Notes From a 12 Man: A Truly Biased History of the Seattle Seahawks

This Friday and Saturday, Mark Turner, the author of Notes from a 12 Man: A Truly Biased History of the Seattle Seahawks, will have a book signing at Barnes and Noble at Pacific Place at 4pm. He will also be holding a book reading event sponsored by University Books at FX McRorys at 7pm. For more information check out his website.

The book is available at retail outlets throughout the Northwest including at Barnes & Noble, Costco, Fred Meyer, Seattle Team Shops, and online at Amazon.

SeaTown Sports got the chance to interview Mark about his book and about the current state of the Seahawks. Check it out after the jump!
In your opinion, does the future look bright for Seahawk football? Do you see some success in the near future?

I'm an optimist. Even during the awful Behring years I tried to keep the faith. These days we have a great owner who wants the organization to be first class in every way and has the resources to make it happen. This is huge because the success of a team truly starts at the top. It attracts quality free agents like TJ Houshmandzadeh to Seattle.

So yes, the future is very bright. Sure I sometimes worry about particular things such as if offensive line has enough depth to last the season but overall I feel pretty good about the team.

You list a lot of notable wins and defeats in the book...can you narrow down your favorite wins of all-time to a top 5 or even an all-time favorite? And the same for defeats as well (worst ones of all-time)?

I think every Seahawk fan can agree the greatest win in team history was the 2005 NFC Championship game against Carolina. That is without doubt. The runner-up has to be the 1983 AFC divisional playoff game at Miami. We came in as incredible underdogs and pulled off one of the great upsets in NFL postseason history.

After that I'm partial to our first Monday Night Football game ever. It came at Atlanta in 1979 and it featured, among other things, the fake field goal that turned into a Zorn to kicker Efren Herrera pass play for a first down. That game really introduced a lot of America to the Seahawks.

As for defeats, the loss to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football in 2004 and then the playoff game that year against the Rams were two of the most miserable defeats I've ever endured in my life.

Who is your favorite past seahawk and current Seahawk?


It is very hard for me to name just one or a few Seahawks as favorites. I have a hard enough time narrowing down an all-time Seahawk team (John L. Williams or Mack Strong at fullback?).

Are there certain themes that are unique to the Seahawks history that have become apparent after writing the book?

There is the theme of rebirth. It isn't necessarily a theme unique to the Seahawks. All NFL teams have rebirths but it is the way the Hawks have been reborn that is different. You are talking about a team that went from having solid ownership with the Nordstrom family to dying under the aegis of Ken Behring only to be reborn again with Paul Allen.

The Seahawks had literally moved to Los Angeles before Allen and the NFL stopped Behring from what today would be the unthinkable: moving the Seahawks. No franchise has ever come that close to moving without actually leaving town. The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Oilers. They all moved. The Seahawks stayed.


What about the Seahawks history sets it apart from the history of other NFL franchises?

What is most unique about the Hawks is it's location. The Seahawks are the most remote franchise in the NFL. Being tucked away in Seattle makes every road trip an above-average journey within the NFL. To give you an idea of how far away the Hawks are from the rest of the NFL, you need to compare it to Chicago. In the distance between the Seahawks and their nearest NFL teams (49ers & Raiders), Chicago is closer to 17 teams.

One of the things that is most interesting about Seahawk history is that it is long enough to have a lot of good stories but short enough for a significant portion of its fanbase remember the team all the way back to the beginning. Many fans can recall Jim Zorn scrambling around in the backfield before sending a pass deep to Steve Largent for a touchdown. The early Hawk teams did not win a lot of games but they were an entertaining team.

What was your main inspiration for writing this book?


I was inspired by the fact that a definitive history of the Seahawks had yet to be written. Other teams such as the New York Giants had many books written about them. Why not the Hawks? I felt I could tell the story through my point of view as a fan who had been following team for its entire history.