09/04/2026
The Seattle Seahawks open their season to defend their Super Bowl Championship next Wednesday against the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch.
For the first time since 1996, no members of the Allen family will own the franchise.
That is why on Wednesday, it's important that Jody Allen raise the 12th man flag as we thank her one last time.
Seahawks new owner Vinod Khosla was asked by a random Twitter user to raise the 12th man flag, and he responded, saying, "I'd love to have Jody do it.
When my dad took me to my first Seahawks game, it was 1997, the first year of Paul Allen's ownership.
I noticed in the rafters that we only had one banner, which was an old 1988 AFC West Division banner.
My dad told me, Hopefully, with this new ownership, we can someday look up at a row of banners.
I was wearing my Chad Brown jersey, my first-ever jersey.
I was only 12, so I had no idea how close we were to losing this team if it weren't for amazing fans like Mark Collins, who organized Save Our Seahawks. Fans like Mama Blue and Big Lo were a great help, too.
During the 30-year Allen ownership, we won 11 division championships.
When I took my brother to a game in 2016, I told him how our dad said someday we'd have a ton of banners, and believe it or not, we only had one.
In fact, we won so many division titles they had to list them on two separate banners instead of having one for each season.
During my high school years, we, like almost everyone, always watched the Super Bowl together as a family.
My dad always wanted the Seahawks to be in the big game, just one year.
Then, in 2005, my dad and I witnessed Paul Allen raise the 12th Man flag as we won the NFC Championship game.
After the game, it was hard to describe; everyone was so happy, and random people came up to hug others.
The entire city was on cloud nine, and it was a moment a 20-year-old version of me still remembers perfectly.
Then, in 2013, we finally did it! We defeated our rival, the San Francisco 49ers, then destroyed our old AFC West rival, the Denver Broncos, to win our first-ever Super Bowl.
When the Seahawks led 22-0 at halftime, I didn't listen to Bruno Mars; I called my dad, saying, I can't believe we are going to win a Super Bowl, and before we hung up, Percy Harvin housed the opening kickoff for a touchdown.
The next year, our Seahawks pulled off a miracle comeback to defeat the Green Bay Packers.
Just like that, our Seahawks were going to be a dynasty.
Then we lost to the New England Patriots.
I didn't know him at the time on a personal level, but my future friend Norb Caoli, aka NorbCam, had a video that went viral after the loss.
I remember showing it to my parents and friends, and we still couldn't believe we didn't hand it to Beast Mode.
Then, in 2018, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on vacation with my parents, I got an alert that Paul Allen had passed away.
Despite being surrounded by beautiful women from all over the world in a swimming pool, I was saddened. I had to go to my hotel room to regroup.
I was at the Thursday night Miracle win over the Los Angeles Rams in 2019 when we put Paul Allen in the Ring of Honor. Paul saved this franchise and made us a top-tier franchise.
Under Jody Allen, the franchise was at a transition point, so she was unfortunately left to make brutally tough decisions.
She correctly traded Russell Wilson, which landed the Seahawks Devon Witherspoon, Charles Cross, Derick Hall, Boye Mafe, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, and Drew Lock.
She made the correct decision to let go of Pete Carroll, trade Geno Smith, and trade D.K. Metcalf.
Then, in 2025, Jody Allen had the greatest final season an owner could have.
Similar to Jody, this team was a 60-1 long shot to win the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks did it by defeating division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, at which game I was there with my mom and ran into my old college roommate with his college baseball-playing son.
Then, we won the showdown against the Los Angeles Rams, and like Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, it was time to settle old family business when the Seahawks whacked the New England Patriots 29-13.
Hopefully, this Wednesday, we can say thank you to the Allen Family one last time, who brought us 11 division championships, 4 conference championships, and, most importantly, 2 Super Bowl Championships.
Thank you Allen family for everything!
