Ditto, what you said, both class acts and it's true that at this level of the game that being good at what you do is simply not enough, you have to excel in what you do, above and beyond what all your other counter parts are able to bring to the table.
Darrell Bevell is a frigging genius, I've listened to him speak a couple of times over the years about what is involved in doing the job he was given to do for the Seahawks, it's not just X's and O's, there are all kinds of complex calculations that go into each and every play you send in and even on a good day the chances of success are not in your favor.
I don't think that as long as Darrell lives he will ever live down that play call that resulted in the loss of our Super Bowl Championship, and has been deemed the dumbest play call in the history of the NFL. In his defense I've seen numerous other OC's call that same play, in that same situation, many times since, and a lot of times they have succeeded with it. Just as many times they have not and it's ended the same as our game ended.
I guess I wasn't aware that Tom Cable was a native of the Northwest and the Seattle area. I missed that detail in his hire. I take tremendous pride in being a Native of the Pacific Northwest, and a decedent of some of the folks who settled the Northwest back in the days when we were still just a territory, a great many of my ancestors came across in wagons and on horseback following the Oregon trail, in pursuit of opportunities for a better life for themselves and their families, long before Washington, and Oregon were considered for statehood. I have visited the grave sites of many of my ancestors, who died in the Indian Wars, literally sacrificing their lives, in order to give their families and all the others that would follow, the possibilities of a better life than the ones they were leaving behind back east.
The fact that Tom Cable is a product of the Pacific Northwest, explains why he is the class act that he is. This part of the country, produces some pretty fine people as a whole. Tom, in my humble opinion, gave the Seattle Seahawks, the very best he had, as was the case with Darrell Bevell. In the end, it simply proved not to be enough, to take the team where we need to go.
Hopefully Tom Cable will find another position with another team out there that can make use of his immense experience and knowledge, if in fact, that is what he chooses to do at this stage of his life. I could easily visualize Tom taking over as a head coach, with another NFL team, and if he were to surround himself with capable people, he certainly possesses enough knowledge and understanding of the game to perhaps assemble a real force to be reconned with in either division.
At his age, however, if he already has bought a home in the Seattle area, and is contemplating retirement instead, I'd welcome him to come join all of us other 12th men in the stadium come game time. He'd certainly be welcomed and appreciated by most everyone there, with the exception of a few of his most ardent critics lol.
I'm not one of them. I really appreciated everything Tom did in his time with the team, and everything he tried to do to help them Seahawks succeed, for whatever the reasons were, he just couldn't seem to get the job done, a lot of folks recognized that, and I'm sure he did to. He's been around the pros for a good long time and knows the drill, I'm sure his dismissal came as no real surprise to him. Whether your a player or a coach, it makes no difference, being good isn't good enough, you got to be great and if your not, your looking for another job in short period of time.
I wish the very best to both Tom Cable and Darrell Bevell, and wish them both much success in their futures, no matter where they go, or what they choose to do with their lives and their talents going forward from here. Their contributions, like it or not, provided for some really exciting football and some special memories for all of. I still cringe and feel that horrible pain down deep in my heart, when I see the reply of that final play of the Super Bowl.
I won't pretend to say that I would have done any better, Marshawn was playing injured and not having a bunch of success against the Patriots that day, they had just prevented him from scoring moments before that fateful call, but it was my birthday, I was in Disney World with my wife, daughter and grand-kids and up and until that moment in time, it was the most perfect day of my life, and then "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!", in an instant, it felt like someone had punched me in the gut, I couldn't catch my breath, I wanted to cry and felt like I was going to pass out or puke or maybe both.
I'm an old Army Grunt (Infantryman), I don't faint, I don't puke and I don't cry (very often lol), but on that day in that brief moment in time, I was at my absolute lowest point in life that I could remember before or since. I was filled with a real sadness, not so much for myself, but for the entire Seahawks Team. They had all given everything they had to win that game and had it won if not for that play call and what followed. Call it Dumb, Call it Stupid, Call it Fate, whatever it was it gutted every single Seahawk on that field, in that stadium and around the world watching that game at that moment, and I don't think that even after all this time, that any of us have fully recovered from that day.
Perhaps the changes that are underway will help us all to put that behind us and to revive that old Seahawk 12th man magic that always seem to appear on the field when we needed it the most and that seemed to have abandoned us from that moment on. Like Doug Baldwin said recently, the difference between now and then was that "things just didn't bounce our way like they had in past years". Some called it Seahawk Luck, I called it Seahawk Magic. Whatever it was or is, we need to get it back, and maybe these changes will help to bring that about. Doug also said in that press conference that he wished he could say what he really thought the problem was but that he couldn't. I would love to ask him to share his thoughts on the matter with all of us "off the record".
Doug if your reading this post, PM me your thoughts, I'll shoulder them, and take all the credit and or all the crap, that might come my way from sharing whatever you might have to say. Of all the people associated with the Seahawks team, short of Paul Allen maybe, and only because there wouldn't be a Seattle Seahawks team were it not for Paul Allen, I respect Doug Baldwin, more than any person associated with the team. That doesn't go to say that I don't hold immense respect for many others, and give a great deal of weight to what they have to share as well, but Doug, more so than many others has always impressed me as being a straight shooter, and is thoughtful and articulate in what he has to share, not to mention almost always dead on accurate.
Go Seahawks!
The 12th man, is the true heart and soul of the Seahawks. As goes the 12th man, so go the Seahawks. Change is Inevitable. Seahawk 12th Man for Life.
