Can our team overcome the massive amounts of travel?

Reading fans' reasoning for why the Seahawks will lose, everyone sights the travel time. Multiple, multiple Atlanta fans are banking on it.

After reflecting on it for a moment, I'm agreeing that it will have an effect. We just hauled our team all the way to the East Coast and the NFL hits us with the AM game for compensation. Logistically loading everyone up, transit time to airports, plus the flights probably adds up to over 24 hours. I know great teams win regardless, but I'm thinking this has to be worth at least a handful of points, if not more, against our chances to win.

I think pete is going to get rid of that idea of us not being able to play on the road well. I think its a weak excuse. I recall his USC teams doing just fine in big games on the road multiple times.

blue 22":2dc8xvyq said:

I think pete is going to get rid of that idea of us not being able to play on the road well. I think its a weak excuse. I recall his USC teams doing just fine in big games on the road multiple times.

Click to expand...

24 hours of travel in a week then going balls out at 10 am will have an effect. I'm hoping this is countered by the Falcons coming out flat-footed based on their week off.

He is doing more than just talking about it.

He is taking the team a day early, they went to DC on friday. they he has schedules set up for the team to acclimate to the time difference and working with the players on concentrating on the job at hand.

Worked pretty well so far.

:les:

If I were in charge, I would just take them straight to Atlanta and practice there...if possible that is.

I think our road woes have more to do with our players partying until the wee hours of the morning the night before, than it does with an actual inability to play football on the road. Hopefully they learned their lesson in Miami.

falcongoggles":3hyheo6d said:

blue 22":3hyheo6d said:

I think pete is going to get rid of that idea of us not being able to play on the road well. I think its a weak excuse. I recall his USC teams doing just fine in big games on the road multiple times.

Click to expand...

24 hours of travel in a week then going balls out at 10 am will have an effect. I'm hoping this is countered by the Falcons coming out flat-footed based on their week off.

Click to expand...

yeah thats a good point... I dunno I think we will be fine this week. Not so sure about the next week... if we win out we would be the ultimate road warriors.

I posted a story about our upset win in Miami in '83. The Hawks didn't land until 3 a.m. the day of the game, and WON.

There are no excuses if you lose. Just that you got outplayed or out coached.

Meh. In his presser Pete mentions that they travel in fine style and it's a nice chance to relax, so he says they don't mind at all. Could just be coach-speak but it seems intuitively correct to me.

Ironically enough, reminds me of a time early in 2005 when we hosted Atlanta and got up big on them early...the halftime desk kept bringing up how hard it was for Atlanta to be traveling across the country like this, and a bewildered Howie Long finally broke in and said, "You guys are talking about this like they're flying themselves" as he made a flapping motion. He added, "Flying in an actual team charter isn't that bad." This team under Pete Carroll has performed fine in plenty of early games, including the last one we played. Sometimes, like the recent game against the Rams, we start sluggish. We as fans have kind of let ourselves fall victim to selection bias with regard to sluggish starts in 10 a.m. games being more meaningful. I don't think it's as big of a deal as it's made out to be.

I've often wondered about how luxurious team travel is. I would think comfort would be paramount if not mandatory. Certainly there is a good share of large men aching in pain on any given flight. With that, I had pictured a 757 (or so) with those great, international first class seats that recline into a bed. Especially the Hawks plane considering the wealth (and generosity) of our beloved owner. I googled seahawk team plane....and there must be a mistake. All images suggested the plane is just a regular plane. Inclusive of coach seats and a MALE flight attendant (looked like Joey Galloway). I find this hard to believe. I understand Mr Allen is a businessman and even with his wealth, he don't just throw money around but...Unsure if this link will work, but this is what I found....and I found it disturbing considering the time and miles that must be traveled by the team.. http://blog.seahawks.com/tag/travel/

Heres my crazy worry though...... FACT: Atlanta does have a lot of strip clubs with attractive females.... I would definitely be enticed if I was a player... lol

HawkWow":3jitjj5q said:

I've often wondered about how luxurious team travel is. I would think comfort would be paramount if not mandatory. Certainly there is a good share of large men aching in pain on any given flight. With that, I had pictured a 757 (or so) with those great, international first class seats that recline into a bed. Especially the Hawks plane considering the weath (and generosity) of our beloved owner. I googled seahawk team plane....and there must be a mistake. All images suggested the plane is just a regular plane. Inclusive of coach seats and a MALE flight attendant (looked like Joey Galloway). I find this hard to believe. I understand Mr Allen is a businessman and even with his weath, he don't just throw money around but...Unsure if this link will work, but this is what I found....and I found it disturbing considering the time and miles that must be traveled by the team.. http://blog.seahawks.com/tag/travel/

Click to expand...

yeah, watch the real rob report. It looks like they just use regular plane to me.

I don't know how much of a "big deal" it is, but it certainly is a deal. Body clock is real, but it's also slippery. You can't really ever point to a specific play and say, "Well, Tate's body clock was out of whack and that's why he didn't come down with two feet in bounds." It's hard even to point to a single game and say that game was lost due to body clock. But the numbers don't lie, and ALL the PST teams fare more poorly in 10 a.m. starts when you look at larger bites of data. It's not new and it's not only the Seahawks who've been complaining about it.

