. Seahawks should be better than last year. And as a Seahawk fan, I'm pleased. Seattle Seahawks Draft Weekend Grade: A

I'd like to finish this up by giving an A grade to my girlfriend Dawn. She was off on Friday and watched about 60% of the draft with me on Friday and Saturday. That's 55%-60% more than most guys girlfriends will do. She likes the guys with funny names and human interest stories. Michael Oher last year and Myron Rolle this year.

I really enjoyed the draft as a Seahawk fan, NFL fan, and as Dawn's boyfriend. I'm lucky and very optimistic about the future.

She Beat Me

It was all going as planned. My little experiment of picking the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness against Dawn (my girlfriend). My bracket was getting torched in the newspaper and in the standings. But it was okay, cause I was still beating her.

I sat there and watched as she quickly ran through her picks the day before the tournament. She took about 5 minutes to pick teams with pretty names, nice mascots, and lord knows what else. Her Final 4 were Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Marquette, and Duke. No sweat right? I got this.

After the first round we are tied at 20 points a piece. 2nd round, I pull a head by 2 points. But I lose my National Champion pick in Kansas. Uh oh. Third round I score 20. She manages 12 points. This is where the men seperate from the girls. But she has Duke as her National Champion. And they are steamrolling the competition. All Dawn is concerned about is how Duke is doing. I have them in my Final 4. But not in the title game.

My bracket starts to make a comeback. I start my climb into the top 10 of the J-Borhood March Madness Extravaganza. Dawn wallows in second to last place. Beating only the guy who didn't fill out his bracket. Perfect. But Duke keeps on winning.

I tell Dawn that Duke could have a tough time beating Baylor to get to the Final 4. She aint hearing it. Duke is winning it. End of story. I am told I am not allowed to cheer for any team but Duke. This does not sit well with me. But neither does losing to the person that watched 0 minutes of college basketball not named the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors this season. And that wasn't even on purpose.

Duke makes the Final 4. My picks for my bracket are toast. I notify Dave Reardon of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, who was keeping tabs on my bracket for a chance to be a Bracketologist Supreme, that I am not fit to be a lifeguard in his pool. I will go back to the kiddie area. I might look like an idiot in the paper but goshdarnit I can still beat my non college hoops watching girlfriend right?

Wrong. As the Final 4 begins in Indianapolis Dawn holds a 70-64 lead over me. Her bracket is climbing the charts like the new Justin Bieber single and lies just outside of the top 10. I am done scoring points. I share the incredible story of Butler and how their campus is just 4 miles from where they are playing the games. Cinderella has a chance to crash the party in it's own backyard and slay Goliath! Dawn is not interested. She starts walking around the house saying these phrases, "Duke" or "Duke Baby". Screw this, my daddy taught me to root for the underdog. Butler is the pick for me.

I'm done scoring points. My Final 4 of Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, and Duke has me down. I got some points for Duke being there, but no more as I had Kentucky vs. Kansas in the title game. I finally get some picks right in the newspaper. But it's way too little, way too late. I picked Duke and Butler, with Duke winning it all. But I'm so far down in the Star Bulletin Bracketologist Pool, that my picks are reduced to a 4 sentence blurb in smaller font at the bottom of the article. The other two guys get to share their complete analysis in heaping paragraphs. Dave says he did worse than me. I'm terrified to see his bracket. Oh well.

Duke beats Butler in the title game. I get home in time to watch the last shot clank off the rim for Butler. Duke wins. Dawn wins. I want to kill myself. Dawn ends up with 102 points and good for 2nd place in the hood extravawhatever. I end up in 13th place with (sigh) 64 points.

I try to rationalize how this has happened. I want to jump out of the window. My ego, just like my bracket, is broken. Making matters worse is that I have run out of Girl Scout Cookies. Even after being replenished by Dawn's mom a couple of days earlier. But I run out again. It is no coincidence that I have run out of Girl Scout Cookies and lost to Dawn in the bracket challenge in the same day. God is punishing me for some reason. But why?

Dawn notifies me that she is not sharing her Thin Mints, as she is rationing hers like a soldier in the trenches at Normandy in Worl War II. I know that she enjoys eating those delicious Thin Mints right infront of me. I am haunted by her still full boxes that greet me every time I open the freezer for no apparent reason 5-to-10 times a day. I talk about how we are a team and how we should share. She aint going for it. I have slowly lost my sanity. One NCAA bracket round and Thin Mint sleeveat a time. Is this rock bottom?

Dicky V is going crazy. I keep asking myself how does this happen? I know hoops right? I've been watching college b-ball since I discovered Big Monday when I was a sophomore back in 199...something in high school. She does not watch basketball. I'm insulted and feel dumb. There must be a rational explanation to all that is wrong in my world right now.

Dawn asks me to pull up the group standings of the Jborhood when she gets home. She looks at the final standings as she utters the phrase that has become all too familiar to me, "That's right, DUKE BABY!" I realize that the names of our entries are very apropo. My entry is called "Bracket Busta" and hers "The Madness". Which is the way I come to terms with her beating me. It's simply madness. I tell Dawn she is not allowed to play in my fantasy football league this fall. She asks "Why not?" My ego couldn't take it. But just as I secretly rooted for Butler in the Championship Game, don't tell her that.

I never found more Girl Scout Cookies. I had to settle for a cheap immitation that Oreo created. Creme Mint something or other. Dawn was nice enough to let me have 2 Thin Mints as I was eating these knockoffs of the dleiciousness know as Girl Scout Cookies. They need to put a label on the box or something. GSC-Thin Mints, more addictive than crack (cocaine).

But she beat me. And not only that, she has better cookies than me. Life, like my daddy told me, aint always fair. The madness is over. My depression, not so much. lol