A Cautionary Tale…

FidelisHawk

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All the talk of fans who feel it’s their right to act in a way that suits their own agenda, despite the aftermath of their actions, be they only perceived effects or as this tale will show become actual devastating consequences.

At the dawn of a new era of exciting and promising Seahawk football, that’s whipping the Twelve Man into a boisterous chest thumping lather, I’m reminded of another golden age in this franchise history. A time of equal promise and excitement, a time when once before fans used their First Amendment Rights to let their opinion be known rightly or wrongly.
A time before the Twelve Man had a name.
A time before some of us were even born.

The year is 1982, the Seahawks had survived their introduction into the NFL and had surpassed most everybody’s expectations in their short seven year existence. That year the NFL and the NFLPA had been locked in a heated collective bargaining battle throughout the entire offseason. They were at an impasse, the players were threatening to strike and for the first time in NFL history disrupt the regular season.

With the start of the season approaching and the cloud of labor unrest looming overhead, then GM John Thompson and coach Jack Patera traded popular WR and union representative Sam McCullum to Minnesota. The NFLPA promptly saw the trade as retaliation for his work with the players union and before the first game of the season against Cleveland handed out pamphlets expressing that opinion in no uncertain terms. A ploy, in part at least, to garner support for their cause from the fans.

Now Sam was a good receiver, not great, but a very nice complement to Steve Largent yet after the trade he only played for two more years, never matched the modest numbers he had at Seattle. These were the facts behind the debate for John and Jack to trade him, while he still had value. On the other hand the Seahawks didn’t have a WR that could or did match his production either, argued the other side. So whether his trade was truly retaliatory or not would never be known for sure, as both sides stood by their story, but it matters not. At the end of the second game of the ’82 season the players struck, the owners locked them out, and the infamous 57 days of no football happen. Magnified everyday on the sports news and every Sunday by the lack there of.

The Seahawk’s vociferous fans put that time to “good” use, inflamed by the NFLPA’s stand on McCullum or possibly from just the lack of football, they struck out at the only people they could reach, the owners, or in our case the Nordstrom’s clothing company. They used their First Amendment Right and picketed Nordstrom stores, they cut up their credit cards, they called for a ban of their products, they wrote letters to papers and they harassed their customers. Now whether it was the pressure of these protests or the two back to back seasons of sub .500 records that motivated his decision is hard to say, but on October 13th halfway through the strike, the Nordstroms announced the firing of John Thompson and Jack Patera and the elevation of Mike McCormack to GM/coach. On November 16th an agreement was reached and the players returned to play November 21st to finish a 9 game season.

Had that been the end of it perhaps everything would have returned to normal. Chuck Knox was hired as head coach, Mike McCormack remained GM/President of Player Operations and the Seahawks established winning seasons and post season playoff surprises.

But in ’82 the NFLPA had not pressed for free agency in favor of the “55% revenue sharing” and in ’87 they were determined to get it. Two weeks into that season the NFLPA went on strike, a week later the all ready prepared owners continued the season with replacement players and the Seahawk fans picketed Nordstroms once again.

The Nordstroms family were huge sports fans and supporters, but they were businessmen first and their business was selling high end clothing, which was now being threatened for the second time because of their association with the NFL. The family decided they could no longer have their business disrupted for things that happened on the football field. They went on a searched for a buyer of the hometown team and on August 30, 1988, John Nordstrom announced that the Seahawks had been sold to a used car salesman turned real estate mogul, the man whose name shall not be spoken.

At this point I could go on about the mismanagement, bad drafts, coaching hires, poor seasons, dwindling fan support, TV black outs, moving vans, and all the rest of the nine years of ineptness that became the “Dark Era”, but this is a cautionary tale about OUR actions and the unforeseen consequences they may cause.

Do I believe if we troll on opposing teams message boards and generally act like fools it will create a “butterfly effect” and Paul Allen will sell the Seahawks or somehow shutdown the internet? Of course not. Do I think if we get drunk and shout obscenities at an opposing team’s fan, be they man, woman, child or dog, someone will move our team to LA? No, that would be inane. Do I suppose if we vandalize someone’s car or attack them because they are wearing another team’s jersey we’ll spiral into an abyss of poor drafts and poorer seasons? No, that’s just silly. Do I profess if we act like asses in the name of our fandom somehow games will be blacked out? No and why should I?

But then, why should any of those fans, protesting in the front of those Nordstrom store doors way back in ’82 and ’87, believe their acts could explode into the maelstrom that would become the Dark Era? How could they foresee the chain of events that would lead to the lowest point in Seahawk history?

