Last week was quite the special week for the neighbors of the Seattle Seahawks. After 24 long suffering years, the Seattle Mariners will be able to lift at least one new banner up in the rafters at T-Mobile Park, clinching their first AL West title since 2001. A magical September that saw the M’s win 17 of 18, conquer their hated rival Houston Astros, and see Cal Raleigh crush his 60th home run on the division clinching night, has Seattle thinking World Series for the first time ever.

There is a feeling of relief, joy and, excitement that surrounds these Mariners in a way we have not seen in decades. This is one of the best teams in all of baseball, arguably one of the best chances the Mariners have ever had of reaching their first Fall Classic, and there is a clear removal of the dread and despair stench from a once rotten franchise.

It feels like a brand new day for Seattle baseball. With this newfound world Mariners fans are about to experience, it’s hard for me not to think about the Seattle Seahawks, and the newfound pressure they could begin to feel themselves.

This weekend, the Seattle Mariners will host their second playoff game at home since 2001. While I hope they can score a run this time, it should be a wild atmosphere as more than 40,000 fans will descend up the ballpark to try and rattle the opponent and scream for another “Big Dumper” blast. Even with the Seahawks playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, a game that feels like it will have playoff implications come January, Seattle is gonna feel like a baseball town.

While this idea may feel foreign to Seahawks fans for the past quarter century, there’s some painful playoff facts that the 12s may find hard to believe. Did you know that the Seahawks have not hosted a playoff game since the 2020 season? Remember, that game (and season) didn’t have fans at Lumen Field. That playoff game was a disastrous 30-20 loss to the Rams that really was the beginning of the end of the Russell Wilson glory years. Did you know that the Seahawks have not had a home playoff game with fans since the 2016 season? That’s nearly a decade since the fans have been able to celebrate the rewards of a division title, and feel playoff football at home.

It has been an incredible run of consistent football in Seattle, but that’s just too long of a gap for the franchise. Going into this season, and with the disappointment of losing to the 49ers at home Week 1, a division title was the farthest thing from my mind. Fast forward to today and the Seahawks sit at 3-1, they seem to have found something special with Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold, and have a potentially Super Bowl winning defense already under Mike Macdonald’s tutelage.

On Thursday night, we’ll get a good idea on who the Seahawks will be challenging with for a chance at a division crown, when the 49ers visit the Rams. Both teams have owned the Seahawks for the past decade, each playing in multiple Super Bowls. Just like the Seattle Mariners had to go through Houston, the Seahawks will need to conquer both of these bullies in order to hang another banner.

When the Mariners made the playoffs in 2022, there was a sense of relief, just being happy to make the playoffs. The upset Wildcard Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays was the icing on the cake, before the reality of their championship aspirations were extinguished by the Astros on the way to their first legitimate championship. It wasn’t until this season, and the absolute beatdown Seattle put on Houston, in Houston, to take the crown from the king, that truly made the championship feel like a real opportunity this fall.

The Seahawks have made the playoffs just once in the past four seasons, and when they did make it, there wasn’t a soul that honestly believed they were going to make a run. There’s something about winning a division title. The banner, the conquering of your rivals, the confidence you (should) feel at home in the playoffs. That is when the true belief of competing for a championship comes to life.

So, here’s to hoping that the Seattle Mariners can continue this magical run, and get to a place they have never been, and here’s to the Seattle Seahawks trying to capture that same magic.