Commentary: Selective hearing worked once, it can work again for Seahawks



Do you hear that? All the opinion columns, the talking heads, the critics – everyone with their latest take the Seahawks, including myself and the guys on this show?

It’s all just noise. Meaningless drivel. Click bait, meant to stir emotions one way or the other.

And in this case, I’m hoping the Seahawks have selective hearing – as in, selecting the worst stuff out there.

Because if memory serves me correctly, during the Seahawks championship season in 2013, it was almost like a unified crusade against the skeptics. Doug Baldwin, steaming inside about Cris Carter calling the receivers “pedestrian” and “appetizers.” Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner in just their second year still trying to prove the so-called experts foolish for giving their draft class an “F.”

And Richard Sherman, still putting Seattle on the map with his Muhammad Ali-style declarations, like this one after a big win over the Niners: “There are a lot of pundits and ignorant idiots who thought, ‘Oh, the Seahawks are going to lose this game...Every time they doubt us, you look stupid.”

The selective hearing worked back then. And after all the ups and downs this year, there’s no reason they can’t make the know-it-alls counting them out “look stupid” again.

I mean, at the exact same time the Seahawks were celebrating in their locker room last night, fired up after a 20-point playoff win, this local column was filed, stating that they hardly looked “championship caliber.” I don’t care for the reasons – I care about the absurd headline reaching that locker room and letting those words sink in.

Because as much as Sherman tells me they don’t really listen to the outside noise, you know he’s aware of it. You know all of them are aware of it. After all, why would he say this to me just last week?

“I think outside of this organization, people have become complacent, and kind of fat and unappreciative of our contributions and what we’ve done and how hard it is to do what we’ve done over the last five years,” Sherman said.

That’s not a message to those who see the big picture – who recognize the incredible stretch this team has had and trust the core of guys to make a legitimate push to reach another Super Bowl. It’s simply a reminder to those who have incredibly short-term memory!

And that was before he and Baldwin and Kam Chancellor and Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett and K.J. Wright missed the All-Pro Team. You don’t think that’s not in the back of their collective minds either?

So when we talk about the Falcons this week, I’m encouraging as much focus on the non-call on Julio Jones at the end of the game this season. Keep telling them that the Falcons should’ve won that game. Keep telling them that Atlanta’s offense will be unstoppable this week too. And my favorite: Keep pushing the “full circle” storylines – that the divisional loss to the Falcons in 2012 marked the Seahawks’ championship window starting to open, and that this week’s game is symbolic of that window starting to close.

All of that babble, all of that talk: Again, it’s all just noise.

But it’s noise I want this team to hear this week and this entire month, because, from everything we’ve seen in the past, it seems to bring out their best.