Seattle Can Have Seahawks

The thought ran through the mind Sunday as often as Rick Mirer ran in tiny circles, or toward the sidelines, or for his life.

These could have been the Los Angeles Seahawks.

The horror.

The vision bounced before eyes like a kick return fumbled by one Seattle player because he ran into another Seattle player.

These guys could have belonged to us.

The shame.

But for the work of a few good men--and, OK, the stumbling of a few fools--the Seattle Seahawks that were defeated by the San Diego Chargers, 29-7, could have been playing their first game as the Southland’s new NFL team.

Our children would have been wearing their jerseys. Our TVs would have been filled with their faces. Our charities would have been chasing them through parking lots.

The humiliation.

Thank you, Ken Behring. Thank you, King County. Thank you, Paul Tagliabue. Thank you, Paul Allen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who worked so hard this spring to block the Seahawks’ planned relocation from Seattle to Los Angeles.

At the time, the move was opposed for legal, ethical and moral reasons.

To that list, add aesthetic reasons.

“We just had our rear ends kicked big-time,” said Dennis Erickson, Seahawk coach. “It was inexcusable. Inexcusable.”

When last spring’s move was announced, folks up there pushed this team as a hot young bunch with a chance to win a division championship.

We must have really looked like suckers.

Mirer, they promised, was on the verge of a break-out season.

He did OK Sunday--completing 24 of 41 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown--until you consider this:

Trailing, 10-7, with 1:26 left in the first half, needing only to hold the ball before the break, he proceeded to throw a lousy pass and then throw a lousier one for an intentional-grounding penalty.

One punt and five players later, the Chargers’ John Carney had kicked a 53-yard field goal to give the Chargers a 13-7 lead that was the beginning of the end.

On the Seahawks’ second possession of the second half, Mirer threw an interception that led to another Charger field goal.

The next time Mirer touched the ball, he was intercepted again, leading to the final of Carney’s five field goals.

His coaches are still so distrusting of Mirer that he was allowed to throw only two long passes while the game was in doubt, wasting the enormous talents of Brian Blades and Joey Galloway.

Mirer is still so unsteady under center that once, he was called for offsides.

“It was shocking,” Mirer said. “They didn’t make the huge plays. We kind of let them make them.”

Then there was Chris Warren. It was promised he was the West Coast version of Emmitt Smith.

Except when was the last time Smith forgot to stay in bounds to kill the clock, as Warren did on that fateful final drive in the first half.

Warren averaged a decent 3.8 yards per carry, but never gained enough steam to warrant the ball, totaling only 50 yards in 13 carries.

“I thought this team had come to another step,” Erickson said. “This game set us back a bit.”

You.

Not us.

Thank goodness.

And we haven’t even mentioned that fourth-quarter fumble by Steve Broussard on a kickoff return--he collided with teammate T.J. Cunningham and lost the ball, and Leonard Russell scored six plays later.

Now does everyone see why Los Angeles needs an expansion team?

If the Seahawks were one of those, nobody would be ripping Mirer or the Seahawk coaching staff for not throwing long.

“We’ve got to get the football deep to somebody, we just have to,” Erickson said.

If this were an expansion team, instead of moaning about the offense, everyone would be coddling the pass defense, which held Stan Humphries to 195 yards in the air.

Everyone would be praising the punter, Rick Tuten, who had an injured leg and still averaged 47.8 yards per kick.

Everyone would be looking for the bright spot . . . instead of driving home in a perfectly foul mood on a perfectly bright Sunday afternoon.

The Los Angeles sports community doesn’t need this.

We have enough problems with finding the Angels a manager, and the Dodgers a hitter, and USC a quarterback, and UCLA a better schedule, and the Ducks a playoff spot, and the Kings an enforcer, and the Clippers a home, and Shaq a foul shot.

The Seahawks proved Sunday that we don’t want a carpetbagging team because it’s just not worth the risk.

Give us something we know will be bad, or at least fun.

Give us expansion.

And don’t even think about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.