Hawks, Rams aren’t quite bitter foes yet
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, December 13, 2003
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A pair of divisional opponents with postseason aspirations and a history of exciting games will square off today at the Edward James Dome, but it will take more than that to consider the Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams a true rivalry.
The best NFL rivalries – we’re talking full-blown animosity here – are the ones that have that little extra something to pit the sides against each other.
“Somebody’s got to talk about somebody’s mama,” Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander said.
Rather than follow that up with some disparaging words about the families of Leonard Little or Marshall Faulk, Alexander preferred to let the Seahawks-Rams rivalry build on its own. The latest installment begins today at 10 a.m.
Less than two years into the NFC West rivalry, it’s already showing signs of becoming a long-standing confrontation for years to come.
“I think it’s a great rivalry now,” Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “I don’t know if we’re their rivalry, but we respect them in such a way that I would say they’re our rival.”
Three games into the series, the Seahawks already have knocked off the Rams twice. That includes the latest meeting, which saw Seattle rally from a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win 24-23 at Seahawks Stadium almost three months ago.
It was the kind of hard-fought, emotional victory that neither team will forget anytime soon.
“The last two times, we got them. They sure know we got them,” said Seahawks offensive coordinator Gil Haskell, who spent nine years in the Rams organization. “But I know this, I remember the last time they got us, too (in Oct. 2002). We’re a better team than we were then. But it’s a great rivalry.”
While the Rams (10-3) already have a natural rivalry with the San Francisco 49ers that goes all the way back to their days in Los Angeles, the Seahawks are hovering in rival purgatory right now.
Local fans used to consider the Oakland Raiders the biggest rival, but that series is no longer annual now that Seattle has moved to the NFC. The Seahawks and Raiders won’t square off again until 2006.
That rivalry started shortly after the Seahawks joined the NFL in 1976. Current Seattle assistant coach Jim Zorn, who played quarterback on the first nine Seahawks teams, remembers the first meeting with the Raiders. Oakland won that 1977 game 44-7, and Zorn still gets red in the face when talking about how the Raiders continued to pour it on well after the outcome had been determined.
“They had this tradition that they were going to rub it in every time we played them, and we were not going to let that happen again,” Zorn said. “So that’s what created a healthy rivalry.”
The Seahawks haven’t found that kind of bad blood with anyone in the NFC West yet.
“I don’t know where our rival is now,” Zorn said. “To me, it’s still the Raiders, even though they’re not in our division.
“Maybe this is the one only because there’s so much respect between these two teams. But that doesn’t necessarily build a rivalry. You’ve got to have something personal.”
For now, the trash-talk is at a minimum. The Rams and Seahawks have an amicable relationship that could one day blossom into contempt.
“I think it is very healthy, and I think it is what the NFL is all about,” Rams coach Mike Martz said of the Seahawks-Rams rivalry. “We’re two good teams. I think it is just very healthy, very competitive.”
To take this rivalry to the next level, the circumstances have to grow in importance or the moments within the games have to take on a greater appeal. Some of the NFL’s greatest rivalries have also been built around characters that added to the intrigue.
The long-standing rivalries like the Packers-Bears and Steelers-Browns got even more heated when on-field incidents built up a sense of genuine hatred. Cleveland’s Joe “Turkey” Jones will forever be known as the “Steeler Killer” for his post-whistle takedown of Terry Bradshaw in a 1976 game, while Green Bay’s Charles Martin made a similar body slam of Jim McMahon during an interception return.
Not that all rivalries need cheap shots. Some memorable matchups are remembered purely for what is on the line. The Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders squared off in the final AFL championship game in 1970, a contest that helped build animosity between the fans of both franchises. The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins also had their share of contests with playoff berths on the line, like the 1979 Dallas win that helped knock Washington out of postseason contention.
“It takes that one game where it’s the last game of the season and if someone loses they’re totally out of it,” Alexander said. “Or a trade involving players from one team to the other. That would all add fire to the game.”
Those are some of the elements still missing from the Seahawks-Rams series.
“You can tell it’s going to be something special down the road,” Alexander said, “but it’s not completely like a college rivalry or anything yet.”
It may still be in its early stages, but this annual clash seems to be just an ingredient or two away from becoming a full-blown rivalry. And Seahawks fans are looking for someone to hate.
“Something’s going to have to tick us off,” Zorn said. “Rivalries are things that you play because there’s something different about them. We just haven’t established that yet.”
GRAFIC:
The Big Five
A look at the top rivalries in the NFL:
1. Packers-Bears
Since: 1921
Overall record: Packers lead, 84-77-6
Key moment: George Halas and Curly Lambeau, perhaps the biggest names of this rivalry, were involved in a controversial 1921 game that eventually saw the Packers get kicked out of the NFL. Halas discovered that the Lambeau-coached Packers had used three college players for that game, leading to a one-year revocation from the league.
2. Steelers-Browns
Since: 1950
Overall record: Browns lead, 55-46
Key moment: A Browns defensive lineman named Joe “Turkey” Jones, not hearing the whistle, tossed Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw to the ground head-first in a 1976 game. Jones was fined $3,000 and was so hated in Pittsburgh after that event that he had to stay in a separate hotel whenever the Browns traveled to the Steel City.
3. Cowboys-Redskins
Since: 1960
Overall record: Cowboys lead, 51-34-2
Key moment: The Cowboys scored two touchdowns in the final 140 seconds of a 35-34 win over Washington in the 1979 season finale. That game helped knock the Redskins out of playoff contention, which Dallas defensive tackle Harvey Martin reminded his opponents when he tossed a funeral wreath into their locker room after the game.
4. Raiders-Chiefs
Since: 1960
Overall record: Chiefs lead, 45-43-2
Key moment: In the final game played in AFL history, the Chiefs knocked off the Raiders 17-7 in the 1970 championship game. Kansas City then went on to shock the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl.
5. Rams-49ers
Since: 1950
Overall record: Rams lead, 56-51-2
Key moment: Ken Norton Jr., whose father was a former heavyweight champion, did quite an impression after scoring two touchdowns in a 44-10 win over the St. Louis Rams in 1995. Norton shadow-boxed the goal post after each score in the first game the former California rivals played in the state of Missouri. Apparently, referee Ed Hochuli wasn’t a geography major, as he announced a timeout for “Los Angeles” at one point in the game.
