Geno Smith practiced but didn’t stay long after to shower. There was no hot water at work, only at home.
Charles Cross and Coby Bryant used the flashlight app on their phones to see into their lockers.
That was to get dressed for practice.
Guys sat around the locker room in the dark talking, cracking jokes. It looked and sounded like a campfire, without the fire.
Generators provided the minimal electricity the Seahawks’ training facility had Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday into Friday. The lights were on in the indoor practice facility and on the upper floors of the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. But not on the players’ ground floor, other than emergency floodlights that dimly lit parts of the locker room and battery-powered glow sticks in the bathrooms.. Throughout the building there was no heat on the 40-degree days.
There were no team meetings with film review on screens projected onto the stage inside the Seahawks’ main auditorium. That large room stayed dark.
The “bomb cyclone” storm that ripped through Western Washington with 75-mph winds Tuesday night, that left up to 700,000 residents without electricity at one point, made this a unique preparation week for the Seahawks (5-5) to play the first-place Arizona Cardinals (6-4) Sunday at Lumen Field.
“Shoot, I thought it was kind of fun. We had lights on in the second floor. The guys didn’t have lights in the locker room.” coach Mike Macdonald said Friday, a couple hours after the power and heat came back on inside Seahawks headquarters.
Players who didn’t have electricity at home went to teammates’ houses who did. Many guys stayed longer among pals in the darkened facility longer than they usually do, instead of going home to a empty, dark home.
“But it’s like a cool way,” Macdonald said. “You’re kind of forced to hang out and guys were laughing and having a good time
This wasn’t the optimal way to prep to play for the NFC West lead. But then the Seahawks found the hero of the their work week.
“Shout out to Dan Cramer. One of our facility guys got the hot water working yesterday after practice, so that was clutch,” Macdonald said, sounding like the NFL’s youngest head coach he is, at age 37.
Macdonald capped the week by having members of a U.S. Army Ranger battalion from Joint Base-Lewis McChord visiting practice Friday. The players came over to talk to the Rangers following the indoor practice. They thanked them for their service following.
The hard-core Rangers would have been more at home in the more Spartan, no-amenities VMAC earlier in this unusual Seahawks week.
“But yeah, it was a really good week,” Macdonald said.
The coach used it as another chance to instill his head-on mentality in his players.
“These things are going to pop up,” Macdonald said, “and I think it’s just the mentality of just working; ‘Hey, it’s another thing that we could go through, not around.’
“And onward we go.
“So, another story to tell at the end of the journey.”
That journey includes this sudden chance for the division lead.
A week ago, the Seahawks were in last place. They’d lost five of their previous six games. They’d ruined a 3-0 start to Macdonald’s first season as a head coach, at any level.
Then, the remade defense led by new middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV held down All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey last weekend in Santa Clara, California. Smith rallied the offense 80 yards over the final 2 minutes, completing 7 of 8 passes including four to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Smith then scrambled 13 yards for the winning touchdown. The Seahawks finally beat the 49ers, ending a six-game losing streak to the recent division kings.
That win propels Seattle this opportunity Sunday for the division lead. A win over Arizona in the teams’ first of two games over three weeks could put the Seahawks in sole possession of first place. That depends on how the Los Angeles Rams (5-5) fare Sunday night at home against Philadelphia (8-2), and on what San Francisco (5-5) does playing without quarterback Brock Purdy and All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa. Both are out injured for the 49ers’ game at 7-3 Green Bay Sunday.
As coach Mike Macdonald said they would, #Seahawks activate starting safety Rayshawn Jenkins from injured reserve so he can play tomorrow vs Arizona.
They elevate tight end Tyler Mabry and linebacker Patrick O’Connell from the practice squad for the game @thenewstribune
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) November 23, 2024
Opportunity is what the power was not for the Seahawks this week: On.
“It’s just a little bit colder indoors, as you guys see, but for the most part, the prep has been great,” Smith said inside the powerless facility Thursday. “Obviously without power at home, it’s going to hinder some things, but guys have been doing a great job at studying, and it allows you to spend extra hours at the facility. If you don’t have power at home, you have power here, so you can spend extra hours here and just study.
“We’re not going to use it as an excuse. There are a lot of people without power, and we’re just blessed to be able to come to work and still do our jobs.
“So there’s cold showers,” Smith said. “Got to man up, take a cold shower, and then, there’s no sauna. Some of the things that we’re accustomed to having because there’s no electricity, they aren’t here for our service.
“But for the most part, we got everything we need. And we’ll be ready on Sunday.”
