by Pat Cashman

Crummy joke I use at charity auctions---especially those that might feature Seahawks game tickets: “Hey, how many people here in the room actually traveled to New Jersey to see the Hawks in the Super Bowl?” Perhaps a few hands go up, but usually none. Then I say, “Don’t feel bad. Most of the Broncos didn’t show up either!” (I told you it was a crummy joke.)
And now, the Northwest’s favorite team is again knocking at the championship door---and if somehow they should return to the Super Bowl, the delirium will start all over again.
But please know this newbies: It wasn’t always so.

Until the Hawks finally made their way into their first Super Bowl in 2005, they had the longest drought of playoff victories of any NFL team, going back to 1984. Even for a camel, that’s a long time without even a sip of water.

The team’s first season was in 1976---and the name, Seahawks, came after 20,000 entries in a naming contest. Names rejected---and I’m only guessing at this:
The Sea Anemones, Sea Horses, Sea Cows, Sea Biscuits, Sea Gulls and Sea Slugs. Also getting some votes---Sea Galley.

The Hawks once traded their draft pick of Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett to the Dallas Cowboys. That’s like trading an actor like Sir. Laurence Olivier for the guy in the Vern Fonk TV ads.
But like any NFL team, the Seahawks always dreamed the dream---and 1985 was no different. In my marketing position at KING TV, we came up with the idea of doing a Hawks music video featuring actual singing and dancing players.

I got permission to attend a pre-season team meeting to pitch the idea to the players themselves. It didn’t go well.
“How much you gonna pay us?,”several players wanted to know.
“Well, uh, nothing,” I explained. “All proceeds from the video will go to a charity. We’re hoping you’ll donate your services.” Easy for me to ask---I didn’t have to run sprints, lift weights and endure two-a-day practices---while trying to make the team.

Still, a few players agreed to take part---and we shot the video during an off-day in the actual player locker room during the pre-season. The smell of sweat and body odor added to the ambience.
Our featured player was Michael Jackson, a star linebacker---and a former UW Husky. The premise was that he would stroll into the locker room and encourage his fellow players to shake off their aches and pains and push ahead for their goal of making it the Superbowl.

A brilliant local music composer named Dan Dean created the tune---I added the lyrics---and Tacoma’s LeRoy Bell (who was later a standout on the TV show on X-Factor) did most of the actual singing.
Besides Jackson, other players included Norm Johnson, the great field-goal specialist; Mike Tice, who later went on to become an NFL head coach; Paul Moyer who now does commentary on Seahawks radio---and Edwin Bailey, who is the featured saxophone player in the video.

The big payoff of the video was to happen near the end---when a door would suddenly swing open---and the head coach at the time, Chuck Knox would say: “And the Blue Wave is on a roll!”It would kill!
But later, when I was editing the final piece, I got a call from one of the public relations people at the Seahawks. “The coach doesn’t want to be in the video,” the guy said.

“What?” I sputtered. “He’s key to the video. Why doesn’t he want to be included?”
“Well,” the flack said. “Coach thinks it would be too arrogant to suggest that his team
could even go to the Super Bowl.”

I protested. “But isn’t THAT his goal?”

“Sorry,”the guy said. “You can’t use him in the video.”
I had to replace Knox with the much less impressive choice of an older woman.
For the record, later that season, the Chicago Bears came up with a music video called the
“Super Bowl Shuffle.” Our video preceded theirs by months---and some people in our marketing department were convinced they ripped us off.

On the other hand, the Bears went on to win the Super Bowl. The Hawks finished 8-8.
You can find the Seahawks Locker Room Rock here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=seahawks+locker+room+rock

pat@patcashman.com