July 28, 2025 • 31 mins
Seahawks Legends Paul Moyer and Dave Wyman return for another episode of Seahawks Stories 50th Season Edition and discuss Pro Football Hall of Fame and Seahawks Ring of Honor member Kenny Easley. Today's show: 1984 Season (01:34), historic season with 63 turnovers (03:55), smartest secondary Paul’s ever been around (06:38), emotional year (08:21), 1983 playoff win over Miami (12:23), Kenny Easley most dominant player ever (14:23), Kenny Easley could do anything, all-around athlete (19:00), original Legion of Boom (20:04), Steve Largent route running (he would laugh at you) (23:42), and Tom Catlin 1983 AFC Championship game story (26:40).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Seahawks Stories fiftieth season edition, presented by Emerald
City Athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome. We're broadcasting from the Seahawks Podcast Studio, presented by Sony,
an official partner of the Seattle Seahawks. I'm Paul Moyer
along with Dave Wyman, and we're here to celebrate the
fiftieth season of the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, what an
anniversary that is. And more importantly, they have fifty years.
(00:28):
I've been a part of forty three of those.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Wow. So I'm never going to catch you.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No, not from an age standpoint. And for those who
can see, I've got some old school Seahawks gear, which,
as you know, Dave, I think should be official gear
for the Seattle Seahawks. And you know, I was a
part of some amazing teams. You know, I was part
of nineteen eighty three when they first went to the playoffs,
(00:55):
and this was a twelveth city. I mean, they were
die hard Seahawks fans without question, but eighty three took
it to another level and really a catapult to where
we are today with the twelves and the current team.
Eighty three is mentioned. We got fortunate at the end
of the season, we got hot. We had some great talent.
(01:17):
I mean, Kenny Easley, Steve Largent, you know, Kurt Warner
who was a rookie that year, My rookie year as well.
Dave Craig in the middle of the year became the
quarterback and really cemented himself as one of the great
quarterbacks really in NFL history. You look at his touchdowns,
but particularly with the Seattle Seahawks. Excuse me, but I
(01:37):
would talk about nineteen eighty four, the eighty four season.
We hear a lot about the Legion of Boom, and
rightfully so everything about them great secondary probably two you
could argue, maybe three Hall of famers in that group,
But the season in nineteen eighty four, I could argue
has two Hall of famers as well. We know one
(01:58):
of them was Kenny easily the other one and should
be Dave Brown, who has sixty I believe sixty three
interception sixty two interceptions, and I think it was one
of the great corners of all time. We just never
made it to a Super Bowl, which is a big
part of getting to a Hall of Fame. But I'm
going to talk a little bit about the eighty four season,
(02:18):
and what an emotional roller coaster that was. We had
just come off as I'd mentioned, nineteen eighty three, we
got into the AFC Championship game. We were a young,
up and coming team with a lot of number one
draft picks because they were an expansion team and hadn't won,
hadn't been to the playoffs, and all of a sudden,
(02:38):
Chuck Knox had came into and eighty three brought in
Tom Catlan, our defensive coordinator, a very intricate defense, which
I'll talk about as well. But we go into the
eighty four season and we're considered one of the favorites
to go to the Super Bowl and win it. The
Raiders had just won it the year before and beat
us in the AFC Championship game. We had beat them
(03:00):
twice the year before, and we're we're pretty pumped. We
we know we got a talented, good football team. And
the very first game of the year, I should know
who we were playing. It was either Cleveland or Pittsburgh,
and my roommate, good friend Kurt Warner first game of
the season, I believe he was the AFC rookie, you know,
(03:21):
best running back of the year, blows his knee out
acl and I remember that. I mean the crowd you
could hear a pin drop in the Kingdom, and the
Kingdome you could never hear a pin drop. But we
knew the seriousness of it. And I remember being as
far on the other all the way down the sideline
watching because they were going into the end zone to
(03:43):
score when it happened, and that was that was an
emotional moment because we were like, Wow, we're still a
super Bowl contending team. But what we didn't know was
how great our defense was. And it became a historic
season and historic in that there was I don't think
it'll be broken, a modern day record of sixty three
(04:04):
turnovers that we created thirty eight interceptions. Matter of fact,
the Legion of Boom twenty thirteen, they created thirty nine
total turnovers. We had thirty eight interceptions, so I think
it's a historic. We returned six interceptions back for touchdowns.
Just a phenomenal, phenomenal group. And so we went on
(04:28):
a run. We've blown out some teams early. I mean
we're really blown them out, and we're shutting them out defensively.
I mean the first game we won thirty three to nothing.
The next in it was versus Cleveland. The next game
we play the Chargers, I believe, and it was thirty
one to seventeen. Then then New England. We go to
New England and we're up twenty I want to say,
(04:49):
we're up twenty three to seven at halftime, and they
score all their points. They beat us thirty eight twenty three,
and that was kind of our wake up call that hey,
we've got to become a comp let team now. And
we end up winning eight games in a row at
that point. What was so magical about it was there's
guys that were great leaders. Jacob Green who had I
(05:11):
want to say he had thirteen sacks that year, Boogeyman,
Jeff Bryant he had fourteen and a half sacks. And
then Joe Nash, our nose guard, our nose tackle, he
had seven. And back then we ran a three to
four defense. And the reason why I say it was
an intricate defense, I don't think it can actually be
duplicated anymore. One was Ralph Hawkins was our secondary coach,
(05:34):
and I actually loved Ralph. You know, he was different.
He was you know, East Coast guy, and he had
his way of coaching. But He was really smart, and
we ran what we call a combo defense on just
about everything. It was a three on two versus every
wide receiver. We played a lot of six seven defensive
backs that year, and we needed to. We were playing
(05:56):
against Dan Fouts Hall of Famer, John Elway Hall of Fame,
Dan Marino hall of famers. I mean, these are great quarterbacks, obviously,
and it took us about a year and a half.
Maybe not. It took us about a year to where
it all clicked, where we knew and we didn't even
have to talk to each other. We knew as soon
as a guy ran an en route, the other guy
(06:18):
cut to the other receiver. The other receiver realized that
route he could go back over the top. It was
very confusing for quarterbacks. I'd talked to many of them.
They said, we didn't know if we were running zone. Man.
It was extremely difficult for us to figure out. And
on top of that you had a great pass rush
with Jeff Bryant and Jacob Green, So it was magical
(06:41):
that secondary. Dave is probably the smartest secondary I've ever
been around. I've i coached obviously, after with the Seahawks,
been in this NFL for over forty years. John Harris,
who was our free safety, smartest football player I've ever
been around, photo graphic memory, and you know it was
a four point zero student at a very difficult college
(07:04):
at Arizona State University. But I got to sit with him.
