The previous time the Seahawks held a Super Bowl victory parade, Marshawn Lynch ignited the thousands when he stood on the engine hood of the jitney he was riding, grabbed a bottle of Fireball handed him by a fan, and took a swig that evoked Snoqualmie Falls. Always a man ’bout that action.
Wednesday at the newest Super Bowl celebration, Ernest Jones was a man about words. Two, specifically. Handed the microphone during a podium event at a packed Lumen Field, the linebacker, who had 11 tackles in Sunday’s 29-13 rout of the Patriots, offered a retort to any part of the world that wished to speak poorly of QB Sam Darnold, his teammates or the city of Seattle:
“Fuck you!” Approval shook the building.
Neither of the gestures are behaviors recommended for emulation by children. Then again, when Lynch in the 2010 playoffs finished his legendary Beast Quake run with a grab of his crotch, parents of young innocents the next day Monday were in sly imitation. Teachers, lawyers, cops, politicians, journalists — you know who you are, and where you did it.
So give the Seahawks credit for elevating saltiness in the cultural civic stew. Might be tasteless, but it’s a taste widely acquired this week.
It’s almost by design. It’s part of why they are NFL champions.
A story this week in The Athletic reported the Seahawks over the summer had re-hired Michael Gervais, a sport and performance psychologist first brought to Seattle by former coach Pete Carroll, seeking to develop the head coach’s passion for a team culture featuring positive coaching and mental performance. The story said general manager John Schneider had sought players who were equal parts “smart, tough, reliable (and) swaggy,” meaning confident, bold standouts with some style.
The methodology led to a phrase called “chasing edges,” which often requires edgy players.
“That edge is so rich in content and so rich in emotional experience that it takes a lot to get to that edge every day,” Gervais said. “That’s what we worked on.”
It worked well enough that Schneider, after 15 years in Seattle, is the first general manager in NFL history to win two Super Bowls with completely different rosters for the same franchise. Bringing in edgy players can also bring volatility — see Jamal Adams, DK Metcalf, even Russell Wilson (don’t forget his dorky, self-invented “Mr. Unlimited” ). Lynch himself infuriated Carroll when, ahead of a 2016 playoff game at sub-zero Minneapolis in an outdoor stadium, refused to go despite practicing all week through a minor injury. The Seahawks still won, 10-9.
Fast forward to this season, when second-year head coach Mike Macdonald deserves much credit for managing players such as defensive backs Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen, who occasionally threaten to spiral away, but are too valuable to be benched or publicly scolded. The edge can be elusive, particularly among defenders who by definition play reactively, as opposed to the initiators on offense.
Done right, by Carroll and Macdonald, the defense-led teams leave a mark. Here’s a great through-point between Seattle’s best teams, both led by defenses, the Legion of Boom and its new iteration, The Dark Side. On his X account, Computer Cowboy, analyst Ben Baldwin ranked the top five point-differential margins (regular season and post-season) by Super Bowl-winning teams since NFL conference alignment in 2002.
- 2025 Seahawks (+246)
- 2013 Seahawks (+235)
- 2016 Patriots (+234)
- 2024 Eagles (+228)
- 2002 Bucs (+219)
Many neutral fans found this Super Bowl boring because of minimal scoring and absence of lead changes. The Seahawks played the other way too this season; the past two games against the Los Angeles Rams were high-scoring spectacles of intense drama, among the best anywhere in the NFL season. But they seem to have established under two head coaches the ability to grab edges, grab throats and dominate with defense at the seasonal apex.
Whether the Seahawks can replicate the deed is a whole other saga. For now, if any of your non-Seahawks friends around the country complain about a boring game, you can share the salty advice of Mr. Jones. Don’t forget to grab your crotch.
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