I have been around this planet for many years now. Football isn’t new to me. Baseball isn’t new, either. When I was a kid, I thought a guy named Mean Joe Green was the coolest dude on the planet, and Reggie Jackson was my other guy based on commercials I saw on TV as I collected KISS trading cards while I was playing with Kenner Star Wars action figures in the living room while my father sat in front of his TV watching Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football.

If you have no idea about what any of that stuff is in that last sentence, then you are probably biologically young enough to be my child. So please take this to heart when I say that I’ve been around the block a few times, I have seen a lot of games on television, and in person, and I cannot recall an evening like this one on Monday night, when I was glued to Mariners playoff game in late October, and then by about the 6th inning, I started watching the Seattle Seahawks, my most favorite team on the planet, kickoff a late Monday Night Football game that I felt was a very important one for them to win.

Thank God for modern technology, and split screen capabilities that allowed me to track both games. I have no idea what I would have done back in 1999, if this rare situation had presented itself. I suppose I would have had one game on the television while the other one was blaring on the radio, but even in this technological easy way to track both games, I felt myself wildly pulled by emotions and events.

First off, my apologies if you feel like I am not as big of a Seattle Mariner fan as I am a Seattle Seahawk one. It is true that the Seahawks are, and have always been team number one for me, and this blog reflects that, but I had deep investment in the Mariners this year.

I badly wanted them to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, and advance to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. I wanted it for this region, for the millions of deeply devoted Mariner fans, and I wanted it for myself to experience a World Series played in my hometown for the first time ever.

I also really, really wanted to see the Seahawks play dominant on Monday night at home against a tough Houston Texans team, and get a quality home win, which they haven’t been getting enough of in these past few years. For as much as I wanted the M’s to get past Toronto, I equally was invested in a young Seahawks team showing up big on prime time at home. This is how I chose to sports fan on my Monday night, and at times, it felt like I was on a mushroom bender with a few lines of cocaine added for good measure.

I would watch one side of the screen, seeing Sam Darnold easily guide Seattle’s offense down for a score against the top scoring defense in the league, turn attention to the baseball game for a moment, and then turn back to the football game only to see Cooper Kupp inexplicably throw a dumb interception in the red zone. I would be glued to the Seahawk defense kicking ass on CJ Stroud only to notice the Blue Jays belt in enough runs to take a 3-4 lead over the Mariners in the final innings of the game.

I couldn’t tell if I was loving this fan experience or if I was tortured by it. It felt like the few relationships I have had with women who carried with them borderline personality disorders. I was traumatized and mesmerized simultaneously.

Don’t ask me to explain sports fandom to anyone. For those who don’t sport, they are not likely to get it, and while I am a sports dork, I don’t always understand why I place so much importance on my teams, and the deeply imbedded need to see them to win.

If I were to get to the root of it for me, myself, personally, I would probably say it has a thing or two to do about region. I am deeply provisional in my love of the PNW. I spent my whole life up here being constantly reminded that it isn’t Texas, or California, Florida, or New York by everything I watched on TV. In the late eighties, I became a fan of Twin Peaks not because of David Lynch, but because it was set in rural Washington State, and its quirkiness vibe to the region felt correct.

My love of the PNW comes with deeply embedded calluses. It is the fact that we are so much more isolated away from the rest of the country, and there is this perpetual chip on the shoulder we will often carry around because of it. The Pacific Northwest is a gorgeous kick ass region in North America with all kinds of natural beauty, and industry, but the rest of the continent tends to forget about us here. This makes me dig into local teams more than maybe I would otherwise have an inclination to have.

I mean, if I had grown up in Southern California, I probably would’ve been a douchey surfer guy more consumed about my body waxes and girls in skimpy bikinis than what the Lakers or Rams were doing. I wasn’t going to evolve into that in Ferndale, Washington, as a teen.

So while I am not really that much of a baseball fan, I am a Seattle Mariner fan. Now that they are out of the race, I doubt I will watch any of the World Series games between Toronto and Los Angeles. I will just watch more football games because I am a football fan, not just because of the Seahawks, but because I truly do love the hyper violent, ridiculous, car crash nature of the sport.

I will say this about the 2025 Seattle Mariners, though. I am really proud of this team. They brought me back to baseball in a way that I haven’t felt since 2001. I think they had a kick ass year, and I think they are in a great window of at least a few more years to finally get a World Series. I will be heavily invested in them as they strive for that level of contention. I believe they will do it.

I am not here to second guess Dan Wilson’s decisions in game seven with his pitching rotation. When shit doesn’t work, it is very easy to criticize. I think if someone were to tell any Mariners fan that this team would advance as far as game seven of the ALCS back last Spring, they would have gladly signed up for that. I know I would have.

What I will say is that if anyone says “same old Mariners” in reaction to this painfully raw game seven loss, you have my permission to kick them as hard as possible in the baby maker region of their anatomy. Just square up nail them as hard as possible.

This team was far from the “same ol M’s.” Dan Wilson had this team rocking all season long, Cal Raleigh became a household name, and the Mariners front office made bold moves necessary before the trade deadline to potentially put them over the top. They were inspiring this year. They just fell a bit short.

As for the Seahawks against the Texans, they did what they had to do to get an important home win, and extend their record to 5-2, and that is all I cared about for this game. It wasn’t all together pretty, Sam Darnold didn’t have his finest game going against the top scoring defense in the league, but he did enough, and the Seahawk defense was kick ass, yet again, without three of their top players.

This game came down to a win that I thought was going to be probable for Seattle. There would be struggles on offense against a very strong Texan defense, and Seattle’s defense would take advantage of a Texan offensive line that is horrendously bad. For as up and down and Darnold and company were, dropping 27 points on a Texan defense that previously held Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay to 20 points is something I would gladly take.

For the Seahawks moving forward into this bye week, I would love to see them take a page out of the 2025 Mariners playbook. I would like to see GM John Schneider make a couple trades to help them win this highly competitive NFC West division this year.

I think they have their quarterback situation solved with Darnold, so go get him another piece on offense. Watching this game against the Texans, I say go get him another receiver to pair with Jaxon Smith Njigba. Maybe make a big trade for Saints star receiver Chris Olave, or see if they can get his mate Rashid Shaheed added to mix in with JSN, Cooper Kupp, and Tory Horton. Both have played for OC Klint Kubiak and would come in during the bye week knowing this scheme, and both would be exciting additions.

The other move I would make is for the defense. I would love to see Seattle add one defender of significance to make a promising defense potentially the top overall defense in the league this year. That could mean first round picks for Maxx Crosby, or it could mean a lockdown cornerback, or a top level safety, or linebacker. Just give me one guy who transforms this very good defense into a truly elite one.

As much as I want to second guess Kubiak’s play calling on offense against the Texans, I understood why he continued to dial up pass plays late in the second half that led to a couple fumbles and an interception. Seattle has a quarterback and receiver duo that you want to stay hot with, and you don’t want to shut that down, and turtle neck against a top defense. So give Darnold another target, and give JSN another mate as this season rolls along against a number of tough defenses remaining on this schedule. Ride the hot hands, I say, and add to them.

But also give me one more defensive piece, and I almost don’t care what it is. Last week, I thought they needed to go get a weak side linebacker, but over the past two games, Drake Thomas has been playing pretty damn strong. Maybe it is a corner with Devon Witherspoon being banged up. Maybe it’s another safety with Julian Love’s hamstring situation.

Maybe it is a big bold move for Crosby. Wouldn’t that be fun?

I think it would.

Go Hawks, and go M’s.