Updated Oct. 4, 2019 1:38 PM
The Seattle Seahawks famously celebrate the team's “12th Man,” aka the raucous and loud fans who support the 11 players on the field during home games. Seattle fans have set world records for crowd noise in the past, once registering 137.6 decibels in a game against the New Orleans Saints.
It wasn’t the noise that made difference as the Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams Thursday night, 30-29, though, according to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
It was, well, the weather, an otherworldly breeze, a whisper of sorts from another 12th man. Here’s why.
Seattle inducted former owner Paul Allen into the team’s Ring of Honor during a pregame ceremony. Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who also owned the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, died last October of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His sister, Seahawks chair Jody Allen, raised the 12th man flag before the game.
Allen was on Wilson’s mind when the Rams lined up for a potential game-winning 44-yard field goal with 15 seconds left on the clock. It was an easily makeable kick. The flags atop the goalposts indicated the winds were calm as the Rams snapped the ball.
But kicker Greg Zuerlein missed just to the right of the goalpost, with the ball seemingly floating wide at the last instant to secure the Seattle victory.
In the locker room after the game, Wilson told teammates and the press that Allen gave the team a little assist from beyond to ensure the field goal missed. "I think at the end of the game he blew a little wind on that to the right," he said.
“I think Paul blew on that one and pushed it a little to the right. Phoo,” Wilson elaborated after the game on the NFL Network, making the sound of a delicate breeze of wind. “And it went a little to the right.”
Wilson, who had a big game -- 268 passing yards to go along with four touchdowns and no interceptions -- seemed to be emotional talking about the late tech titan and sports team owner.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) greets Los Angeles Rams' Cooper Kupp after an NFL football game Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019, in Seattle. The Seahawks won 30-29. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
"We were talking about it in the locker room ... you have to think big. You know, Paul was a guy who thought big. He believed big," Wilson said, adding, "He gave me an opportunity."
The dramatic missed field goal took place at the same north end zone in Seattle that saw Dallas QB Tony Romo bobble a game-winning sure-thing field in Seattle’s Wild Card playoff win in the final game of Bill Parcells’ coaching career. It was also the site of another notorious play in which Wilson completed a highly questionable game-winning Hail Mary to Golden Tate in 2012.
So why not a little miraculous "wind" from an unseen 12th Man?
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