He was my seat mate on planes and he knew
everybody's position. He would run up and down the line
when the Kingdom would get really loud and he would
be calling out audibles. He was a brilliant guy. Day Brown,
(07:24):
you know, the late Day Brown, smart, hard worker. You
know again that year he went to the Pro Bowl
as well. Kenny Easily and him both were Pro bowlers.
I think he had eight interceptions, two of those returned
for a touchdown. It was just between John Harris, Dave Brown,
Kenny Easily and there's some other guys, Keith Simpson who
was a hard hitting corner. We had Carrie Justice, Greg Johnson.
(07:50):
You know this little guy here me. I guess I'm
not that little. It was just a really smart group.
And it wasn't that we we went and watched a
lot of film on our own. We always watched it together,
which was unique back then. And Kenny Easily and Dave
Brown demanded it, and so after practice into the evenings,
we were watching film together how we would work and
(08:11):
how we would you know, pass off coverages along the way.
So just a phenomenal group, you know, just a great
secondary with a great pass rush. And it catapulted us
to you know, at twelve and two season at the time,
we're thinking we're going to win the AFC West, have
home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and as I said,
(08:32):
it got very emotional. We lost Kurt Warner oh Man
seasons over. Oh wow, we're twelve and two and we're
throwing the football now, you know, you know, mudbone Dave Craig,
I said, David become our starting quarterback in the middle
of nineteen eighty three and took it from there. And
(08:55):
about middle of the season, we couldn't run the ball
really well anymore. Teams just said, hey, you know, that's
that's not going to happen. And we had some injuries
on the offensive line, and so all of a sudden,
we went from that they called ground chuck to you know,
we were air. You know, we weren't quite the San
Diego Chargers at the time, but we were throwing the
ball over the place, and you know, Steve Largent had
(09:17):
you know, well over one thousand yards that year. He
had twelve touchdowns receiving. You know, he's he was phenomenal.
We had drafted Darryl Taylor that season and he was
our deep threat. He had ten interceptions. So it was
a it was a team that needed to really rely
on each other because that when Kurt Warner that we
(09:38):
lost him. We said we got to win with special teams,
we got to win with defense, and we got to
find ways to win on offense. So yeah, really really
really special year. The downside, the emotional was we're twelve
and two, We're thinking we got this, and the last
two games, man, we just we just got destroyed. We
(09:59):
went in to Kansas City, it was we just could
never beat Kansas City. And Kansas City there was another
one of the we lost in eighty three, the lost
in eighty four. We didn't actually break that streak until
I think nineteen ninety and I don't know, Dave had
five or six interceptions that that game. Sorry, Dave. We
got blown out. I mean it was looking at the
(10:21):
score here, it was thirty four to seven, and we
lost our confidence, just almost overnight and we still have
a chance to win the AFC West Denver's coming in
to the Kingdom, crowds fired up, and we just don't
play well. We ended up getting beat thirty one to
(10:41):
fourteen that game, so back to back blowouts, and I
think the most disappointing part that season was going into
the playoffs. Is now we're a wildcard team. But it
was fun because we got the Raiders in the playoffs
at home this time, not on the road, and it's
again a very member game that a lot of people
(11:02):
remember that we had zero offense never I think we
threw the ball eight or nine times at that game.
And we ended up winning that one thirteen to seven
and having a chance to play the Miami Dolphins again
in Miami. But that was the disappointing emotional part. You
think season's over, you're having a historic year as a team,
(11:24):
and then finally you just you lose all your confidence
going to the playoffs. We won one, but we just
didn't feel like we had the confidence probably to take
it to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So you lost in the AFC Championship game right to
the Raiders in eighty three.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
And hadn't you beaten them, you beat them twice.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I want to say, somebody told me, one of the
older guys told me that you played him in the
preseason and beat him in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I think it was Keith Butler told me that story.
But yeah, I mean, and then you're on the you're
on the doorstep of going to the super It was.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It was pretty crazy. I'll tell you a story about
eighty three and again, why I think the twelves in
Seattle was so excited going into eighty four. So we
win our last few games in eighty three, we get
to the playoffs. We beat Denver at home. We go
to Miami on New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, and
(12:23):
most of you know about this game. You know, you
can go find it online. Pretty pretty easy, memorable. You know,
Steve Largent makes a corner route after we're behind in
the final two minutes and Kurt Warner takes it in
for a touchdown. We take the lead. We cause a
turnover on the kickoff kick a field goal. It's it's pandemonia.
(12:43):
I mean, we are, We're going nuts on the sideline,
and we happen to have a I believe a seven
forty seven that they had leased to take us to
the game because back then the planes we had to stop,
like in spokekan Or, Minnesota, from the East back to
the west because they just didn't have enough fuel. So
they said, well, we'll get us seven forty seven. So
(13:06):
we're flying home to Seattle, and we don't know what's about,
we don't know what's waiting for us. And you know,
there was some good champagne on that plane. That was
just an unbelievable plane ride back. And we get back
and you know, there's ten fifteen thousand people waiting for
us at the airport. It is packed. And by the
(13:27):
time we land and I just remember how long it
took us to get out of the airport. I should
have stayed on the bus, but a bunch of us
had people picking us up and we were going out
for New Year's Eve that night, and we were celebrities
everywhere we went to Seattle, to every location. You know,
they pulled the red carpet and big magnum champagnes of
(13:50):
It was a lot of fun. So now we played
the raiders. They're waiting for us. I mean, look, they
got Howie long they got Lyle Alzato. They've got Jim Plunkett,
they got Marcus Allen, they got Branch, all kinds of receivers,
Todd Christiansen. I mean, they're loaded. And we had beaten
him twice during the year and beating them pretty good.
(14:11):
They weren't having that. They came out and they punched
us in the mouth pretty good, and we couldn't quite
couldn't quite take that punch. So game going to eighty four,
were ready in the offseason, And I think a lot
had to do with Kenny Easley, such a big part
of the Seahawks history. Most dominant player I've ever been
(14:33):
on the field and seen, and again, I wish his
career was longer, but you know, just just some stats. Therefore,
he was a fourth overall pick back in nineteen eighty one.
I remember when he was coming out of UCLA, and God,
he was intimidating, just the way he wore his uniform.
Here's an amazing statistic. He had thirty two career interceptions.
