Groz Remembers: Celebrating the historic 2005 Seattle Seahawks

With Mike Holmgren and Matt Hasselbeck going into the Seahawks Ring of Honor this season we look back at their finest hour, the 2005 Super Bowl season.

Seahawks to induct Matt Hasselbeck, Mike Holmgren into Ring of Honor

When you look back, it can all seem so easy. But for Mike Holmgren, Matt Hasselbeck and the 2005 Seahawks, the pressure was on starting Jan. 9, the day after they finished up a 9-7 season with a first round playoff loss to the Rams.

“Twenty years of being average” said a headline in the Seattle Times, and the story pointed out how the Seahawks had now gone 20 years without a playoff victory. It was Mike Holmgren’s seventh year and three playoff games without a win was a lot less than was expected from the “Big Show.” If 2005 was disappointing as well, there was a sense that the Seahawks might try someone else at the top.

For Matt Hasselbeck, the year was just as important. The Seahawks’ starter for two-plus years, it was about leadership and execution. The previous season had ended at home in the first round against an 8-8 Rams team. Hasselbeck had driven the team into Rams territory and with 21 seconds left on fourth down from the 5 had scrambled free and fired a perfect pass to Bobby Engram, who couldn’t hold on and the Seahawks’ streak of playoff futility continued. The team cut loose Trent Dilfer in the offseason and Hasselbeck was voted by his teammates to be captain. He spent training camp having lunch with a different teammate each day cementing his status as leader for the team.

2005 was the year something had to give and the team knew it. Shaun Alexander signed a “show-me” one-year contract. Walter Jones went to training camp for the first time in five years. The offense was ready. Defensively, Holmgren and coordinator Ray Rhodes decided to gamble with an undersized linebacker out of USC in Lofa Tatupu who earned the start in Week 1 at middle linebacker.

This was the year… This HAD to be the year….

We will look back weekly on the epic 2005 season, a season that changed everything for the Seahawks and for Mike Holmgren and Matt Hasselbeck cementing their status as Seahawk legends.

Follow Dave “The Groz” Grosby on Twitter.

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