Oh boy, the memory of Krieg. Looked like a HOFer one game, and the very next week had me swearing at the TV. He was the definition of hot and cold. He had an incredible year when Warner got shelved game 1 of the season, only overshadowed by Dan Marino.
[SNIP]
However, I'll never forgive him for breaking my heart and taking Jim Zorn's job.
Zorn was my first childhood sports hero.
I got a guy here in Brazil with a special printer who could make coffee mugs to make me two Zorn mugs (I couldn't decide between two pics of Zorn). I still have the autographed picture Zorn sent me back in the '70s, in the same frame I bought for it back then. I had a numberless royal-blue Seahawks jersey when I was a kid, and when it was given to me, a kit for putting numbers on the jersey was also given to me. I never had any doubt that it would get the number 10, and I was pretty sure I was going to put "ZORN" across the top of the back. It never bothered me that Zorn was left-handed and I was right-handed. All that mattered was that I was the QB on offense in neighborhood football games, I was a Seahawks fan, and Zorn was the Seahawks' QB.
I have a Zorn throwback jersey, and I wore it when I finally got to a Seahawks home game in 2019 after more than 43 years of being a Seahawks fan.
I love Zorn.
But I never resented Krieg for taking over as the Seahawks' starting QB. It was clear to me that he was better, so I just rolled with it. But I never stopped liking Zorn, as what I wrote above shows.
One of the highlights of my sports-fan life happened when my dad took me down to Foxborough to see a Seahawks game in 1984 (he took me in '86 too). 1984 was the season
Hotchy mentioned. Curt Warner was featured in the game program, but he didn't play because he was already out for the season with his big knee injury (and I guess there hadn't been enough time to change the content of the game program).
So yes, I "got to" see Franco Harris playing badly for the Seahawks, and that was unpleasant. The Seahawks lost that game too.
The big highlight for me was after the game, when my dad and I waited near the team buses so I could ask players for autographs. Zorn was still with the team as Krieg's backup, and I got to tell him to his face that I had had his autographed picture hanging on the wall of my room in Kennebunk, Maine since the 1970s. I can't for the life of me remember exactly what he said, but it was something to the effect of "all right" or "right on" or something. What I
do remember is how sincerely enthusiastic his response seemed, and the expression on his face as he replied. I got to tell my first childhood sports hero to his face that he was important to me, and his response told me that it made him feel good to hear it. Honestly, I think that moment slightly beats XLVIII as the greatest moment for me in over 45 years of being a Seahawks fan.
ObKrieg: I have Krieg as the Seahawks' second-best QB ever (Wilson
waaaaay ahead of the pack in first place), and he was involved in a bad way in both the play featured in my avatar image here and the play 14 weeks earlier that set the stage for it. Krieg didn't "look off" Harden in the play in which that dirty cheater knocked out Largent, and 14 weeks later, Krieg threw the interception that led to Largent
getting his revenge [that's a link - click it!] in a totally clean and within-the-rules, yet still spectacular, way.