Three of those were picked sixes. He did that in
(14:54):
eighty seven games. That's happened in one, you know, every
three games. I mean, that's that in itself remarkable five
time Pro Bowler in only seven seasons. He was a
three time All Pro. All Pro is hard to get.
I mean, that's that's the tough one. Something that was unique,
and it's one of the best games I've ever seen
him play in Seahawk history.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Too.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Was nineteen eighty four. We're playing the San Diego Chargers
on Monday Night football in San Diego, and they are loaded.
They've got Callen Winslow All Pro. They've got Chandler Joiner
at wide receivers, they got Dan Fouts, they got Chuck
Munsey at running back. They're loaded. We shut him out
twenty four to nothing, and Kenny has two interceptions. And
(15:35):
what I remember about that game is it's towards the
end of the game and they're down by the goal
line and we've got our Nickel package in and he's like,
they're not going to score. I mean, he was in
the huddle like they are not going to score. I
mean we basically if they score, we're gonna have to
deal with him on Monday. And that year, nineteen eighty
(15:57):
four Defensive Player of the Year. To get in the secondary,
you just don't see that very often. The nineteen eighties
All team, and then finally what he deserved, what took
way too long, was finally making the Hall of Fame.
And I had the opportunity to go down to Canton.
That was such an incredible experience, and we were all there.
(16:19):
You know, Eugene Robinson was there, you had John Harris
was there. I think Key Simpson. You know, a lot
of the guys were a part of that eighty four team.
So special, special player. Kenny was ready for eighty four.
He was healthy. He wasn't healthy in eighty three.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
He was.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I started a bunch of games for him. But eighty
four he was healthy and he was very focused, and
it's one of the great eighty four seasons. You know,
I think in NFL history, Kenny easily and he's a
hard one to describe as a player. I'm gonna try
and do my best on this. There's very few people
(16:57):
in the NFL that you fear, I mean fear come
across the middle. I don't want to get hit by
that guy. And also fear he's going to be a
playmaker on me. I can't throw it to him. We
got to avoid him at all costs, and a lot
of teams actually designed a defense to take Kenny away
versus us. They would always line up in a slot formation.
(17:20):
By the way we played our defense back then, a
three to four defense, the strong safety would always go
to the tight end side and then they would end
up motion running back out wide. We used to call
that an ace formation. But they would spread him out
and they would just say, you're out of the game.
We're going to go play the game over here. But
in eighty four they didn't do that, and he was
(17:42):
involved in everything. He had ten interceptions that season. Again,
I think at least two of them returned for touchdowns.
He was the most feared player, both as a playmaker
and as a hitter. He's one of the smartest guys
I've ever been around. I mean he is. He's a
very intelligent person, and when he's focused and wasn't hurt,
(18:03):
he would he could carry a team. He could carry
a team emotionally, he could carry a team physically, and
as a playmaker. Kenny Easily and Ronnie Lott talks about it.
Ronnie says, look, the greatest safety I've ever seen play
is Kenny Easily. And I look at Kenny and kind
of Gail Sayers as two players similar in that their
(18:24):
careers were cut short, and wow, what would it have
been like if they weren't. You know, Gail Sayers is
because of an injury. Kenny's because of an illness. You know,
Kenny still had over thirty interceptions and really only played
He played seven seasons, I believe, but you know I
started probably fourteen or fifteen times when he was playing
(18:47):
because of injuries. And if he could have played out
a whole career the way it is, the rest of
the world would know more about Kenny, you know, even
though he made it to the Pro Bowl. But very unique.
One of the great athletes and I Syria. One of
the great athletes I've ever seen. And when I say
by great athlete, could do anything, I mean he was
(19:10):
a He played on UCLA's freshman basketball team. He was
close to a scratch golfer. I don't want to give
him too much on that one because I used to
play against him a lot. But no, no, but he
was He was better than I was when I was good.
We had fierce ping pong matches back in Camp and
(19:32):
Cheney that are somewhat legendary. He could throw a football.
He was our punt returner when we needed one, and
he was good at it. Uh. He could have been
a wide receiver, he could have played just about any position,
skill position in the NFL. Uh. Yeah, again, just a
phenomenal athlete. Everything he touched he was good at. So
(19:53):
really unique and you know, again I'll put that secondary
against any secondary. It was truly that good. And the
numbers speak for themselves.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
A few years ago, Bob Condotta and I wrote a
book called If These Walls Could Talk, And I remember
interviewing you during that and for you, I mean, it
was it was kind of cool that you had, you
played with these great players, but you couldn't get on
the field because you know, you had four guys. You
mentioned Keith Simpson, John Harris, the two lesser known right
(20:29):
guys in that. But you know, we called that chapter
the original Legion of Boom because they were incredible. I
mean you mentioned the number of takeaways and you know,
and I remember the first time you, you know, got
a chance to start. I think it was because Kenny
had gotten sick the year before or whatever. You came
out and had six interceptions and I think you were
(20:50):
alternate in the Pro Bowl that year. In nineteen eighty
eight and yeah, you just I mean they were loaded
and nobody really knew other than Kenny Easily. Really nobody
really knew those guys' names. I mean, Dave Brown is
sixty two, I think it is, Yeah, sixty two, careerator
two intersect.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
He should be in the Hall of Fame. There's there's
no question. I mean he's he has the most interceptions
for someone who's not in the Hall of Fame. No,
it was, it was really John Harris was an incredible safety.
Keith Simpson was probably one of the hardest hitting defensive
backs I've ever been around me. I remember one time
against he played against Earl Campbell. Was actually before I
got there, but I saw it on film or they
(21:31):
were showing some cut ups and he laid out Earl
Campbell and Earl Campbell is you know, one of the
tough running backs ever. It was. Yeah, it's you know,
if you fast forward today with social media and if
we could have got over the hump into the Super Bowl,
there's for sure. Look, I think Jacob Green, I got
(21:54):
to talk about him. I think Jacob Green should be
in the Hall of Fame. They didn't start doing so
until eighty one, eighty two whatever that number is, so
his full career, he doesn't have him. You go and
look at the sacks when he was there. I mean,
Jacob was a force. He was a bit undersized, but
he's also you know, he was an incredible leader. I mean,
(22:17):
I love Jacob Green. I love that team. There were
so many good guys, you know, both sides of the ball.
You know, Steve Largent, I mean, just an incredible human being.
