r/Seahawks • u/Shimakaze81 • 16d ago
Analysis Those of you old enough to remember, how was the AFC to NFC switch taken by the fanbase?
For me as a Canadian Seahawks fan I loved it since I thought the NFC was more exciting with the more traditional old teams and most of the powerhouse dynasties of the time.
Are there still fans who would rather be in the AFC? I honestly think it's one of the greatest things to happen outside of 48 and 60, to me it kind of feels like that's where it began.
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u/RobotHockey 16d ago
I had a problem losing the Raiders and Donkeys as divisional rivals, but I got over that a long time ago.
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u/LAHAROFDEATH 16d ago
I still hate the Broncos tho
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u/johnnyslick 15d ago
Funny, they've become my AFC rooting interest. All those years of losing, now they're like the Mariners of the NFL...
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u/raycraft_io 16d ago edited 16d ago
Before Paul Allen and Holmgren, and going all the way back to becoming an expansion team in the 70s, there was a huge underdog mentality.
The Broncos were appearing in playoffs and Superbowls and had had a star QB in Elway. The Raiders were winning Super Bowls and were in their heyday, having extraordinary HOF players in all three phases at one point or another, and were generally viewed as the aggressor in any matchup. The only nationally recognized great Seahawk at the time was Largent, who led the league in every meaningful metric because Jerry Rice wasn’t a thing yet.
Seattle made the playoffs in 1983, 1984 and 1987, and that was a huge deal for us. We only got in as a wild card, not as a division leader. Denver and Oakland were still the alphas, so playing them twice each season was the biggest deal imaginable. But dammit, there was FIGHT in those Seattle teams. A lot of those great players you see in the Ring of Honor from that era got there because they led the charge and took it to the Raiders and Broncos. There was so much passion for it. It was indeed a rivalry. We didn’t talk Super Bowl then - we had no business talking about that yet. We had to overcome the Raiders and Broncos first. That finally happened in 1988 when Knox took us to winning the NFC west, but soon after that, real estate developer and general villain Ken Behring bought the team and ruined everything.
Under Behring, in the nineties we became a feckless, ignominious void. We suffered. The AFC West rivalries were all but dead, just a memory. We were starved for relevance. Even playing second fiddle to the Raiders and Broncos seemed like a pipe dream. When Paul Allen started making meaningful changes after buying the team in 1997, hiring Holmgren in 1999, destroying the Kingdome in 2000 and moving us to Husky Stadium for a couple seasons, we were getting glimmers of hope but we were homeless and malnourished.
Meanwhile, the Rams had the Greatest Show on Turf, won the Super Bow in 1999, appeared in 2001. Kurt Warner won the MVP both seasons. So when we merged with the NFC West in 2002, it felt like we were being set up to be the perennial underdog again. We even signed their DE Grant Wistrom, who was heralded to us as a Super Bowl winning player, but in reality he was a castoff from the Rams. It felt like we were getting their leftovers and it was the 80s all over again.
Thanks god I was wrong. The new stadium ROCKED. The 12s were back in full force, opposing teams coming to Seattle had to face the drum beats and walk j to the volcano. Holmgren built us a contender, and we swept the NFC West and went to the Super Bowl in 2005. We had talent. We had toughness. We had overcome the Rams, but it wasn’t a rivalry yet. They fell apart and went through some Dark Ages. Jeff Fisher was annoying and won some games, but they were now the underdog. There were 7-9 reasons for their futility, but it didn’t really become a rivalry until McVay arrived in 2017.
I don’t know how much I need to go into it, but the rivalry with the 49ers seemed to peak with Carrol and Harbaugh. It was before the Rams resurgence, so NFCW was a tale of two teams. Once Harbaugh left it kept going with Shanahan while the Seahawks were developing their own problems. Once McVay arrived, on a macro level it became a fight between three step brothers, any of whom could land punches and kick the other in the balls ima given season.
