Sports Guy Likes the Seahawks

Bill Simmons ranks the Seahawks as the #2 team in the NFL in part two of his NFL season preview, published today last week. Here's what he says about the Hawks:

I wrote it last week, I'll write it again: Everyone is sleeping on these guys. They finished 9-7 during a season when nearly everything went wrong; now they're healthy and happy; they dumped their clubhouse cancer guys; they added a pass rusher (Patrick Kerney) and an overqualified defensive assistant (Jim Mora Jr., who nearly made the Super Bowl 30 months ago); they're playing in one of the easiest divisions (the NFC West); and they'll probably be favored in every 2007 game except Pittsburgh in Week 5 and Philly in Week 12. And it's not like they haven't done it before. Throw in their homefield advantage and skill position guys and they seem like the safest bet in the NFC.

So why can you currently get 25-to-1 Super Bowl odds for them in Vegas? Because it's no fun to pick the Seahawks. They've been there before, they play in a smaller market, they have a bald quarterback, their uniforms are boring, their best player is boring, their coach looks like he should be wearing a sheriff's outfit and buying donuts, and if you say you've met more than three Seahawks fans in your entire life and you're not from Seattle, you're lying. Really, the only thing that stands out about them is their crowd. Switch their roster with Dallas' roster and they'd be 7-to-1 odds right now. Since they're in Seattle, nobody cares yet. But you will. Give it a couple of months.

I don't agree with the uniform crack, but I hope he's right about everything else.