You know, Kurt Warner, We had Charlie Young, you know,
Blair Bush was our center. I mean, just some really
good David Hughes, you know, people that you some of
(22:38):
you may remember that going back that far and defensively,
you met Keith Butler. You know, you want a smart
football team, and why we got so many turnovers. Keith
Butler is one of the smartest linebackers besides you. Dave Wyman,
you know, who went on to become a defensive coordinator
for Pittsburgh for many years. Really just a brilliant mind
there as well. But that whole second, you could not
(23:00):
play in our secondary if you weren't intelligent. Really, I mean,
it just it didn't work. And the type of scheme
they ran. People ask me all the time I got
you guys can't run it. It's not the exes and o's,
you will understand the xs and o's, but the amount
of times that we would go out there for thirty
minutes as a group and they would run every walk through,
(23:22):
every type of pass route you could with a combination
either three on two or two on one. We went
over and over and over. So you just after a
while you weren't even thinking about it. And back then again,
we know you used to have three a days, you know,
and training camp, you know you could have here was
(23:42):
the other thing, Rota's First of all, we we were here,
I mean we weren't off, you know, down in California
or somewhere else. Everybody was here working out together. And
it wasn't mandatory. We just wanted to do it. So
we played a lot of seven on seven and against
Steve Largent and who schooled us every day in practice.
(24:06):
Every day David would he would run and he would
be laughing at me. He would be he'd be running
down and looking at me, and as soon as he
knew I was looking at him, that was a problem
because I should have been looking down at his belt
buckle and he would laugh like, you know what I'm
about to do, and you still can't stop it, And
(24:27):
I couldn't. I mean, if you were inside, even if
you doubled them, he would beat you if you were inside.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
He used to.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
He taught me a couple of things that I taught
Eugene Robinson when he got when I was coaching him.
But what he would do is he would attack the
guy on a double team. If all of a sudden
you were had inside technique, he would actually fake out
and you would at that point open up because you're
feel vulnerable to the out even though you're just both
(24:57):
to protect the end. And he would cross face shit
every time every time. In practice drove me crazy. So
I wasn't the smartest guy because I couldn't figure that
one out till the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Well, I remember Steve Largent saying that he would you know,
because a lot of times defensive backs, you're going to
take a side right, and I'm going to take this
side away, And he said, that's the way I'm going
to beat you, because in your mind, you think you
have me locked up on the inside and you're looking
for an outside route, and he would beat So it's
(25:27):
kind of like a reverse psychology type of thing with
largent Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I tried to teach and this would be hard to
describe on this right now, but I try to teach
that if you did a double team and a guy
faked an out, that you should actually turn in at
that point, not turn out, because as soon as you
turn out, if he cross facing tries to beat you
(25:52):
back inside, Now you got to clear your hips back
to square and then back to end. Well, just open
up to the end you can, you can do the
go route. If he goes, I'm just gonna be inside.
And then if he does break in and I'm just
straight downhill. Try to teach it just it's just mentally,
it's it's counterintuitive and it's really hard to do, but
(26:13):
I wanted to be cutting edge. It never it never
quite worked on that one.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
There was a story that Sam Merriman told me about
the AFC Championship game down and at the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
It was about Tom Catlan and it has to do
with Tom Catlan. I'll just tell the story.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Tell the story.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
So after this was a story I heard from Sam Merriman,
Super Sam from Idaho and he was a great special
team player really good linebacker. But when you guys went
down to the coliseum where you played the AFC championship
game against the Raiders, I guess Sam had a bunch
of friends that came, and Tom Catlin, the defensive coordinator,
(27:02):
knew about it, you know, knew that he was going
to have, you know, some friends there at the game
and everything. So you guys end up losing that game,
which again I have to look at it, but I
know you beat him twice during the regular Raiders So
but he told me after the game that the crowd
just poured onto the field and you know, and everybody
(27:23):
was was pissed, right, And so you're walking off the
field and you got to like the tunnel where the
coliseum is there, and some guy comes running over and
and Sam told me it was like guys were like
kind of getting together, like almost like circling, like we
got to get out of here, we got to get
out of this crowd.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
So they get into the tunnel and I and Sam.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Is walking with Tom Catlan, and you know, Tom Catlan
just very stoic, wouldn't say very many words at all,
just never showed a motion or anything. So some fan
came up and got in his face. So now Tom
was he was a linebacker in the NFL back in
like the fifties and sixties. So he gets in his
face and starts screaming this fan, and Sam said, in
(28:09):
one motion, as quick as any of the players could
have done, he grabbed the guy by the throat, slams
him against the wall and punches him in the face,
and then you know, guy drops to the ground.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And so then they keep walking.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And he knew, like I said that, that Sam had
some friends there at the game, and he just very
kind of quietly turns to Sam and goes, that wasn't
one of your friends, was it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That would be Tom Catlan, very stoic. And he was
a pilot too, Tom Cat, Yeah, I was. I was
flying to I was a coach at the time, and
we were flying to Texas A and m to you know,
scout some of the guys their nurse, you know, senior day,
senior pro day. And it was turbulent, you know, And
(28:56):
I was like, and he goes, we're good. He goes, uh,
and he said, you know, as long as those engines
are going, he goes, we're good. He does, remember, he
goes terribly he said, it's just there, you know, and
he goes, you'll get it a little bit when he
was explaining when you get it because we were going
over like a lake and so there was a change
of heat and cold at the time. And and I
(29:18):
didn't know that about him either. He was you know
Tom Catlan, for he was our defensive coordinat for a
long time. It was actually one year was voted coach
of the Year and I think it was which they
had never had. I mean he was an assistant, you know, which.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Was ninety two seasons, I think so, I think it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Was it was ninety two. He's just he was such
a good man. Yeah, you know he We had some
great coaches. I mean we had George Dyer who was
a great defensive line coach. Again, Ralph Hawkins, our secondary coach,
really was a brilliant secondary coach, Tom Catlan, you know,
and then you know Chuck Knock, uh what we know. So,
(30:01):
just to bring it back and by the way, for
those who listen, eighty three that season, that last game
he's talking about the La Raiders who went to the
Oakland Raiders who are now the Las Vegas Las Vegas Raiders.
So they've changed their name a few times for those
who don't know that. Just again to throw out there,
Kenny easily barely played seven seasons, thirty two interceptions. John
(30:26):
Harris had fifty interceptions, and then Dave Brown had sixty two.
I think Earl Thomas has the most. He's around thirty.
Maybe Richard Sherman. Those two, they're right around the thirty range,
which you know, played a lot more games, and this
was when people didn't throw that much, you know, so
there wasn't a lot of interceptions being thrown out there.
