This is the first time in 11 years that the Seattle Seahawks are playing (and hosting) the NFC Championship Game. When looking at the age of many players on the roster, 11 years is roughly half of their lives. Take Nick Emmanwori for example, who is only 21 years old. This means that the last time the Seahawks hosted the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers, Emmanwori was just about to turn 1years old and was not even in middle school. Safe to say, it has been awhile since the Seahawks have
been in position to make the Super Bowl. With that, lets, look at where a few other notable Seahawks were back in January 2015.
Running with the youth movement, most of Seattle’s rookie class, along with a few second year players like AJ Barner, Byron Murphy II, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba were still in middle school. Murphy II has talked about growing up a Seahawks fan and how excited he got when Seattle drafted him back in 2024, watching the Legion of Boom era Seahawks.
“I really loved the Legion of Boom, Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, all those guys, just how dominant they were … Just watching them growing up, they dominated the league, they won a Super Bowl, so growing up watching them do that, man, that’s all I ever wanted is to win the Super Bowl.”
Moving away from the youth movement, what about some of the Seahawks old heads, “uncs” if you will. Jason Myers, the oldest active Seahawk, was just getting started as a professional football player, just not in the NFL. In 2014, Myers split his time with two different pro football leagues. First, with the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League, and next with the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor American Football League. Myers worked as a valet during the 2014-15 season as well before getting the chance to kick at the 2015 Senior Bowl, six days after the Seahawks defeated the Packers on their way to the Super Bowl.
Many other Seahawks were already in college in January 2015. This includes players like Sam Darnold (who was in his first year at USC), Jarran Reed (who was entering his last year at Alabama), and Cooper Kupp (who was still at Eastern Washington). In January 2015, Leonard Williams had just finished up at USC and was entering the 2015 NFL Draft.
There was one current Seahawk who was already in the NFL when Seattle was in their last NFC Championship game: DeMarcus Lawrence. ‘Tank’ was in his rookie season in the 2014 NFL season. That same year, Lawrence and the Dallas Cowboys made the NFC Playoffs and went on to lose to the Packers in the Divisional Round 26-21. This was also the infamous “No-Catch Game” where Cowboys wide receiver, Dez Bryant, was ruled to not have caught a long pass from Tony Romo after lunging towards the endzone with the ball. This game led the Packers to facing the Seahawks one week later in the NFC Championship game. For Lawrence, he actually recorded a sack in that “No-Catch Game.”
It has been a long time since the Seahawks made (and hosted) the NFC Championship game. For players like Emmanwori and the other rookies, they weren’t even able to drive. On the other hand, for players like Lawrence, this NFC Championship stage is one that they have fought to get to their entire career and finally have the opportunity.