So as these accounts of fans pushing the limits of civility to the edge of chaos, in the guise of their rights to fandom and free speech, are being repeated at home games with Washington, San Francisco, New Orleans “Beast Quake” and others yet to be chronicled, I simply point out, how the actions of US the fans can and sometimes do have long term, undefined, and unforeseen devastating consequences.

Well that’s my cautionary tale, it’s how I remembered it. It’s a story of a passionate fan base, a perceived wrong, a constitutional right, and how they all collided to push Seattle football history to the brink of disaster.

Could the overwhelming desire to express our love and support for one team once again push us to the edge of some other unsuspected precipice? Does merely standing on the sidelines perpetuate a slide down a slippery slope to another unanticipated, yet eventual cataclysm?

Just how much are we willing to lose to prove our fandom?

I’ll leave each of you to decide for yourselves…
 

Sgt. Largent

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Cool manifesto bro.

I'm not sure what your point is, cause I counted like 90 of them in there.
 

SalishHawkFan

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ummm, give me liberty or give me death. The fans had a right to picket. The Nordstroms made a choice. They could have made other choices. Choices that wouldn't have led to fans picketing outside their stores while not selling the team to he who shall never be named.

Never give up your freedom of speach because you fear the consequences. NEVER.
 

kearly

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Great write-up. This read like a call to action, but I'm not really sure what you want us to do specifically. We won't be picketing Paul Allen any time soon. Even still, the message at it's core rang true for me.

SalishHawkFan":3avvvrfo said:
ummm, give me liberty or give me death. The fans had a right to picket. The Nordstroms made a choice. They could have made other choices. Choices that wouldn't have led to fans picketing outside their stores while not selling the team to he who shall never be named.

Never give up your freedom of speach because you fear the consequences. NEVER.

That's not really what he's saying. He's saying that we should be smart about how we use that freedom (consider consequences carefully before acting), not that we shouldn't use it.
 

kearly

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In a nutshell: Reactionary fans over-reacted and did more harm than good because they didn't consider the potential ramifications first. Things ended up working out, but our team nearly went to LA over it. It's a reminder to stay level headed at all times and always remember that what we think/say/do has meaning and can have a real effect on our team's future. I think this post was probably 15+ years too early as it has no relevance today, but I liked the insight he brought.
 

chawx

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As a great and talented young man, wise beyond his years, once said, "Never be afraid to excel."

That man, Russell Wilson.

So to answer a question you asked, "Could the overwhelming desire to express our love and support for one team once again push us to the edge of some other unsuspected precipice?"

The answer is "Yes." the "unsuspected precipice" ... Super Bowl baby, and LOTS of them!
 
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FidelisHawk

FidelisHawk

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Sgt. Largent":2zzk1f0p said:
Cool manifesto bro.

I'm not sure what your point is, cause I counted like 90 of them in there.

kearly":2zzk1f0p said:
In a nutshell: Reactionary fans over-reacted and did more harm than good because they didn't consider the potential ramifications first. Things ended up working out, but our team nearly went to LA over it. It's a reminder to stay level headed at all times and always remember that what we think/say/do has meaning and can have a real effect on our team's future. I think this post was probably 15+ years too early as it has no relevance today, but I liked the insight he brought.


Thanks for the kind words kearly and Sgt.

While the story is wordy and almost thirty years old the moral is as relevant today as it was then.
I was disturbed by the recent stories of fan violence and shameful behavior.

While some see apposing fans as the enemy, I see them as brothers in arms. We all love the same thing just from a different point of view and if we destroy ourselves from the inside out the very thing we all love could disappear before we realize how it happened.

If I have a “call to arms” of any sort it would be protect your fellow fan be he a Redskin, a Bronco, or even a hated 49er…


SalishHawkFan":2zzk1f0p said:
ummm, give me liberty or give me death. The fans had a right to picket. The Nordstroms made a choice. They could have made other choices. Choices that wouldn't have led to fans picketing outside their stores while not selling the team to he who shall never be named.

Never give up your freedom of speach because you fear the consequences. NEVER.


Believe me I’m full of words and hardly shy away from using them :lol:

But in this case having 1 vote out of 28 the Nordstroms had little to no control over what the NFL did, they really had but two choices;
1) Stay in the “good ole boys club” and except negative reactions against their company every time the NFL did something to raise the ire of the public in general or
2) Get out and continue to run their publicly owned business in a responsible manner (quite similar to how they ran their NFL franchise).