(30:49):
So yeah, again, just a really a really special group
this season. Feel every play, every hit, every moment with
the Sony one thousand x five noise canceling headphones, the
official headphones of the Seattle Seahawks. With premium noise cancelation,
You're in the zone, no distractions, just pure football, whether
(31:11):
you're in the living room or on the go, You'll
never miss a beat with Sony headphones. Well that'll do
it for this segment. Want to thank you along with
Dave Wyman and being part of this as we celebrate
the fiftieth season with the Seattle Seahawks.
This is Seahawks Stories fiftieth season edition, presented by Emerald
City Athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome. We're broadcasting from the Seahawks Podcast Studio, presented by Sony,
an official partner of the Seattle Seahawks. I'm Paul Moyer
along with Dave Wyman, and we're here to celebrate the
fiftieth season of the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, what an
anniversary that is. And more importantly, they have fifty years.
(00:28):
I've been a part of forty three of those.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Wow. So I'm never going to catch you.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No, not from an age standpoint. And for those who
can see, I've got some old school Seahawks gear, which,
as you know, Dave, I think should be official gear
for the Seattle Seahawks. And you know, I was a
part of some amazing teams. You know, I was part
of nineteen eighty three when they first went to the playoffs,
(00:55):
and this was a twelveth city. I mean, they were
die hard Seahawks fans without question, but eighty three took
it to another level and really a catapult to where
we are today with the twelves and the current team.
Eighty three is mentioned. We got fortunate at the end
of the season, we got hot. We had some great talent.
(01:17):
I mean, Kenny Easley, Steve Largent, you know, Kurt Warner
who was a rookie that year, My rookie year as well.
Dave Craig in the middle of the year became the
quarterback and really cemented himself as one of the great
quarterbacks really in NFL history. You look at his touchdowns,
but particularly with the Seattle Seahawks. Excuse me, but I
(01:37):
would talk about nineteen eighty four, the eighty four season.
We hear a lot about the Legion of Boom, and
rightfully so everything about them great secondary probably two you
could argue, maybe three Hall of famers in that group,
But the season in nineteen eighty four, I could argue
has two Hall of famers as well. We know one
(01:58):
of them was Kenny easily the other one and should
be Dave Brown, who has sixty I believe sixty three
interception sixty two interceptions, and I think it was one
of the great corners of all time. We just never
made it to a Super Bowl, which is a big
part of getting to a Hall of Fame. But I'm
going to talk a little bit about the eighty four season,
(02:18):
and what an emotional roller coaster that was. We had
just come off as I'd mentioned, nineteen eighty three, we
got into the AFC Championship game. We were a young,
up and coming team with a lot of number one
draft picks because they were an expansion team and hadn't won,
hadn't been to the playoffs, and all of a sudden,
(02:38):
Chuck Knox had came into and eighty three brought in
Tom Catlan, our defensive coordinator, a very intricate defense, which
I'll talk about as well. But we go into the
eighty four season and we're considered one of the favorites
to go to the Super Bowl and win it. The
Raiders had just won it the year before and beat
us in the AFC Championship game. We had beat them
(03:00):
twice the year before, and we're we're pretty pumped. We
we know we got a talented, good football team. And
the very first game of the year, I should know
who we were playing. It was either Cleveland or Pittsburgh,
and my roommate, good friend Kurt Warner first game of
the season, I believe he was the AFC rookie, you know,
(03:21):
best running back of the year, blows his knee out
acl and I remember that. I mean the crowd you
could hear a pin drop in the Kingdom, and the
Kingdome you could never hear a pin drop. But we
knew the seriousness of it. And I remember being as
far on the other all the way down the sideline
watching because they were going into the end zone to
(03:43):
score when it happened, and that was that was an
emotional moment because we were like, Wow, we're still a
super Bowl contending team. But what we didn't know was
how great our defense was. And it became a historic
season and historic in that there was I don't think
it'll be broken, a modern day record of sixty three
(04:04):
turnovers that we created thirty eight interceptions. Matter of fact,
the Legion of Boom twenty thirteen, they created thirty nine
total turnovers. We had thirty eight interceptions, so I think
it's a historic. We returned six interceptions back for touchdowns.
Just a phenomenal, phenomenal group. And so we went on
(04:28):
a run. We've blown out some teams early. I mean
we're really blown them out, and we're shutting them out defensively.
I mean the first game we won thirty three to nothing.
The next in it was versus Cleveland. The next game
we play the Chargers, I believe, and it was thirty
one to seventeen. Then then New England. We go to
New England and we're up twenty I want to say,
(04:49):
we're up twenty three to seven at halftime, and they
score all their points. They beat us thirty eight twenty three,
and that was kind of our wake up call that hey,
we've got to become a comp let team now. And
we end up winning eight games in a row at
that point. What was so magical about it was there's
guys that were great leaders. Jacob Green who had I
(05:11):
want to say he had thirteen sacks that year, Boogeyman,
Jeff Bryant he had fourteen and a half sacks. And
then Joe Nash, our nose guard, our nose tackle, he
had seven. And back then we ran a three to
four defense. And the reason why I say it was
an intricate defense, I don't think it can actually be
duplicated anymore. One was Ralph Hawkins was our secondary coach,
(05:34):
and I actually loved Ralph. You know, he was different.
He was you know, East Coast guy, and he had
his way of coaching. But He was really smart, and
we ran what we call a combo defense on just
about everything. It was a three on two versus every
wide receiver. We played a lot of six seven defensive
backs that year, and we needed to. We were playing
(05:56):
against Dan Fouts Hall of Famer, John Elway Hall of Fame,
Dan Marino hall of famers. I mean, these are great quarterbacks, obviously,
and it took us about a year and a half.
Maybe not. It took us about a year to where
it all clicked, where we knew and we didn't even
have to talk to each other. We knew as soon
as a guy ran an en route, the other guy
(06:18):
cut to the other receiver. The other receiver realized that
route he could go back over the top. It was
very confusing for quarterbacks. I'd talked to many of them.
They said, we didn't know if we were running zone. Man.
It was extremely difficult for us to figure out. And
on top of that you had a great pass rush
with Jeff Bryant and Jacob Green, So it was magical
(06:41):
that secondary. Dave is probably the smartest secondary I've ever
been around. I've i coached obviously, after with the Seahawks,
been in this NFL for over forty years. John Harris,
who was our free safety, smartest football player I've ever
been around, photo graphic memory, and you know it was
a four point zero student at a very difficult college
(07:04):
at Arizona State University. But I got to sit with him.
He was my seat mate on planes and he knew
everybody's position. He would run up and down the line
when the Kingdom would get really loud and he would
be calling out audibles. He was a brilliant guy. Day Brown,
(07:24):
you know, the late Day Brown, smart, hard worker. You
know again that year he went to the Pro Bowl
as well. Kenny Easily and him both were Pro bowlers.
