The Sound Has Effects in Seattle
Seahawks Have Made Some Noise at Qwest Field, Thanks in Part to the '12th Man'

By Scott M. Johnson
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

KIRKLAND, Wash., Jan. 9 -- All defensive tackle Chartric Darby could hear was white noise.

The Qwest Field stands were thumping, the fans were screaming like schoolchildren and opposing offensive linemen were jumping offside at an alarming pace -- 11 times, in fact, in a single afternoon. While the Seattle Seahawks' defensive players had to rely on a series of hand signals just to make their calls, the deafening effects did even worse damage on the visiting New York Giants.

Nationally, the Seahawks' 24-21 overtime win over the Giants on Nov. 27 might be remembered for the three unsuccessful Jay Feely field goal attempts at the end of regulation and overtime, but in Seattle it's being recalled as the game when the "12th Man" led the way to victory.

"Oh, man," Darby said last week, licking his lips at the very memory of that game. "This might be one of the loudest stadiums out there. You've got [opposing] offensive linemen jumping offside; they can't get the snap count. The fans are crazy. It's real loud, and that's to our advantage."

And the Seahawks' home-field advantage doesn't stop there.

Whether it's the energy of a fan base that has only recently embraced this team, or the thousands of miles opponents have to travel just to play in Seattle, the Seahawks have shown they have one of the biggest home-field advantages in football.

The Seahawks (13-3) recently finished off an unbeaten home schedule, marking the second time they've done that in the past three seasons. Since the team moved into the new downtown stadium in 2002, Seattle has gone 24-8 at home during the regular season. The Seahawks are 21-4 there the past three seasons and also went undefeated at home in 2003.

So if the thought of facing Shaun Alexander and the NFC's top-ranked offense isn't daunting enough for the Washington Redskins, maybe a road trip to unfriendly confines is.

"The important thing is that we don't have to get on a plane" this week, Seattle defensive end Bryce Fisher said. "And anybody that has to play us has to get on a plane and travel a long way."

In a sense, the Redskins will know what it's like to walk a mile in the Seahawks' shoes -- or fly 2,300 miles, as the case may be.

Because of its location, Seattle's professional teams log more miles than anyone else's. In eight road games this year, the Seahawks traveled approximately 28,500 air miles, with the 678-mile flight to San Francisco being the equivalent of the Redskins traveling to Baltimore to play the Ravens.

By comparison, the Redskins had one of their more taxing seasons in terms of road trips but put in about half the travel mileage of the Seahawks.

"We're way up here in the top corner" of the United States, Seahawks cornerback Kelly Herndon said. "Other teams have to fly 3,000 miles, and it's tough to get off the plane after a flight like that and get ready."

While the Seahawks boasted one of the NFL's most daunting home-field advantages during their days in the Kingdome -- particularly when the franchise fielded some strong teams in the mid-1980s -- the outdoor facility has brought more of a Johnny-come-lately fan base. The team struggled to sell out Qwest Field during its first three seasons in the outdoor facility, but lately the Seahawks are the hottest ticket in town. The remaining tickets to Saturday's game sold out 10 minutes after they went on sale Monday morning.

People in Seattle again have taken pride in the 12th Man philosophy, which reached its peak in the 1980s. In 1984, team retired jersey No. 12 in honor of its fans.

"The fans have really started to embrace the 12th Man," said cornerback Marcus Trufant, who grew up in nearby Tacoma during the Seahawks' initial heyday. "There are 12th Man jerseys, signs, stuff like that. Everybody's really buying into it. That's helping us on offense. And on defense, the crowd gets behind us and gets everybody fired up and makes you play better."

Sometimes the atmosphere gets so crazy that even the Seahawks' players have trouble adjusting.

The Giants game was a perfect example, with so much noise cascading through the stadium that the Seahawks' defenders sometimes had trouble communicating with each other.

"It was hard on defense to even make our calls," Trufant said. "But the Giants were jumping offside and all that, and that just shows how good our fans are and how rough it is for the opposing team to come in here and feel comfortable.

"When the fans are on [an opponent's] back all day, that makes it hard."

The crowd may have had an effect on the Giants' Feely, who missed from 40 yards at the end of regulation and twice more in overtime.

"They never gave up on us," Darby said. "I mean, the game was over. All they had to do was make one field goal. But they missed three of them. That's the 12th Man."

Part of what makes Qwest Field unique, from an architectural perspective, is that the stands are close to the field behind both end zones. On the north end, only about five or 10 yards separate the back of the end zone from a section that serves as home to the Seahawks' most spirited fans -- Seattle's version of the Oakland Raiders' Black Hole, if you will. The turf surrounding the south end zone is bordered by field-level suites that have become infamous for being included in several touchdown celebrations, the most notable of which came when San Francisco's Terrell Owens handed a ball to a his financial adviser in an end zone suite after signing it with a Sharpie pen he pulled from his sock.

"For an outdoor stadium, it's as loud as you can get, especially down in that [north] end zone," said Fisher, who first played at Qwest Field as a member of the St. Louis Rams. "Our fans are closer to the field than some of the other stadiums."

While three of the four road teams won first-round games over the weekend, including the Redskins at Tampa Bay, the Seahawks believe that their home-field advantage could help reverse the result of the teams' first meeting this season, a 20-17 Washington win Oct. 2.

"The crowd is nuts," Trufant said. "They go crazy for us, and they make it hard for the other team to focus."

Just ask the New York Giants.