They chose the second, their only true mistake was not thoroughly vetting their applicants (if they even had more than one) and even that had the NFL’s hands all over it…
 

MontanaHawk05

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How do you expect people to protest against the Seahawks via Paul Allen? Boycott Windows?

Some people are getting incredibly bent out of shape over the recent poor behavior of a few Seahawks fans. This crap happens in every fan base. We are not the erudite, tea-sipping, white-glove fan base of the NFL. We are a bunch of human beings and living in Seattle does not make us immune to stupidity. We really don't need to be so shocked over it that we actually worry about Paul Allen getting picketed.
 

BlueTalon

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FidelisHawk":3ojjpgs8 said:
Could the overwhelming desire to express our love and support for one team once again push us to the edge of some other unsuspected precipice? Does merely standing on the sidelines perpetuate a slide down a slippery slope to another unanticipated, yet eventual cataclysm?
This is silly, but let's pretend for a moment there's some validity to this. What the hell are we supposed to do about it? Beat the crap out of anyone who is causing problems? Shut up?

People are idiots, and protesters have higher per-capita idiocy than most other groups. I have a hard time associating the unintended consequences of their protests with anything happening now.

Here's a question. If you could go back in time, and disperse the Nordtrom protests with tear gas (or a nasty case of the flu), would you do it?
 

Navyhawkfan187

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Let's play out this scenario a little further....

The year is 2022, Russell Wilson has won 4 Super Bowls in his HOF career but a black shadow hangs over the NFL. Where it started as a few misguided fans in San Francisco stabbing each other outside of games in 2012, the violence has escalated, now it is not uncommon for nearly full scale riots to break out any time a visiting fan is seen inside the home stadium of many NFL Franchises. Now public outcry has gone away from the safety of the game but instead is calling for Congress to act to ban the game all together because of the threats to public safety that the aftermath of the games have become.....

Now, I don't think that this is all together a likely scenario but you can see how it might turn into that if we let it. THAT I think was the point of the OP. Our decisions and actions now (ie the way we treat visitors to our stadium) can have far reaching consequences.
 

Shock2k

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Navyhawkfan187":1zghe2i9 said:
Let's play out this scenario a little further....

The year is 2022, Russell Wilson has won 4 Super Bowls in his HOF career but a black shadow hangs over the NFL. Where it started as a few misguided fans in San Francisco stabbing each other outside of games in 2012, the violence has escalated, now it is not uncommon for nearly full scale riots to break out any time a visiting fan is seen inside the home stadium of many NFL Franchises. Now public outcry has gone away from the safety of the game but instead is calling for Congress to act to ban the game all together because of the threats to public safety that the aftermath of the games have become.....

Now, I don't think that this is all together a likely scenario but you can see how it might turn into that if we let it. THAT I think was the point of the OP. Our decisions and actions now (ie the way we treat visitors to our stadium) can have far reaching consequences.

That's just silly, I thought we agreed earlier in the week that he would have 6 rings in 10 years. If you can hope for more SB visits then Brady in a Decade then what is their to look forward too!

Violence at games isn't as bad as everyone says. Look at some Soccer cities worldwide. Hulligans was coined for bad sports fans in England.
 

BocciHawk

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The situation at Clink is absolutely nothing compared to many other stadiums.

Do I think things could be better? Sure, things can always be better.

Do I think the Seahawks need to be leaders on this? No, I don't. Let's see the fans and owners of Oakland and Philadelphia do something about their problem, first, as it's far far worse there... I won't even consider going to Oakland again, after my last experience there, about 10 years ago...
 
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FidelisHawk

FidelisHawk

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MontanaHawk05":po76w63p said:
How do you expect people to protest against the Seahawks via Paul Allen? Boycott Windows?

Some people are getting incredibly bent out of shape over the recent poor behavior of a few Seahawks fans. This crap happens in every fan base. We are not the erudite, tea-sipping, white-glove fan base of the NFL. We are a bunch of human beings and living in Seattle does not make us immune to stupidity. We really don't need to be so shocked over it that we actually worry about Paul Allen getting picketed.
Montana, normally I appreciate your straight-forward, both feet on the ground approach to your posts, but this time I think you missed the mark. While everything in my tale was true, it had nothing to do with protesting or picketing, it was simply a metaphor about fans acting badly and the consequences it can have on the game we all revere.

