Seahawks used offseason retreat to air grievances over Super Bowl play-calling
After losing the Super Bowl on a devastating interception, Seattle Seahawks players addressed their offseason tensions in a player-organized retreat.
According to a lengthy Sports Illustrated profile by Greg Bishop, teammates assembled in Hawaii to clear the air and get their grievances out in the open after a rift developed between the offense and defense, with certain players upset with how the Super Bowl loss went down.
"Sometimes, you never want it to be this way, but it’s offense versus defense," wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. "That's natural. But, yes, there was tension. ... People thinking we should have done this, we should have done that (in the Super Bowl). There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered. And a lot that needed to be asked."
The profile indicates that players at the retreat voiced the opinion that the decision to let Russell Wilson throw the ball on the 1-yard line was made so the franchise quarterback would become the Super Bowl hero.
"Whatever was lingering from that game," linebacker Bobby Wagner said, "people got it off their chest."
The trip is being described by Seahawks players as a "come to Jesus" meeting, and it seems to have helped heal any lingering issues between teammates. Wilson confirmed that it took until April for the Super Bowl wound to heal for many players.
"I think a lot of guys got over it at different times," Wilson said Tuesday after practice. "I think ultimately when we got together in Maui and experienced one another, felt one another in the sense of our energy and our focus before one another and what we were gonna do - when we threw all the other stuff off the cliff kind of deal into the ocean there in Maui, and just focused on what we're gonna do to move forward and how we're gonna focus on each other and how we're gonna build one another up and how we're gonna try to win a lot of football games and continue to do the same thing. I mean, we were on the 1-yard line, you know? We don't need to change much. So I think that's kind of our focus."