It's a small, but certain systematic disadvantage that's faced by a small number of teams. That the league thought it was more important to keep the EST squads from having to make two trips out west is telling. Also, like another poster said in a different thread, insulting.

blue 22":2b5426dr said:

HawkWow":2b5426dr said:

I've often wondered about how luxurious team travel is. I would think comfort would be paramount if not mandatory. Certainly there is a good share of large men aching in pain on any given flight. With that, I had pictured a 757 (or so) with those great, international first class seats that recline into a bed. Especially the Hawks plane considering the weath (and generosity) of our beloved owner. I googled seahawk team plane....and there must be a mistake. All images suggested the plane is just a regular plane. Inclusive of coach seats and a MALE flight attendant (looked like Joey Galloway). I find this hard to believe. I understand Mr Allen is a businessman and even with his weath, he don't just throw money around but...Unsure if this link will work, but this is what I found....and I found it disturbing considering the time and miles that must be traveled by the team.. http://blog.seahawks.com/tag/travel/

Click to expand...

yeah, watch the real rob report. It looks like they just use regular plane to me.

Click to expand...

That's frikin crazy. We should give Michael Jordan a roster spot so he buys the team a plane.

blue 22":3f0hc2ep said:

Heres my crazy worry though...... FACT: Atlanta does have a lot of strip clubs with attractive females.... I would definitely be enticed if I was a player... lol

Click to expand...

Just ask former choir boy Eugene Robinson... :shock:

HawkWow":1zso6sjl said:

I've often wondered about how luxurious team travel is. I would think comfort would be paramount if not mandatory. Certainly there is a good share of large men aching in pain on any given flight. With that, I had pictured a 757 (or so) with those great, international first class seats that recline into a bed. Especially the Hawks plane considering the wealth (and generosity) of our beloved owner. I googled seahawk team plane....and there must be a mistake. All images suggested the plane is just a regular plane. Inclusive of coach seats and a MALE flight attendant (looked like Joey Galloway). I find this hard to believe. I understand Mr Allen is a businessman and even with his wealth, he don't just throw money around but...Unsure if this link will work, but this is what I found....and I found it disturbing considering the time and miles that must be traveled by the team.. http://blog.seahawks.com/tag/travel/

Click to expand...

They used to use Paul Allen's customized 757, but I believe he sold it 4-5 years ago. They chartered through Hawaiian Airlines for a few years and now use Delta - so they are flying regular commercial airliners. The difference is, they drive right up to the plane on the tarmac and don't have to deal with checking in, security lines, waiting for baggage, etc. They get off the plane and take buses right to the nice team hotels they stay in. All in all, it's much better than what the normal traveler experiences.

FYI, I was flying back from Martha's Vineyard and followed the old Seahawks 757 into T.F. Green Airport in Providence, R.I. -- they were flying in for a game against the Patriots during the 2004 season. It was pretty cool... I taxied right past the plane, parked and secured my plane at the general aviation ramp, and kind of mosied on over to get close to the team loading up on buses.

VivaEfrenHerrera":1d0mwrru said:

blue 22":1d0mwrru said:

Heres my crazy worry though...... FACT: Atlanta does have a lot of strip clubs with attractive females.... I would definitely be enticed if I was a player... lol

Click to expand...

Just ask former choir boy Eugene Robinson... :shock:

Click to expand...

I think they call the area buckethead or something along those lines. The best one was called the Gold club. We were in there one nite (years ago) and Dennis Rodman and several other high profile playas were in there. It was clearly mob owned and most of the girls were Playboy /Penthouse models. It got closed for being...uh, Mob owned. Cheatah was another good one if anyone is headed that way.

blue 22":2y6kf0sq said:

Heres my crazy worry though...... FACT: Atlanta does have a lot of strip clubs with attractive females.... I would definitely be enticed if I was a player... lol

Click to expand...

Truth. I spent a weekend in Atlanta awhile back with a buddy, it was pretty solid!

FlyingGreg":3awg8oym said:

blue 22":3awg8oym said:

Heres my crazy worry though...... FACT: Atlanta does have a lot of strip clubs with attractive females.... I would definitely be enticed if I was a player... lol

Click to expand...

Truth. I spent a weekend in Atlanta awhile back with a buddy, it was pretty solid!

Click to expand...

You just got to remind the team that with a ring, you don't need a strip club to find a pretty girl during the off season.

10am games, regardless of where they are played, are more of an issue than any amount of travel. Not everyone is an early riser. Seriously, why do some people find long flights within the continental U.S. to be stressful? Give me a break, you sit in your chair at home for 7 hours on a Sunday watching football, you can get up and walk to the bathroom and back as often as you want on a flight to stretch your legs.

Say it with me, everyone; jet lag or "long flights" within the continental United States being an issue is psychosomatic. The players fly on Friday, and have two nights of sleep before their east coast games. Whatever issues this team has on the road or on the east coast, spending an extra few hours in a first-class seat on an airplane isn't one of them.