Editorial: Seahawks’ win whets appetite for Sonics’ return
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, February 10, 2026
By The Herald Editorial Board
Maybe we’re being greedy, but so be it.
We want more of that, please.
Those in less blue-green portions of the country may smile condescendingly at our glee in celebrating the Seattle Seahawks’ irrefutable Super Bowl LX 29-13 victory Sunday night over the New England Patriots.
Some national voices groused about a less-than-thrilling, low-scoring scrum, a game in which the Seattle defense so ground down the Patriot offense that it left flummoxed its quarterback and receivers, ranked No. 1 in yards per pass and No. 2 in pass-completion rate for the season.
The “Dark Side” defense — heirs to the Legion of Boom that last took the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory in 2014 — panicked New England QB Drake Maye and his offensive line with blitzes that earned six sacks of Maye, holding him to 27-of-43 passing for 295 yards, and held the Pats to 79 total rushing yards. (Wags at Front Office Sports noted in a post on X that Bad Bunny, who carried a football for some of his halftime show, bested New England with 124 yards on the field.)
We could go on dropping statistics — as frequently as the New England coaches were dropping head-shaking F-bombs from the sidelines — as proof of Seattle’s dominance on Sunday and the promise for a budding dynasty, but it only leaves us wanting more.
More from the Seahawks, certainly, but also more from an engaging and nearly year-round calendar of professional sports for Washington state and beyond.
With FIFA World Cup games scheduled in Seattle this summer, expect Seattle Sounders FC to build on that MLS franchise’s long and successful history, adding fans and international recognition.
We’ve broadened our diet with hockey from the Northwest folklore-rich NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the fledgling Seattle Torrent in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Mariners fans are just days away from the start of spring training for the Seattle MLB club (pitchers and catchers report Thursday); with ample promise for another run at the World Series, having fallen just innings short in losing Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Coming that close to its first-ever World Series has only raised excitement for its 50th season of play with fan favorites among Mariner veterans and promising off-season additions.
Likewise, there’s perennial promise courtesy of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, which has brought home four league titles in 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020.
The Storm, of course, have carried basketball fans in Seattle since the departure of the Seattle SuperSonics in 2008, when the team was sold to an Oklahoma group and moved east. The Storm have been the sweetness that salved the bitter in the loss of a team that defined Seattle as a professional sports town beginning in 1967, and brought Washington state its first modern-era professional championship with the 1979 NBA title.
Yearnings and promises of another NBA franchise have followed ever since the Sonics’ departure but have produced only 18 years of disappointment.
Yet. With the NBA considering expansion, with a possible announcement coming sometime this year, two cities are seen as front-runners for a franchise: Las Vegas and Seattle. But we’ve heard it before.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has referenced that off-again, on-again talk. In December, in discussing expansion, Silver acknowledged the cycle of enticement and disappointment: “I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we’re somehow teasing these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for a while,” he said.
Ya think?
The anticipation for expansion was again fanned last week with news that Gov. Bob Ferguson had reached out to the league and talked with Silver, offering to “be helpful in bringing back the Sonics.” The NBA had no comment on the news, but basketball and Sonic fans are skilled in turning the faintest whisper of news into hours of sports-talk-radio chatter.
A return of the SuperSonics — there can be no other name for the franchise — is the missing piece in the hearts of regional sports fans, allowing the resumption of a rich history of athletics and entertainment and a true full-year of professional sports.
There’s little beyond public officials’ offers of support and fans’ full-throated enthusiasm that at this point can be added to Seattle’s case for an NBA expansion team. The arena — Climate Pledge — is in place and ready to welcome the Sonics back to join the Storm, Kraken and Torrent. The fan base most certainly is there.
The decision, then, will be left to NBA team owners and those who can pull together an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion in franchise fees.
But don’t underestimate the power of the fans’ voice in making things happen.
Are there any 12s — throughout this season and especially at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday — who doubt the part they played in Super Bowl LX?
