Emotion Defeats Analysis After Hawks Loss to Bears

UPDATE: Gore out three weeks for Niners.

Immediately following the Seattle Seahawks loss Sunday against the Chicago Bears, head coach Jim Mora stepped to the microphone at the press conference and excoriated place kicker Olindo Mare so fully that “Pardon the Interruption” made the outburst one of the top sports topics of the day. Locally, Seattle Times staff reporter Danny O’Neill published a story under the premise that coach Mora may cut Mare because of his two missed field goals Sunday. The only reason the Mare story has any “legs” at all is because of the media. Meanwhile, legitimate points of consternation from Sunday’s game fly under the radar.

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Emotional ‘Hawks fans

Nice Jerry Brewer column. I agree with his conclusion, but at this point, Seahawks fans seem unable to listen to reason. So as reasonable at Brewer is, I’m just going to tell all Seahawks fans to calm down because yelling about the Aaron Curry/Mark Sanchez faux controversy is really just a way to vent about Deion Branch, Tim Ruskell and a plethora of injuries.

The Hawks traded a 2007 first-round pick for Branch, a smallish, quick wide receiver whose claim to fame was earning Super Bowl MVP honors for catching eleven Tom Brady passes while playing with the New England Patriots. At the time, Ruskell was quoted as saying, “I will always be big on draft picks, but this is a known commodity. The first round can be a crapshoot from top to bottom.” Really? A crapshoot? Remember, this is a man whose front office has pulled gem after gem from the draft, no matter the round. Clearly, he made the trade because he liked Branch’s ability and winning pedigree and believed he would help the Hawks continue their winning ways. Needless to say, it hasn’t worked out and the anger has been bubbling for awhile and it appears to be boiling over.

And now Matt Hasselbeck is sidelined with a fractured rib. And Marcus Trufant is out. And Brandon Mebane is sidelined. And now T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Ken Lucas are on the injury report. Add another half dozen names here. Paying attention to the Seahawks injury report is like watching the list of baseball players linked to steroids. Will it ever stop growing? And, of course, when the unexplainable happens, emotional football fans must find a scapegoat. Ruskell fits perfectly. He drafted Deion Branch, and everyone is angry with Deion Branch because he’s barely ever on the field. He decided not to draft Mark Sanchez, and now Hasselbeck is hurt and Sanchez is playing well. Further, the player he did draft, Curry, a linebacker some liken to Lawrence Taylor, is being piled on for overrunning a Frank Gore touchdown run last week. Just one question: Did Curry overrun Gore’s multiple long jaunts in 2006, too? I didn’t think so.

So, in the end, the anger and talk isn’t about Aaron Curry or Mark Sanchez. It’s about frustration. It’s about misplaced anger. It’s about football fans trying to explain the unexplainable. Well, I’m here to tell everyone, it won’t get this franchise anywhere. So calm down and leave Tim Ruskell alone. After all, he did draft Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill (crap, they’re both injured too).