I think he had eight interceptions, two of those returned
for a touchdown. It was just between John Harris, Dave Brown,
Kenny Easily and there's some other guys, Keith Simpson who
was a hard hitting corner. We had Carrie Justice, Greg Johnson.
(07:50):
You know this little guy here me. I guess I'm
not that little. It was just a really smart group.
And it wasn't that we we went and watched a
lot of film on our own. We always watched it together,
which was unique back then. And Kenny Easily and Dave
Brown demanded it, and so after practice into the evenings,
we were watching film together how we would work and
(08:11):
how we would you know, pass off coverages along the way.
So just a phenomenal group, you know, just a great
secondary with a great pass rush. And it catapulted us
to you know, at twelve and two season at the time,
we're thinking we're going to win the AFC West, have
home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and as I said,
(08:32):
it got very emotional. We lost Kurt Warner oh Man
seasons over. Oh wow, we're twelve and two and we're
throwing the football now, you know, you know, mudbone Dave Craig,
I said, David become our starting quarterback in the middle
of nineteen eighty three and took it from there. And
(08:55):
about middle of the season, we couldn't run the ball
really well anymore. Teams just said, hey, you know, that's
that's not going to happen. And we had some injuries
on the offensive line, and so all of a sudden,
we went from that they called ground chuck to you know,
we were air. You know, we weren't quite the San
Diego Chargers at the time, but we were throwing the
ball over the place, and you know, Steve Largent had
(09:17):
you know, well over one thousand yards that year. He
had twelve touchdowns receiving. You know, he's he was phenomenal.
We had drafted Darryl Taylor that season and he was
our deep threat. He had ten interceptions. So it was
a it was a team that needed to really rely
on each other because that when Kurt Warner that we
(09:38):
lost him. We said we got to win with special teams,
we got to win with defense, and we got to
find ways to win on offense. So yeah, really really
really special year. The downside, the emotional was we're twelve
and two, We're thinking we got this, and the last
two games, man, we just we just got destroyed. We
(09:59):
went in to Kansas City, it was we just could
never beat Kansas City. And Kansas City there was another
one of the we lost in eighty three, the lost
in eighty four. We didn't actually break that streak until
I think nineteen ninety and I don't know, Dave had
five or six interceptions that that game. Sorry, Dave. We
got blown out. I mean it was looking at the
(10:21):
score here, it was thirty four to seven, and we
lost our confidence, just almost overnight and we still have
a chance to win the AFC West Denver's coming in
to the Kingdom, crowds fired up, and we just don't
play well. We ended up getting beat thirty one to
(10:41):
fourteen that game, so back to back blowouts, and I
think the most disappointing part that season was going into
the playoffs. Is now we're a wildcard team. But it
was fun because we got the Raiders in the playoffs
at home this time, not on the road, and it's
again a very member game that a lot of people
(11:02):
remember that we had zero offense never I think we
threw the ball eight or nine times at that game.
And we ended up winning that one thirteen to seven
and having a chance to play the Miami Dolphins again
in Miami. But that was the disappointing emotional part. You
think season's over, you're having a historic year as a team,
(11:24):
and then finally you just you lose all your confidence
going to the playoffs. We won one, but we just
didn't feel like we had the confidence probably to take
it to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So you lost in the AFC Championship game right to
the Raiders in eighty three.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
And hadn't you beaten them, you beat them twice.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I want to say, somebody told me, one of the
older guys told me that you played him in the
preseason and beat him in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I think it was Keith Butler told me that story.
But yeah, I mean, and then you're on the you're
on the doorstep of going to the super It was.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It was pretty crazy. I'll tell you a story about
eighty three and again, why I think the twelves in
Seattle was so excited going into eighty four. So we
win our last few games in eighty three, we get
to the playoffs. We beat Denver at home. We go
to Miami on New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, and
(12:23):
most of you know about this game. You know, you
can go find it online. Pretty pretty easy, memorable. You know,
Steve Largent makes a corner route after we're behind in
the final two minutes and Kurt Warner takes it in
for a touchdown. We take the lead. We cause a
turnover on the kickoff kick a field goal. It's it's pandemonia.
(12:43):
I mean, we are, We're going nuts on the sideline,
and we happen to have a I believe a seven
forty seven that they had leased to take us to
the game because back then the planes we had to stop,
like in spokekan Or, Minnesota, from the East back to
the west because they just didn't have enough fuel. So
they said, well, we'll get us seven forty seven. So
(13:06):
we're flying home to Seattle, and we don't know what's about,
we don't know what's waiting for us. And you know,
there was some good champagne on that plane. That was
just an unbelievable plane ride back. And we get back
and you know, there's ten fifteen thousand people waiting for
us at the airport. It is packed. And by the
(13:27):
time we land and I just remember how long it
took us to get out of the airport. I should
have stayed on the bus, but a bunch of us
had people picking us up and we were going out
for New Year's Eve that night, and we were celebrities
everywhere we went to Seattle, to every location. You know,
they pulled the red carpet and big magnum champagnes of
(13:50):
It was a lot of fun. So now we played
the raiders. They're waiting for us. I mean, look, they
got Howie long they got Lyle Alzato. They've got Jim Plunkett,
they got Marcus Allen, they got Branch, all kinds of receivers,
Todd Christiansen. I mean, they're loaded. And we had beaten
him twice during the year and beating them pretty good.
(14:11):
They weren't having that. They came out and they punched
us in the mouth pretty good, and we couldn't quite
couldn't quite take that punch. So game going to eighty four,
were ready in the offseason, And I think a lot
had to do with Kenny Easley, such a big part
of the Seahawks history. Most dominant player I've ever been
(14:33):
on the field and seen, and again, I wish his
career was longer, but you know, just just some stats. Therefore,
he was a fourth overall pick back in nineteen eighty one.
I remember when he was coming out of UCLA, and God,
he was intimidating, just the way he wore his uniform.
Here's an amazing statistic. He had thirty two career interceptions.
Three of those were picked sixes. He did that in
(14:54):
eighty seven games. That's happened in one, you know, every
three games. I mean, that's that in itself remarkable five
time Pro Bowler in only seven seasons. He was a
three time All Pro. All Pro is hard to get.
I mean, that's that's the tough one. Something that was unique,
and it's one of the best games I've ever seen
him play in Seahawk history.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Too.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Was nineteen eighty four. We're playing the San Diego Chargers
on Monday Night football in San Diego, and they are loaded.
