THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, April 16, 2016
Thursday evening seemed like Christmas morning to most NFL fans eager to find out when and where their favorite team was going to be playing in the 2016 season.
After a quick glance at the schedule for the Seattle Seahawks, saying that I was like a kid knowing he was opening a new bike might have been an understatement.
Opening at home, as well as playing on national television five times — or at least scheduled that way for now — it’s enough to make you a little giddy.
FORGET THE games against teams within the division for now. Opening at home, especially against Miami on Sept. 11 is a great way to start the season in my opinion.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see a couple of those previous matchups between the teams in Seattle in recent years, both ending in very different circumstances.
In the first the Seahawks of 2001 were still seeking an identity, playing at Husky Stadium while CenturyLink Field was being built. Miami got the best of Seattle that day behind a quarterback named Jay Fiedler, whose bootleg run in the final moments sealed the game after former Washington State kicker Rian Lindell had missed a pair of late field goals.
On that day, Seattle fans, long before the 12th Man became a household religion in the Northwest, were booing Matt Hasselbeck and clamoring for Trent Dilfer to come into the game. That is until Hasselbeck threw a long pass and won fans back for the rest of the day.
When the teams met again in Seattle in 2004, Michael Boulware intercepted a pass in the final two minutes with the Seahawks beating the Dolphins 24-17 at CenturyLink.
The following year, Seattle advanced to its first Super Bowl in franchise history. Miami hasn’t been back to the Northwest since 2004, and some fans might be eagerly waiting for the Dolphins’ return.
SPEAKING OF returns, fans won’t have to wait long to see former USC coach Pete Carroll bring his Seahawks to the Los Angeles Coliseum, as the Seahawks take on the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 18, the second week of the season.
Carroll coached at USC from 2000 to 2009, winning two national championships and playing for another before bolting to coach the Seahawks in 2010.
Granted, he didn’t leave the program on the best terms, and the title in 2004 was stripped. If nothing else, the introductions could be interesting to see.
A few of those national televised games will feature the Seahawks at New England on Nov. 13, as well as hosting Carolina on Dec. 4, both games that will be a little more hyped than your ordinary game.
In case you forgot, New England denied Seattle a second straight Super Bowl title in 2015, and Carolina drubbed the Seahawks in the first half en route to a 31-0 halftime lead in the divisional round of this year’s playoffs before the Seahawks finally showed up in the second half of a 31-24 loss.
PERHAPS THE best part of the schedule is the lack of early morning games for the team. The Seahawks only play twice at 10 a.m. all year.
Often times in the past, the team hasn’t quite found a way to get going in the morning games, but that will only be an issue twice this year, at the New York Jets on Oct. 2 and at New Orleans on Oct. 30.
Hopefully, those sluggish starts will be something of the past as the team takes the field this fall.
If not, there shouldn’t be any excuses for not playing well in January, especially at home.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.