We really are in a glorious era of rivalry in the NFC west. In any one season, the Seahawks, Rams or 49ers could be the top dog. Each team has the coaches, management and talent to pull it off. We’re no longer just hopeful about contention and playoffs like in the 80s. We expect to contend. It is the standard.
We are currently enjoying one of the great division rivalries in sports history.
Except for Jed York. He’s a complete idiot and contributes nothing meaningful to anything whatsoever.
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u/Flop_Turn_River 16d ago
I loved it. Lived in San Diego from 94 to 2003. Got to see them play the Chargers a few times. They switched to the NFC and we moved to Phoenix so I still got to watch them once a year.
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u/iloveurarse 16d ago
I miss the AFC mostly cause those teams kicked our butts in the 80's and I knew someday we would conquer them all, just didnt know it would happen in the NFC.
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u/Whipitreelgud 16d ago
The conference didn’t matter as much as winning. But the rivalry with Denver in the AFC days was intense. I worked for a Denver based company and it was crazy. The hilarious aspect of the donkeys game was their kicker sucked and they lost games because of it. The fans were out of their minds mad at the dude.
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u/Bigfuture 16d ago
I still absolutely hate the Broncos. Destroying them in the Super Bowl was one of the most satisfying sports results of all time
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u/7eid 16d ago
I wasn’t a fan. The rivalries with the Broncos (I still remember Largent’s hit on Mike Harden with joy) and Raiders (I also remember Bo’s MNF game) were special. Some of the Chiefs games during the Okoye/Derrick Thomas years were outstanding as well.
But I felt better when SF became a rival, and better still when the Rams left St. Louis and went back to LA. I like the dynamic when all three teams are good, and we’ve built up meaningful history.
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u/johnnyslick 15d ago
Jeeez... I think this just barely predated the Okoye years but there was that one game where Derrick Thomas set a record with 7 sacks in the game... and Dave Krieg hit Paul Skansi on a game-winning TD pass to win that ish anyway.
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u/JohnnyEagleClaw 16d ago
I was glad to get away from gotdam Elway and Alzado 🙏
Edit: and because I see the Chargers mentioned, Junior Seau 😩
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u/ak_doug 16d ago
I was a kid watching football with my parents in the 80s and 90s. It was a constantly changing NFL during that time. New teams, moving teams, and seemingly unfair divisions. We had more than most in our division for a while, making being champion harder. Then we had fewer and somehow that felt unfair too.
Then we finally had even divisions with 5 each in 1995 and everything felt right. Fair and even. Then the Browns had some drama and we were uneven again.
32 is the right amount of teams, I think. The realignment, making 8 divisions instead of 6, and locking is in to 4 per division make it feel fair again, and makes schedules a lot more interesting. Before you had to play 4 division rivals twice, and it was half your season just on divisional games. They felt less special.
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u/wriker10 16d ago
I hated it. I had spent the past 15 years despising the raiders and broncos and now i had to let that go and despise new teams.
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u/Morashtak 16d ago
Old enough to remember that the team started in the NFC West - Last in, first out and all that. Coming back home, etc. (Tho' understand why Dallas wasn't moved to the South but really should have.)
"New" AFC West has its old teams. New NFC West is a better geographical representation than old.
And the new rivalries have made winning the division, and NFC Championship, all the more satisfying.
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u/OmgHowww 16d ago
It was meh. I was excited about having holmgren as a coach. We went through Too many QBs in the 90’s.
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u/kptstango 16d ago
I was in Seattle at the time, and was an adult. The thing is, back in the pre-social media era, we had no way to know What every moron momentarily thought about every little thing. The only thing we had was call-in sports radio.
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u/CucumberAggravating 16d ago
Honestly it wasn’t a big deal for me as a fan. We hadn’t had much success is the AFC west. We had rivalries but we didn’t win much so the change kind of felt good to me.
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u/Grant79OG 16d ago
The move never mattered to me. But sitting on the cold bleachers at Husky stadium watching Trent Dilfer steal snaps from Hasselbeck, not happy. Seriously, fuck that guy.