They've got Callen Winslow All Pro. They've got Chandler Joiner
at wide receivers, they got Dan Fouts, they got Chuck
Munsey at running back. They're loaded. We shut him out
twenty four to nothing, and Kenny has two interceptions. And
(15:35):
what I remember about that game is it's towards the
end of the game and they're down by the goal
line and we've got our Nickel package in and he's like,
they're not going to score. I mean, he was in
the huddle like they are not going to score. I
mean we basically if they score, we're gonna have to
deal with him on Monday. And that year, nineteen eighty
(15:57):
four Defensive Player of the Year. To get in the secondary,
you just don't see that very often. The nineteen eighties
All team, and then finally what he deserved, what took
way too long, was finally making the Hall of Fame.
And I had the opportunity to go down to Canton.
That was such an incredible experience, and we were all there.
(16:19):
You know, Eugene Robinson was there, you had John Harris
was there. I think Key Simpson. You know, a lot
of the guys were a part of that eighty four team.
So special, special player. Kenny was ready for eighty four.
He was healthy. He wasn't healthy in eighty three.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
He was.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I started a bunch of games for him. But eighty
four he was healthy and he was very focused, and
it's one of the great eighty four seasons. You know,
I think in NFL history, Kenny easily and he's a
hard one to describe as a player. I'm gonna try
and do my best on this. There's very few people
(16:57):
in the NFL that you fear, I mean fear come
across the middle. I don't want to get hit by
that guy. And also fear he's going to be a
playmaker on me. I can't throw it to him. We
got to avoid him at all costs, and a lot
of teams actually designed a defense to take Kenny away
versus us. They would always line up in a slot formation.
(17:20):
By the way we played our defense back then, a
three to four defense, the strong safety would always go
to the tight end side and then they would end
up motion running back out wide. We used to call
that an ace formation. But they would spread him out
and they would just say, you're out of the game.
We're going to go play the game over here. But
in eighty four they didn't do that, and he was
(17:42):
involved in everything. He had ten interceptions that season. Again,
I think at least two of them returned for touchdowns.
He was the most feared player, both as a playmaker
and as a hitter. He's one of the smartest guys
I've ever been around. I mean he is. He's a
very intelligent person, and when he's focused and wasn't hurt,
(18:03):
he would he could carry a team. He could carry
a team emotionally, he could carry a team physically, and
as a playmaker. Kenny Easily and Ronnie Lott talks about it.
Ronnie says, look, the greatest safety I've ever seen play
is Kenny Easily. And I look at Kenny and kind
of Gail Sayers as two players similar in that their
(18:24):
careers were cut short, and wow, what would it have
been like if they weren't. You know, Gail Sayers is
because of an injury. Kenny's because of an illness. You know,
Kenny still had over thirty interceptions and really only played
He played seven seasons, I believe, but you know I
started probably fourteen or fifteen times when he was playing
(18:47):
because of injuries. And if he could have played out
a whole career the way it is, the rest of
the world would know more about Kenny, you know, even
though he made it to the Pro Bowl. But very unique.
One of the great athletes and I Syria. One of
the great athletes I've ever seen. And when I say
by great athlete, could do anything, I mean he was
(19:10):
a He played on UCLA's freshman basketball team. He was
close to a scratch golfer. I don't want to give
him too much on that one because I used to
play against him a lot. But no, no, but he
was He was better than I was when I was good.
We had fierce ping pong matches back in Camp and
(19:32):
Cheney that are somewhat legendary. He could throw a football.
He was our punt returner when we needed one, and
he was good at it. Uh. He could have been
a wide receiver, he could have played just about any position,
skill position in the NFL. Uh. Yeah, again, just a
phenomenal athlete. Everything he touched he was good at. So
(19:53):
really unique and you know, again I'll put that secondary
against any secondary. It was truly that good. And the
numbers speak for themselves.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
A few years ago, Bob Condotta and I wrote a
book called If These Walls Could Talk, And I remember
interviewing you during that and for you, I mean, it
was it was kind of cool that you had, you
played with these great players, but you couldn't get on
the field because you know, you had four guys. You
mentioned Keith Simpson, John Harris, the two lesser known right
(20:29):
guys in that. But you know, we called that chapter
the original Legion of Boom because they were incredible. I
mean you mentioned the number of takeaways and you know,
and I remember the first time you, you know, got
a chance to start. I think it was because Kenny
had gotten sick the year before or whatever. You came
out and had six interceptions and I think you were
(20:50):
alternate in the Pro Bowl that year. In nineteen eighty
eight and yeah, you just I mean they were loaded
and nobody really knew other than Kenny Easily. Really nobody
really knew those guys' names. I mean, Dave Brown is
sixty two, I think it is, Yeah, sixty two, careerator
two intersect.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
He should be in the Hall of Fame. There's there's
no question. I mean he's he has the most interceptions
for someone who's not in the Hall of Fame. No,
it was, it was really John Harris was an incredible safety.
Keith Simpson was probably one of the hardest hitting defensive
backs I've ever been around me. I remember one time
against he played against Earl Campbell. Was actually before I
got there, but I saw it on film or they
(21:31):
were showing some cut ups and he laid out Earl
Campbell and Earl Campbell is you know, one of the
tough running backs ever. It was. Yeah, it's you know,
if you fast forward today with social media and if
we could have got over the hump into the Super Bowl,
there's for sure. Look, I think Jacob Green, I got
(21:54):
to talk about him. I think Jacob Green should be
in the Hall of Fame. They didn't start doing so
until eighty one, eighty two whatever that number is, so
his full career, he doesn't have him. You go and
look at the sacks when he was there. I mean,
Jacob was a force. He was a bit undersized, but
he's also you know, he was an incredible leader. I mean,
(22:17):
I love Jacob Green. I love that team. There were
so many good guys, you know, both sides of the ball.
You know, Steve Largent, I mean, just an incredible human being.
