The Unauthorized Story of of Matt Flynn in Seattle

JSeahawks

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Just being honest here, that article is way too long and Flynn is no longer a Seahawk, never really had any effect on the Seahawks, so I dont care nearly enough to read it.

Flynn came to Seattle and got beat out by a great QB. End of discussion, in my opinion.
 

drdiags

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Hawkblogger has an opinion and seems as though he had some off-channel communication access probably through Flynn's sister or maybe Flynn himself. He is strongly opinionated about how to make decisions regarding personnel, strategy etc. He has no problem voicing his opinion, though sometimes it comes across as if his opinion is fact. We have guys that do the same, so I chalk it up to writing style.

I have seen him play both sides of the Wilson starting issue, while his pal Softy could barely mask his Flynn preference, even after Wilson turned things around in the second half.

He is passionate about his writing and his beliefs. Doesn't hurt to have another point of view and a blogger who tries to use his metrics consistently.

As far as the article itself in relationship to Flynn, I don't agree with his statement that the Seahawks dealt with Flynn in a unfair/dishonest way.

The simple story that will be told is that a high-priced free agent was beaten out by an upstart rookie. There is certainly some truth to that simplicity. I see a hard luck player that partially misread the situation he was entering, and was partially misled about what he was being brought in to do. He was the guy the front office expected to win the starting job, but was never the guy they wanted to win it. He was a player that handled devastating professional news privately, and without incident.

Nice article though. He did his best to capture the tale but a lot of personal feelings got into the article since he obviously likes Flynn and feels he didn't get a fair shake.
 

DavidSeven

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Eh, I skimmed it, but there seems to quite a bit of pure speculation, hearsay and over-dramatization of the early season "QB controversy." For example, he says that Tate had "thrown in his lot with Wilson" because his girlfriend had become friends with Ashton. OK, really? Later he mentions the locker room being "unsettled." Says who?

And then there's five paragraphs on how one Terrell Owens drop somehow sabotaged a "near perfect game" from Matt Flynn and cost him everything.

The whole article feels like it has an agenda behind it.
 

Coug_Hawk08

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Hawk blogger was on Flynns jock last year. Huge wilson hater (until he started kicking ass). Really turned me off from his stuff the way he wrote pieces about Flynn then, this is really no different. Dislike.

Agree with Jseahawks overall. Hawkblogger could have just tweeted: Flynn was and is irrelevant #seahawks. Done.
 

Atradees

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What? Dennis Ericksen was cheated by God? me drastic too

Spell checker has misquoted me.
 

hawk45

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DavidSeven":j92rtuia said:
Eh, I skimmed it, but there seems to quite a bit of pure speculation, hearsay and over-dramatization of the early season "QB controversy." For example, he says that Tate had "thrown in his lot with Wilson" because his girlfriend had become friends with Ashton. OK, really? Later he mentions the locker room being "unsettled." Says who?

And then there's five paragraphs on how one Terrell Owens drop somehow sabotaged a "near perfect game" from Matt Flynn and cost him everything.

The whole article feels like it has an agenda behind it.

To be fair, that TO TD drop was pretty huge. Flynn had played well and been on the mark, but without that TD it was easier to see the guy as a game manager while seeing RW as someone who could threaten downfield.

Although I remember Pete saying at the time that he scored that as a TD for Flynn anyhow.

As to whether Pete and Schneid misled Flynn, that's bull doodoo. I'm sure they did tell Flynn they wanted him to be their guy, but on the other hand there is no way Carroll did not say (probably several times and in rapid-fire ADD style) that it's all about competition. I think Flynn understood that.

And hey, the idea that Pete and Schneid were always pulling for RW because he was "their guy"...yeah okay sure, he was "their guy" like Portis and Whitehurst were "their guys". And Pete had no issues consigning Whitehurst to the dumpster almost from the very start when he saw the cat could not play. Whether it was Wilson or Flynn, finding the guy to take them furthest was going to reflect well on them either way. I think Pete did what Pete has always done here, stared at what he saw in practice and went with the guy he thought had "it".