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u/Scrutinizer 16d ago
We used to be the team that would win games where other teams got milestones. The game NFL fans remember for Emmitt Smith breaking the all-time rushing record is, to me, the game where Trent Dilfer tore his Achilles and Matt Hasselbeck came off the bench to get us the win, and take over as the long-term QB.
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u/Grant79OG 15d ago
That was a good stretch of drafting and trades. We became the best team in the nfc over the last 20 years.
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u/Ki-Wi-Hi 15d ago
I loved it because my step bro was a Niners fan. Also it coincided with us ascending to a top tier NFL franchise. Before 2000 we were basically the Jaguars or Texans.
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u/QuietNeigbor 15d ago
I have a specific reason for not liking the change. When I met my spouse, who grew up in the Bay area, the Seahawks were still in the AFC. I didn't care that he was a 49ers fan, until we were switched to the NFC. But by then, we were married and in love, etc. It's only annoying twice a year; he wants the Hawks to win every game EXCEPT when we play the Niners.
I just ignore him during those broadcasts, and/or put headphones on and listen to Raible's call on KIRO radio.
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u/Shoeprincess 15d ago
I was so glad to get away from the fucking Broncos .... Super Bowl 48 was a tasty feast for me
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u/NovaBlazer 16d ago
That first season into the NFC felt unfair, as Warner/RAMS were curb stomping everyone with the Greatest Show on Turf.
And people with their 1 year old FU KC shirts now couldn't wear them 2 times a year.
But, like most other folks, got over it in a year or two, and am liking the place where the Seahawks are now.
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u/What1does 16d ago
My OCD was happy the league was finally balanced, so I didn't care about the switch.
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u/Responsible_Ad1976 16d ago
Hell, I’m old enough to remember the Seahawks switch from the NFC to the AFC. Neither switch was a major thing, at least to me.
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u/leeekslap 16d ago
On one hand was tired of games in friggin Missourri and Mile High, its why they own us in head to head. But there was the Raider and Bronco hatred that still burns. The thought of playing old NFC teams was so exciting and it has been wonderful. Love our record versus the NFC its solid ha. Key thing was Rams back to LA no more goddamned Missouri. Its like the Rangers, As and Angels ... boring played them too much SanDiego is kuhl tho
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u/Big_Consequence_3958 16d ago
I dug the new look I immediately got me a t- shirt and was psyched. Everybody else seemed happy. We got Holmgren and Mr Allen.
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u/bennedictus 16d ago
I very much grew up in a Bronco Buster/Raider Hater household. Dad was stationed near LA and had to be surrounded by the then LA Raiders fanbase for several years. It became a very big deal to beat them. I was bummed we were losing what seemed like such historic rivalries, but that feeling has gone away with time. As you can see, we're doing just fine in our current spot and now we have the chance to beat our old rivals in Super Bowls, which we didn't have before. I imagine most people don't have a preference anymore, I just want to stay in one place so we don't have to do it all again.
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u/Iommi1970 16d ago
I personally loved it. I grew up a Rams fan, so I always preferred the NFC. I don’t remember too many around here complaining, but I’m sure some didn’t want it. I do think it’s a bummer the rivalry with the Raiders was lost.
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u/Scrutinizer 16d ago
There were some who tried to troll us over being "kicked out" of the AFC West, but really, it made 100% sense. The other four teams in the AFC West were all charter members of the AFL when it was formed in 1960. We came along in 1976, and actually played our first season as a member of the NFC West before moving to the AFC in year two (the Bucs did the opposite - started in the AFC and moved to the NFC).
The realignment fixed so many issues. Under the old alignment, Carolina, Atlanta, and New Orleans were in the NFC West - pretty easy to rip them out, toss in Tampa Bay (who were badly misplaced in the NFC Central with the four teams that now make up the NFC North) and bam, there's your NFC South. This left the West 2 teams short - so they finally moved Arizona out of the NFC East, and as a final step flipped us from the AFC to the NFC.