If civility, respect, and common courtesy are dead in our sport at least force the vocal minority to drag it out kicking and screaming. I would hope we‘d all be erudite enough (I like your use better than mine, but what the heck, how often do you get to use erudite?) to realize the adolescent argument, “But Daddy, everyone else is doing it!” carries as much weight in this discussion as it would from a ten year old child in our living rooms.

How hard could it be to tell your friend he’s/she’s crossing over the line from rivalry to disrespect?

Or have we blurred the line so much we can no longer see it?

BocciHawk":po76w63p said:
The situation at Clink is absolutely nothing compared to many other stadiums.

Do I think things could be better? Sure, things can always be better.

Do I think the Seahawks need to be leaders on this? No, I don't. Let's see the fans and owners of Oakland and Philadelphia do something about their problem, first, as it's far far worse there... I won't even consider going to Oakland again, after my last experience there, about 10 years ago...

Fine, I’m all for that, let them lead the way, or New York or Chicago…
In the meantime it doesn’t hurt to mow the grass in our own back yard…

BlueTalon":po76w63p said:
FidelisHawk":po76w63p said:
Could the overwhelming desire to express our love and support for one team once again push us to the edge of some other unsuspected precipice? Does merely standing on the sidelines perpetuate a slide down a slippery slope to another unanticipated, yet eventual cataclysm?
This is silly, but let's pretend for a moment there's some validity to this. What the hell are we supposed to do about it? Beat the crap out of anyone who is causing problems? Shut up?

People are idiots, and protesters have higher per-capita idiocy than most other groups. I have a hard time associating the unintended consequences of their protests with anything happening now.

Here's a question. If you could go back in time, and disperse the Nordtrom protests with tear gas (or a nasty case of the flu), would you do it?

Whoo Hoo, a time machine! I love time machines…
If I went back in time I’d try to take some video evidence with me (rather than tear gas) to at least show the protesters that while their hearts may be in the right place, their ire misses the mark by about 3000 miles. Or perhaps watching Dan McGwire throw a football would do the trick….

My biggest problem though, would be should I transfer my evidence into a VCR format or just load it into the streaming video software on my IPad….

And see if any of those wunderkinds are smart enough to buy Apple stock while it’s under $20…

**note to self…. Leave a message on my answering machine…
**Crap, did I have an answering machine in ’83?
** never mind send a letter…
 

Tech Worlds

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At the green bay game I was sitting next to a packer fan. I had been drinking pretty heavily. Hard to believe, I know. He was cheering his ass off at the beginning of the game. It pissed me off that he was being all rah rah in our house. Me and him got pretty heated, almost came to blows.

This little gal that sits in the row in front of me spun around, looked at me, and yelled "Dominic! Knock it off!"

I looked at the Packer fan for a second. Then said I was sorry. We hugged it out and for the rest of the game we actually bullshitted and had a good time.

I learned a lesson that day.
 

bestfightstory

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Tech Worlds":12yooji9 said:
At the green bay game I was sitting next to a packer fan. I had been drinking pretty heavily. .

We hugged it out for the rest of the game and had a good time.

I learned a lesson that day.


How to get a date?
 

SalishHawkFan

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kearly":29a1xfhx said:
Great write-up. This read like a call to action, but I'm not really sure what you want us to do specifically. We won't be picketing Paul Allen any time soon. Even still, the message at it's core rang true for me.

SalishHawkFan":29a1xfhx said:
ummm, give me liberty or give me death. The fans had a right to picket. The Nordstroms made a choice. They could have made other choices. Choices that wouldn't have led to fans picketing outside their stores while not selling the team to he who shall never be named.

Never give up your freedom of speach because you fear the consequences. NEVER.

That's not really what he's saying. He's saying that we should be smart about how we use that freedom (consider consequences carefully before acting), not that we shouldn't use it.
And I'm saying that's the wrong lesson to learn from this. The Nordstroms could have just as easily sold the team to Paul Allen and we may have had decades of Super Bowl appearances and be a long running dynasty.

That it didn't work out that way is beyond the abilities of any of those protesters to foresee. NO ONE could foresee what might have happened that day.

Protesting, on that day, was the RIGHT thing to do.

I'm not going to play games with people who want us to live in fear of the consequences of excercising our freedom. Especially not when their prime example is a case where no one COULD HAVE possibly foreseen the chain of events that would have followed.

It's a BS "cautionary tale". I'm betting the OP is conservative, hates liberals and thinks "freedoms" are things soldiers fight for in Iraq and liberals are naive to hate the Patriot Act. I may be wrong, but I tend to find the only people that ever lump consequences and freedoms together are the same ones that always are quick to give up our freedoms for safety.
 
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