You know, Kurt Warner, We had Charlie Young, you know,
Blair Bush was our center. I mean, just some really
good David Hughes, you know, people that you some of
(22:38):
you may remember that going back that far and defensively,
you met Keith Butler. You know, you want a smart
football team, and why we got so many turnovers. Keith
Butler is one of the smartest linebackers besides you. Dave Wyman,
you know, who went on to become a defensive coordinator
for Pittsburgh for many years. Really just a brilliant mind
there as well. But that whole second, you could not
(23:00):
play in our secondary if you weren't intelligent. Really, I mean,
it just it didn't work. And the type of scheme
they ran. People ask me all the time I got
you guys can't run it. It's not the exes and o's,
you will understand the xs and o's, but the amount
of times that we would go out there for thirty
minutes as a group and they would run every walk through,
(23:22):
every type of pass route you could with a combination
either three on two or two on one. We went
over and over and over. So you just after a
while you weren't even thinking about it. And back then again,
we know you used to have three a days, you know,
and training camp, you know you could have here was
(23:42):
the other thing, Rota's First of all, we we were here,
I mean we weren't off, you know, down in California
or somewhere else. Everybody was here working out together. And
it wasn't mandatory. We just wanted to do it. So
we played a lot of seven on seven and against
Steve Largent and who schooled us every day in practice.
(24:06):
Every day David would he would run and he would
be laughing at me. He would be he'd be running
down and looking at me, and as soon as he
knew I was looking at him, that was a problem
because I should have been looking down at his belt
buckle and he would laugh like, you know what I'm
about to do, and you still can't stop it, And
(24:27):
I couldn't. I mean, if you were inside, even if
you doubled them, he would beat you if you were inside.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
He used to.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
He taught me a couple of things that I taught
Eugene Robinson when he got when I was coaching him.
But what he would do is he would attack the
guy on a double team. If all of a sudden
you were had inside technique, he would actually fake out
and you would at that point open up because you're
feel vulnerable to the out even though you're just both
(24:57):
to protect the end. And he would cross face shit
every time every time. In practice drove me crazy. So
I wasn't the smartest guy because I couldn't figure that
one out till the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Well, I remember Steve Largent saying that he would you know,
because a lot of times defensive backs, you're going to
take a side right, and I'm going to take this
side away, And he said, that's the way I'm going
to beat you, because in your mind, you think you
have me locked up on the inside and you're looking
for an outside route, and he would beat So it's
(25:27):
kind of like a reverse psychology type of thing with
largent Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I tried to teach and this would be hard to
describe on this right now, but I try to teach
that if you did a double team and a guy
faked an out, that you should actually turn in at
that point, not turn out, because as soon as you
turn out, if he cross facing tries to beat you
(25:52):
back inside, Now you got to clear your hips back
to square and then back to end. Well, just open
up to the end you can, you can do the
go route. If he goes, I'm just gonna be inside.
And then if he does break in and I'm just
straight downhill. Try to teach it just it's just mentally,
it's it's counterintuitive and it's really hard to do, but
(26:13):
I wanted to be cutting edge. It never it never
quite worked on that one.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
There was a story that Sam Merriman told me about
the AFC Championship game down and at the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
It was about Tom Catlan and it has to do
with Tom Catlan. I'll just tell the story.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Tell the story.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
So after this was a story I heard from Sam Merriman,
Super Sam from Idaho and he was a great special
team player really good linebacker. But when you guys went
down to the coliseum where you played the AFC championship
game against the Raiders, I guess Sam had a bunch
of friends that came, and Tom Catlin, the defensive coordinator,
(27:02):
knew about it, you know, knew that he was going
to have, you know, some friends there at the game
and everything. So you guys end up losing that game,
which again I have to look at it, but I
know you beat him twice during the regular Raiders So
but he told me after the game that the crowd
just poured onto the field and you know, and everybody
(27:23):
was was pissed, right, And so you're walking off the
field and you got to like the tunnel where the
coliseum is there, and some guy comes running over and
and Sam told me it was like guys were like
kind of getting together, like almost like circling, like we
got to get out of here, we got to get
out of this crowd.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
So they get into the tunnel and I and Sam.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Is walking with Tom Catlan, and you know, Tom Catlan
just very stoic, wouldn't say very many words at all,
just never showed a motion or anything. So some fan
came up and got in his face. So now Tom
was he was a linebacker in the NFL back in
like the fifties and sixties. So he gets in his
face and starts screaming this fan, and Sam said, in
(28:09):
one motion, as quick as any of the players could
have done, he grabbed the guy by the throat, slams
him against the wall and punches him in the face,
and then you know, guy drops to the ground.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And so then they keep walking.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And he knew, like I said that, that Sam had
some friends there at the game, and he just very
kind of quietly turns to Sam and goes, that wasn't
one of your friends, was it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That would be Tom Catlan, very stoic. And he was
a pilot too, Tom Cat, Yeah, I was. I was
flying to I was a coach at the time, and
we were flying to Texas A and m to you know,
scout some of the guys their nurse, you know, senior day,
senior pro day. And it was turbulent, you know, And
(28:56):
I was like, and he goes, we're good. He goes, uh,
and he said, you know, as long as those engines
are going, he goes, we're good. He does, remember, he
goes terribly he said, it's just there, you know, and
he goes, you'll get it a little bit when he
was explaining when you get it because we were going
over like a lake and so there was a change
of heat and cold at the time. And and I
(29:18):
didn't know that about him either. He was you know
Tom Catlan, for he was our defensive coordinat for a
long time. It was actually one year was voted coach
of the Year and I think it was which they
had never had. I mean he was an assistant, you know, which.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Was ninety two seasons, I think so, I think it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Was it was ninety two. He's just he was such
a good man. Yeah, you know he We had some
great coaches. I mean we had George Dyer who was
a great defensive line coach. Again, Ralph Hawkins, our secondary coach,
really was a brilliant secondary coach, Tom Catlan, you know,
and then you know Chuck Knock, uh what we know. So,
(30:01):
just to bring it back and by the way, for
those who listen, eighty three that season, that last game
he's talking about the La Raiders who went to the
Oakland Raiders who are now the Las Vegas Las Vegas Raiders.
So they've changed their name a few times for those
who don't know that. Just again to throw out there,
Kenny easily barely played seven seasons, thirty two interceptions. John
(30:26):
Harris had fifty interceptions, and then Dave Brown had sixty two.
I think Earl Thomas has the most. He's around thirty.
Maybe Richard Sherman. Those two, they're right around the thirty range,
which you know, played a lot more games, and this
was when people didn't throw that much, you know, so
there wasn't a lot of interceptions being thrown out there.
(30:49):
So yeah, again, just a really a really special group
this season. Feel every play, every hit, every moment with
the Sony one thousand x five noise canceling headphones, the
official headphones of the Seattle Seahawks. With premium noise cancelation,
You're in the zone, no distractions, just pure football, whether
(31:11):
you're in the living room or on the go, You'll
never miss a beat with Sony headphones. Well that'll do
it for this segment. Want to thank you along with
Dave Wyman and being part of this as we celebrate
the fiftieth season with the Seattle Seahawks.
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