Mottos, sayings, slogans, catch phrases, nicknames.
By whatever name, every sports team has them.
During the 14-year Pete Carroll era, Seahawks fans became well acquainted with Carroll’s pet slogans such as “Always Compete,” “Win Forever” and “I’m In,” the latter of which was posted throughout the team headquarters in Renton on signs for players to tap on their way out to practice, signifying that they were all in.
And nothing defined that era better than Legion of Boom, a nickname defensive players adopted during the team’s rise to winning the Super Bowl in 2013.
A new era has meant a host of fresh sayings, slogans and nicknames as second-year coach Mike Macdonald and a new generation of Seahawks are creating their own legacy as a Super Bowl contender.
As the Seahawks enter the playoffs for the first time under Macdonald, let’s review some of the mottos, sayings and nicknames they’ve adopted along the way.
12 as One
This is motto, inspired by Macdonald and the coaches, is one he cited when asked which he thinks best describes the team’s philosophy.
Better yet, it ties in the team’s 12th man history.
“I think that paints a picture of it,” Macdonald said. “… When you define 12 as one, there’s a synergy and connectedness behind it. If you can’t get everybody going in the same direction, you really don’t have a chance. It’s a common denominator behind the whole thing.’’
M.O.B Ties
This is a player-generated saying that you’ll often see on hoodies and T-shirts in mid-week and postgame interviews.
While Mob Ties is a long-standing saying indicating togetherness, the Seahawks altered by giving M.O.B. meaning of its own, standing for Mission Over Bull(expletive).
“That’s the standard that we set for ourselves and the team, something that we uphold and we hold dearly to us,” veteran defensive lineman Jarran Reed said earlier this season. “How we play, how we interact with each other, our characteristics, how we carry ourselves. It’s everything all involved.
Process over results
This is one of Macdonald’s guiding principles. It’s relatively self-explanatory, emphasizing that the result of a play or game doesn’t fully define whether it was a success of failure. A pass may be dropped, but if everything else on the play was perfectly executed that’s worth rewarding. Eventually, if the process is consistently good, the results will be too.
“That helps a lot because it’s not about the win, it’s not about the loss, it’s about the process,’’ veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams said earlier this season. “It would be bad for us to come in after a win and be feeling ourselves and not go back to what got us the win, which was the process.
“It would also be bad on the opposite end if we lost the game and came in hanging our heads and trying to change something to get a win the next week. . … It’s keeping us just right here instead of getting too high or too low.”
Stacking W.I.N.S.
This is a Macdonald-ism that he said is a combination of slogans he learned on his path to Seattle.
One of Macdonald’s first acts as coach was to adopt this as a guiding principle that shows up throughout the VMAC. Under Carroll, the team installed huge photos of marquee plays of the LOB era that graced the hallway from the lobby to the locker room. Richard Sherman’s tip, The Beastquake Run, etc.
Macdonald had those replaced with a photo and plaque of every win in team history in the hallway with a Stacking W.I.N.S header.
Another wall nearer the locker room displays a similar photo and plaque for every win of the current season under a Stacking W.I.N.S. header.
Asked earlier this year about the motto, Macdonald cited former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who Macdonald coached for all but one year from 2014-23.
“Harbs (John Harbaugh) had a thing in terms of stacking, which was when he was talking about like compound interests and things like that we did at Baltimore,” Macdonald said. “So, that got me thinking about, ‘OK, well, how does that apply to how we want to operate from day to day?’”
W.I.N., he said, stands for What’s Important Now, which was used by legendary coach Lou Holtz, whose granddaughter Hailey Holtz, is the football operations coordinator for the Seahawks.
“Shout out to Hailey Holtz,’’ Macdonald said. “I was just putting it together and trying to paint a picture about how we want to operate.”
Death Zone defense
Defensive players late last season began talking about living in the death zone, a reference to the Seahawks needing to win every game down the stretch if they wanted to make the playoffs.
It was adopted after defensive coordinator Aden Durde referenced it with the team during meetings.
“It’s actually something that I saw on TV,” Durde said. “Watching a show called 14 Peaks, and it was just this guy that was climbing 8,000-meter mountains, and he was saying only a few people can survive in that area above 8,000 meters, and he called it the death zone. He said in the death zone he came alive and I related and now the guys related it to that moment in football where you have to thrive, that you have to be ready, you have to be prepared, you have to attack it, and you have to go.”
E.A.T.
This is an acronym for effort, angles and tackling that Macdonald applied to the defense.
Macdonald said as time has passed it’s become used by the entire team.
“It’s really just evolved into how we want to finish plays,” Macdonald said. “How do we handle plays on a sideline? How we go moving forward? What do you do when you catch the ball in the open field? How do we block down the field? How do we eliminate angles? It’s the reverse. We’re trying to eliminate space and extra yardage on defense, and we’re trying to create that on offense.”
Dark side
This is the latest nickname adopted by the defense on its way to allowing the fewest points in the NFL this season. Williams, Reed, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and others began using it earlier this season after Williams said they batted around some ideas one day on a bus ride.
“We always hear of Legion of Boom (in Seattle),” Williams said. “We were starting to get to a point like. ‘Hey, maybe we deserve our own name, you know?’ I think guys started coming up with names and stuff like that and I think Dark Side kind of stuck with us.”
The rest
There are others — The Team, The Team, The Team written on a stairway, as well as Chasing Edges and Winning on the Margins, Shocking Effort and more.
Such nicknames and sayings may become most visible when teams are having their most success. Macdonald said they may be most valuable when times are the toughest.
“It’s easy to give you all the buzzwords and everything when things are going well,” Macdonald said. “Sometimes that can mask the spirit of your team, the connectedness of your team. To me, when we have adversity, when our backs are up against the wall, things aren’t necessarily going our way, people might make some decisions that aren’t helpful for the team. How do you work through those situations?”
That’s when clearly defined guiding principles might matter the most.