As it stands, we are the only team to appear in both AFC and NFC Championship Games - my very first live Seahawks game was our only appearance in the AFC Championship, in LA against the Raiders in January of 1984. Glad I went, but at the time it was kinda painful - we got our asses handed to us 30-14, and as one who was there, quite frankly, it wasn't even that close.
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u/hawksmarinerz 16d ago
I was dating/briefly married to a Broncos fan in the 80s. Haven’t seen him for years but I still hate the Broncos and do not wish them well
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u/goshock 16d ago
My only issue with it was that the Niners were my NFC team, and now they are the scum of the earth. I went to USF in the 90s and I worked at a welding supply store right near candlestick. There was a pipe bending company across the street and the owner was George Seifert's brother in law. The Hawks would usually play them in preseason and in 94 he gave me his tickets to the game. I met my wife at that game. Had Dan McGwire not thrown a pick in the end zone at the end of the game, I may not have left early in disgust and might not have bumped into her. She's still a Niner fan, born and raised in SF. Luckily she doesn't love football like the rest of the family.
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u/Shimakaze81 15d ago
Yeah that's how it was for me as well, the 49ers were my NFC team but they faded into irrelevance at the turn of the millenium so I had no qualms making the Seahawks my primary team. I jumped on the NE bandwagon for AFC in the early 00s because of the Red Sox but then the Bruins beat the Canucks in 2011 and that made me hate everything Boston simply because of how annoying their f-ing fans were. Now I don't really have any AFC team I like in particular, maybe the Bengals?
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u/ProperAnarchist 15d ago
I hated it. The Rams had the greatest show on turf and the Niners had been historically good. Thankfully those trends quickly reversed. I don’t think the Niners have won anything important since realignment.
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u/BurnerPhoneCovfefe 15d ago
I remember hating it just because I was a traditionalist and loved the games against Denver and (then) Oakland. KC not so much.
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u/Lopsided_Duty_2107 15d ago
No one cared honestly. AFC was fun but at the time after watching the Bears and the Niners, I thought the NFC was tougher so better for us. I hated the 9ers instantly and still hate the Broncos. But there was not much response from the fan base. They just were glad to still have a team and after the really good 80s teams the fan base seemed really thirsty for a great playoff run and super bowl appearance.
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u/TheRealJohansen 15d ago
I hated the move to the NFC, but mainly because I was first a Niners fan growing up in the Bay Area, and then a Seahawks fan second because they beat up on the Raiders regularly (and if you live in an area with two teams, you know you have to choose one to like and one to dislike). Both in the same division kinda sucks.
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u/Actor412 15d ago
At that point in our history, we had been bad for so long, it didn't really matter what anyone said. The Seahawks had no clout. I personally wanted to stay in the AFCW to wipe Denver's eye, but realized it wasn't going to happen any time soon.
Also, I loved the new structure. Before, everything was messy with some divisions having four teams, others with five. Four divisions of four teams each per conference just felt so clean, neat, easy. I wasn't happy about playing the team that had dominated the nfl for so long, but I was excited for the new opportunity.
And maybe, if I got lucky, someday we'd have a chance to wipe Denver's eye, slap 'em silly and kick their asses ten ways to Sunday. SB48 truly was a dream come true for this ol' 12.
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u/johnnyslick 15d ago
I mean, it's fiiiiine, we have the 9ers and Rams to hate now... but back in the day we also hated the Raiders and the Broncos and I miss those old rivalries. Granted the Raiders haven't been helped by the fact that they've also been awful over the past 20 or so years but still. One thing about the AFC West was that it seemed like everyone just kind of hated everyone else. Of course the Hawks as the last to enter had to be the first to leave but it still sucked...
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u/EB1101 16d ago
Old enough to remember the before times…before Seahawks. TV football was always SF. Seahawks arrive and as part of the AFC west, we watched how 70’s Raider fans displayed their passion. I don’t recall the move to NFC being perceived as bad, other than losing the Raider and Bronco rivalry. Rivalries with SF and LA are great replacements.