RENTON — The first time the Seahawks intercepted a pass, their regular starters weren’t playing. The game didn’t matter.
So what. Devon Witherspoon led all his fellow starters, including some on offense, in a sprint off the sideline. They ran half the field into the end zone to join in the celebration of cornerback Josh Jobe’s interception in the first preseason game against Las Vegas Aug. 7.
Officials penalized them for unsportsmanlike conduct for coming off the sidelines, being on the field with their helmets off, and some being on the field while not even in uniform, but in bucket hats. When all — we mean ALL— defensive players got back to the sideline after the celebration, rookie safety Nick Emmanwori walked up to veteran Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams.
“Wow,” Emmanwori, the prized second-round draft choice, exclaimed to Williams over the noise of the Lumen Field crowd, “we have got something special here!”
The second time the Seahawks intercepted a pass later in that same quarter of the same game, Witherspoon again led all his teammates off the sideline. They ran the same half of the field into the end zone to join in the celebration of cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett’s interception.
Another unsportsmanlike conduct foul. Another 15-yard penalty.
And their coaches did not care.
“Cost of doing business,” head coach Mike Macdonald said with a wry grin following that game.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” defensive coordinator Aden Durde said Thursday.
“You have to understand that it is the preseason, and you can’t do that every time, things happen because that causes penalties,” Durde said. “As you are growing and you really want to connect with the group of people, in those situations and that point of time, I think just like Mike said, I think that is part of the growth of this team.
“To celebrate together, to drive the energy and allow how those things change the momentum of games and how they change the way you play in the next moment you do things. It was kind of a cool picture.
“You can’t do it all the time, honestly. But I thought it was fun.”
Seahawks feel a brotherhood
A month later, the Seahawks are entering the opening game of the 2025 NFL season Sunday against San Francisco at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 13 locally) feeling uniquely bonded.
Yes, this year’s team has yet to lose a game. Nothing in pro sports tests good vibes and camaraderie more than losses.
Yet these Seahawks, older (Williams) and younger (Emmanwori), feel they are brothers. That’s especially on a defense that is mostly returning intact from the unit that was one of the NFL’s best the latter half of last season.
“Especially the older guys, J-Reed (defensive tackle Jarran Reed), me, some of the older guys, we talk about how we’ve been in the league for a long time,” Williams, 32, said. “And we understand that every team has first-rounders, All-Pro, Pro Bowlers, and things of that nature. We understand that it’s not just talent that takes you all the way. It’s the connection and the culture.
“It’s easy for guys like us, because we’ve been around for so long to see that it’s different here, because we’ve been to other places. But what really stands out to me is seeing young guys like Nick (see it) in preseason games when the sideline is electrified. …
“To see a young guy see that, you know, it’s powerful.”
It fits what Williams and other veteran Seahawks call the culture the 37-year-old Macdonald has forged in his second year as head coach. “It’s way more prominent this year,” Pro Bowl safety Julian Love told The News Tribune before practice Thursday for the season opener Sunday against San Francisco at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 13).
But Love, 27, says that culture comes from more than just the head coach.
He says the most of the team running onto the field to join in teammates’ celebrations were examples the veteran Seahawks are setting for Emmanwori and many of the other younger ones.
“Players are setting what we want the culture to be,” Love said. “He (Macdonald) has a guideline of what he wants the pillars to be. But as players, we are taking action and feel empowered to set the tone on who we want to be as teammates for each other, so people are lining up in games doing it for each other.” How this bond could matter
Leaders of the defense and team, Love and Williams have talked about the Seahawks’ growing brotherhood pulling this team through close, ultracompetitive games to season-defining wins.
The margins are so small in the NFL. Seattle won 10 games last season, yet lost the division title and out on a playoff spot on the fifth, strength-of-victory tiebreaker to the Rams.
These 2025 Seahawks players feel this closeness they are building could win in those small margins, and that those victories can vault the Seahawks back to the postseason.
“We definitely let some games slip out of our hands last year,” Williams said. “I think having a clearer identity as a team will help us push through those hard times that we went through last season.
“Me and Julian talked about this, actually, where every great team, every team in general, is going to go through at least two hard points in the season. It’s the great ones who can bounce back, and rely on their culture, rely on their training, that would be able to push through those hard moments and make it through the playoffs and further.”
Williams said last season with Macdonald and his new coaching staff in their first year, “it was harder for us to push through those times without as much to lean on.”
“Whereas this year,” Williams said, “we’re going to have a lot more to lean on.”
Just don’t expect these bonded Seahawks to run en masse off the sideline into the end zone to celebrate the next interception by a teammate. Not now that the games matter.
“Yeah, those are some preseason costs of doing business,” Love said.
The veteran safety laughed.
“Yeah, we’ve got to win some games. We can’t be taking those type of penalties, too much, in season.”
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