HB saying it was the wrong decision...well I can't agree with that. There were many who thought it was a gamble, heck, put me in that category, and I remember saying to myself gee whiz starting Flynn is a win-win situation. RW gets a year on the bench, and if Flynn doesn't light it up then everyone will be on board with starting RW next year.

Well after the way it turned out I pretty much kneel before Pete's omniscience, and HB should be doing the same, rather than saying it's still a bad decision even if it turns out right. If Pete made a good decision that turned out like a disaster he'd own that mess, so he gets the credit if he bets it all on red and hits.
 

Shadowhawk

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Wilson flashed his potential at the front office like a flirtatious woman flips her hair.

Really??? First Hugh Millen calls Wilson a "teacher's pet" for working so hard, and now this chump calls him a "flirt" for having a good first preseason game? I have never seen two people treat a player who is doing his job with such spite before.

The whole article falls apart around the third preseason game. All we hear about it is how the decision to start Wilson would affect Flynn, how the writer "knew the message this would send to Flynn," etc. You know what we don't hear about at all in this blog post? FLYNN'S ELBOW INJURY. As in, the reason why he didn't play in the third preseason game? It's not mentioned once. Even if Hawkblogger doesn't believe that Flynn was injured, why not mention it? He clearly had no evidence that Carroll faked or at least exaggerated the problem with Flynn's elbow or he would have said so. The only logical conclusion is that he knew the fact that Flynn was injured would damage the narrative he was trying to create that the front office never wanted Flynn to start in the first place, and so he left it out entirely.

Once again, Hawkblogger is trying to present the truth as he sees it about what happened to Matt Flynn last preseason, yet he ignores one of the most crucial facts concerning the decision to start Wilson against Kansas City, a fact that happens to cast doubt on what he was trying to prove. As far as I'm concerned that destroys his credibility.

"The Unauthorized Story Of Matt Flynn In Seattle" is nothing more than the pedantic ramblings of a self-important blogger who doesn't have the sack to man up and admit that he was wrong.
 

BigMeach

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I love how he leaves out the whole swollen elbow or injured elbow with Flynn, it definately played a role.
 

scutterhawk

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Wilson -->EARNED<-- the starting job in a FAIR COMPETITION.
Now I like the hell out of Flynn, but Wilsons' numbers for the Season are astounding, and in fact, he's arguably one of the best Quarterbacks in the League, giving credence to Petes decision to making him the starter last Year.
I'm happy for Flynn, and that he's back in the mix to be a starter for another team, and I do wish him success in Oakland.
It's time for HB to be honest about his problem with accepting the TRUTH about the whole Wilson/Flynn matter.
I was one of those that thought that Wilson would have benefited from studying from the sidelines, but I was guilty of selling him short(no pun intended) and it's further proof that Pete and his Coaching staff are in the position to see things with a whole lot more clarity and insight, than any of us dreamer fans are.
LET'S ROCK!, GO SEAHAWKS!
 

Trenchbroom

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SalishHawkFan":3ositpue said:
Excellent article. Thanks for posting that up.


Yeah I thought it a pretty excellent read too. Even if the source is not 100% trustworthy the pieces do fit extremely well.
 

two dog

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He is entitled to his opinion. Like it or not, it's as good as anyone else's.
It's just an opinion, One I don't happen to share and from the sound of
most posts, neither does the majority.

Shoot, the guy is just doing what any of you would demand. The right to
make his view heard. If he sounds biased (and he does), all editorial
views are usually slanted to try to persuade the reader.

His problem is that most of his readers, at least the Seahawk fans, know
as much about the quarterback selection process as he does. This despite
his claim to insider knowledge. I mean, for cryin' out loud, we watch the
games too.

What also works against him is that this management's style is to be pretty
candid. Pete and Jon don't indulge too much in fooling the fan base.
 

