Seahawks

Imagine hearing this blasted at full volume while you and eighty thousand of your closest friends scream their heads off.

The music is Bittersweet Symphony, by the Verve. Without the lyrics, and with the bass pumped up, they start playing this for the Seahawk players to emerge from the tunnel.

They start up the song, a little slowed down. They they have an Auger hawk named Taima (local Native American word meaning Thunder) who flies out of the tunnel and lands on her trainer's outstretched (gloved) hand, to the roar of the crowd.

Then, the offense or defense (they alternate each game) comes running out all at once. Once they form a 'tunnel' of players, the remaining players are announced one by one, and each runs the gauntlet of players and gets everyone all pumped up. Generally, there is at least one player who comes out with a '12th man' flag and gets the crowd riled up. For those of you not in the know, the 12th man is something very special here in Seattle. Years ago, the number 12 jersey was retired from this team in honor of the fans--the 12th man. Today, we lead the league in total false starts for opponents in our stadium. The fans scream so loud, the offense can't hear the play call or the cadence and they jump early. There was some concern that this stadium wouldn't be nearly as loud as the Kingdome with it's enclosed roof, but we have proven that not to be an issue.