In sports, competition is everything. In competition, rivalry is beautiful. Rivalries in sports create the pulse of currency. In the National Football League, or sports for that matter, it does not get any better than the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks.
2013 had us witness one of the more non-competitive Super Bowls we have seen in a while as the Denver Broncos submitted casually to the Seahawks bullying ways. The NFC Championship game however allowed us to watch some of the fiercest and well-played football in the history of the game. As 49ers MLB Navarro Bowman can attest to: it was a blood-bath as sweat, tears and emotion spilt and laid all over CenturyLink Field that night.
As Richard Sherman got in the face of Michael Crabtree after deflecting Colin Kaepernick’s pass to clinch the NFC title, we all knew what it meant: 2014 will be even heavier. Heaver game-planning, heavier hype, heavier trash-talking and heavier hitting.
What it means for the league is that the NFC West is now the cream of the crop. The Seahawks and 49ers represent the two-top teams in the league, and along with it the two-top defenses. They will hit you two-ways from Sunday and not apologize until you retire first.
The reasons they’re the top rivalry in sports right now is many factors such as talent, defense and their natural-nasty ways. The thing that takes it to the top is the trash-talking and boisterous personalities each possess, and it all starts with Richard Sherman.
Sherman, who was recently named as the next cover-boy for NFL Madden 15, is the ring-leader when it comes to talking the talk after walking the walk. The polarizing Sherman capped-off his reputation as he told Erin Andrews, and the world this after the NFC Championship Game: "I'm the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that's the result you gonna get. Don't you ever talk about me,” according to BusinessInsider.com.
The interview created a month-long drama on whether Sherman was a thug or not. The quotes and the attitude on both sides create story-lines that writers can only dream of.
The way these two-teams have been built though is another story in itself. Both QB’s in Kaepernick and Russell Wilson were not top draft-picks. Kaepernick was drafted in the second-round of the 2011 draft while Wilson was taken in the third-round of the 2012 draft, according to ProFootballReference.com. Having a starting QB that does not make top, first-round money allows more money under the salary-cap for the rest of the team to be built easier. Both Seattle and San Francisco were fortunate enough to enjoy this model for a short-time before big-contracts had to be handed-out. Both QB’s are mobile ones as well which allows for a more versatile power running-game.
Trash-talking, similar QB’s, a power-running game and of course nasty-defense comprise what both of these teams are made of. While explaining why these two are such a ridiculous rivalry is imperative, the similarity between the two are evident.
In 31 career meetings between the two-teams, the 49ers have won 15 games while the Seahawks have bested them 16 times. The past two-seasons (where this rivalry has taken off), in five-meetings, the home-team has won all-five, which obviously includes the epic 2013 NFC Championship Game.
2014 will be yet another year for this rivalry to showcase its nasty ways, and show the world why the NFC West is where the best call home.