Lady Talon

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can't believe I read Flynn's life story and his elbow injury isn't even mentioned. If I remember right, the league even looked into the situation because they require coaches to list injuries weekly, and Flynn's injury was not.

as others have said, biased, irrelevant, and full of underlying bitterness towards Wilson. When Wilson wins a Superbowl, I suspect the author will have wrote himself out of Seahawk relevance.
 

MontanaHawk05

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Hawkblogger was enough of a Flynn apologist last year that he predicted on July 31st that Flynn would win, then said "Know better" to anyone else who was tempted to think otherwise. It was a safe prediction and followed the expected narrative, but he was remarkably John Morgan-like in his self-assuredness, and in the waffling and equivocations that ensued when the expected narrative bit him in the butt.

Two things that turn me off to a sportswriter, especially an amateur: smarminess and the inability to admit you're wrong.
 

kearly

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I don't read Hawkblogger anymore, though I generally support him. I always thought he was a little nuts on the whole Flynn/Wilson topic though. From the very start. He acted (and still acts) like Flynn's status as having the starter reps was some kind of deal breaker. If that was the case, why even hold a QB competition in the first place? Why not just name Flynn the starter in March? The very fact that Carroll was holding an earnest QB competition at all should have tipped Hawkblogger off to the idea that starter reps are not as big a deal as he made them out to be.

Even if it was a big deal, which it wasn't (obviously), it's kind of a moot point anyway since Wilson had essentially as many practice reps with the starters anyway. That he played 3 games with backups isn't the big deal he made it out to be.

We are all wrong about things from time to time. I wouldn't compare Hawkblogger to John Morgan in anyway except one: both proved to be sore losers. Hawkblogger seems like a completely decent person and a solid writer with a lot of in-person charisma. He handled the Flynn/Wilson situation basically as bad as he could have, and didn't take the chance for a gracefully exit from the issue.
 

AgentDib

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Omitting Flynn's injury makes this piece worthless. There is plenty of room for different opinions, but when you fail to include a critical part of the story because it does not fit with your opinion that should trigger alarm bells for readers.
 

SeaTown81

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What a waste of everyone's time. Might as well have Matt Flynn's grandmother write such a piece.

Does anyone remember when "Hawkblogger" lost his mind on twitter when he found out prior to the public, that Russell Wilson was going to start the 3rd preseason game in Kansas City? I don't remember exactly what it was that he said. But his vague freak out caused a ridiculously long thread where people speculated that Doug Baldwin had been traded. Speculation that made it back to Baldwin, himself. All because an arrogant internet blogger who hitched his wagon so hard to Flynn, couldn't believe the other guy was allowed to start a preseason game.

And yes, I called him arrogant. Because he is. Total know-it-all. A blogger who's contacts and friends allowed him to get way more attention than he deserves. If he wasn't pals with Softy, not nearly as many people would know who he was. I met him in Toronto at our meet up before the Bills game. Even though I was never a fan of his writing and stopped paying attention to him online, I figured he might be a cool dude. Sat and talked Hawks with him and 2 other Hawks fans. The guy acted as if it was our honor to be able to discuss the team with him. Whenever someone would say something he disagreed with, he was very dismissive. And just like his writing, when he spoke, it was definitive. I could tell right away. Like I said, I hadn't read the guy in ages. Figured like anyone, he had to by that point in the season be a Wilson fan. When introducing myself, I jokingly said, "Glad you finally came around on Wilson." Figured it would get a chuckle. That like most people, he'd find his preseason stance humorous in retrospect. NOPE. Dude didn't even pretend to laugh. Just sat there annoyed.

Speaking of annoyed. I'm annoyed I just wrote all of that about someone who's articles I won't bother reading. Sorry. But that dude is a joke. There's such better "Hawkbloggers" out there, as well as on this very site. Really can't stand cronyism.
 

AVL

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I was surprised he went down memory lane with that subject. I think he must have gotten a sea cock stuck in his ear last week, or maybe his son hacked his blog.
 
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