The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. They have played their home games at Lumen Field in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood since 2002. The only NFL team in the Pacific Northwest, the Seahawks are named for the osprey, a species of bird also referred to as the sea hawk.
The Seahawks joined the NFL in 1976, as an expansion team in the NFC West. From 1977 to 2001, Seattle was assigned to the American Football Conference (AFC) West; the team rejoined the NFC in 2002. From 1976 to 1999, the Seahawks played in the Kingdome, alongside fellow 1970s Seattle sports establishments in the Mariners, SuperSonics, and Sounders. The Seahawks briefly played in Husky Stadium from 2000 to 2001, before moving to Lumen Field, on the former ground of the Kingdome, which they share with Sounders FC and Reign FC.
Seahawks fans, then collectively referred to as the "12th man" (officially known as the 12s since 2016), set the Guinness World Record for the loudest crowd noise at a sporting event twice during the 2013 NFL season. As the only NFL team in the northwestern United States, the Seahawks attract support from a wide geographical area including the U.S. states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Utah, as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Seahawks struggled during their time in the AFC, making occasional playoff appearances under head coach Chuck Knox. Their first extended success came in the NFC West under head coach Mike Holmgren, leading them to four consecutive division championships and the team's first Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XL. They achieved their greatest success in the 2010s, under head coach Pete Carroll and the historic Legion of Boom defense, achieving five consecutive 10+ win seasons and appearing in back-to-back Super Bowls, including the first victory in franchise history, blowing out the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII before failing to repeat as champions in Super Bowl XLIX. In 2025, head coach Mike Macdonald led the Seahawks to another championship in Super Bowl LX.
The Seahawks have won 12 division titles and four conference championships, and are the only team to have played in both the AFC and NFC Championship Games. Since joining the division in the 2002 reorganization, the Seahawks have led the NFC West in division titles, having won the division 10 times, most recently in 2025. From 2011 to 2016, the Seahawks set an NFL record for playing 95 consecutive games without losing by more than 10 points.
Seahawks players Kenny Easley, Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson, Cortez Kennedy, and Steve Largent have been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame primarily or wholly for their accomplishments as Seahawks. In addition, players Dave Brown, Jacob Green, Dave Krieg, Curt Warner, Jim Zorn, Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander have been inducted into the Seahawks Ring of Honor, along with head coaches Chuck Knox and Mike Holmgren, radio announcer Pete Gross, and former franchise owner Paul Allen.
In 2026, the Seahawks were purchased by a group led by Vinod Khosla, with the $9.612 billion purchase the most expensive in NFL history and, for a short time, the most expensive in sports history.
History
Nordstrom / Sarkowsky era (1976–1988) Under the terms of the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, the NFL began planning to expand from 26 to 28 teams. In June 1972, Seattle Professional Football Inc., a group of Seattle business and community leaders, announced their intention to acquire an NFL franchise for the city of Seattle. In June 1974, the NFL gave the city an expansion franchise. That December, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle announced the official signing of the franchise agreement by Lloyd W. Nordstrom, representing the Nordstrom family as majority partners for the consortium; the cost of the franchise was $16 million.
In March 1975, the owners hired as general manager John Thompson, a former executive director of the NFL Management Council and former Washington Huskies executive. The name Seattle Seahawks ("seahawk" is another name for osprey) was picked on June 17, 1975, after a public contest that drew more than 20,000 entries proposing more than 1,700 names, including Skippers, Pioneers, and Lumberjacks.
Thompson recruited and hired Jack Patera, a Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, to be the first head coach of the Seahawks; the hiring was announced on January 3, 1976. The expansion draft was held March 30–31, 1976, with Seattle and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers alternating picks for rounds selecting unprotected players from the other 26 teams in the league. The Seahawks were awarded the second overall pick in the 1976 draft, which they used to acquire defensive tackle Steve Niehaus. The team took the field for the first time on August 1, 1976, in a pre-season game against the San Francisco 49ers in the new Kingdome.
The Seahawks are the only NFL team to switch conferences twice since the merger. The franchise began play in 1976 in the NFC West but switched conferences with the Buccaneers after one season to join the AFC West. This was dictated by the league as part of the 1976 expansion plan, so that both expansion teams could play each other twice and every other NFL franchise once during their first two seasons. The Seahawks won both matchups against the Buccaneers, the first of which was the Seahawks' first regular-season victory.
In 1983, the Seahawks hired Chuck Knox as head coach. Finishing with a 9–7 record, the Seahawks made their first post-season appearance, defeating the Denver Broncos in the Wild Card Round, and then the Miami Dolphins, before losing in the AFC Championship to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Raiders. The next season was the Seahawks' best to that point, finishing 12–4; it would remain the franchise's best until 2005. Knox won the NFL Coach of the Year Award.
Behring / Hofmann era (1988–1996) In 1988, Ken Behring and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the team for a reported $80 million. The Seahawks won their first division title in 1988, but missed the playoffs in the next three seasons, after which Knox left the team. For most of the 1990s, the Seahawks continued to struggle. They saw three consecutive losing seasons (1992–1994) under head coach Tom Flores, including a franchise worst 2–14 season in 1992. After the 1994 season, Flores was fired and Dennis Erickson was brought in as head coach.
Paul Allen era (1997–2018) In 1996, Behring and Hoffman transferred the team's operations to Anaheim, California, although the team continued to play in Seattle. They also contemplated moving the team itself, which was in bankruptcy for a short period. The move was widely criticized. The NFL threatened Behring with a $500,000-per-day fine if he did not move the team's operations back to Seattle.
The following year, Behring and Hoffman sold the team to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $200 million.
Erickson's tenure as head coach ended after the 1998 season; the Seahawks missed the playoffs for all four of his seasons with the team, extending their playoff drought to ten seasons.
Mike Holmgren era (1999–2008)
In 1999, Mike Holmgren was hired as head coach, and led the team for ten seasons. The Seahawks (9–7) won their second division title in 1999, but lost at home in the playoffs to the wild card Miami Dolphins 20–17, in the final NFL game played in the Kingdome.
Realignment to NFC West and new stadium (2002) In 2002, the Seahawks returned to the NFC West as part of an NFL realignment plan that gave each conference four balanced divisions of four teams each. This restored the AFC West to its initial post-merger roster of original AFL teams Denver, San Diego, Kansas City, and Oakland. That same year, the team opened its new home, Seahawks Stadium, following two seasons at Husky Stadium after the Kingdome's implosion in March 2000.
In 2005, the Seahawks had their best regular season (13–3) in franchise history (matched in 2013 and surpassed in 2025), including a 42–0 shutout at Philadelphia on Monday night in early December. The top seed in the NFC, Seattle defeated the Washington Redskins 20–10 in the divisional round of the playoffs, won the NFC Championship Game 34–14 over the Carolina Panthers, but lost in Super Bowl XL against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The loss was controversial; NFL Films has Super Bowl XL at number 8 on its top ten list of games with controversial officiating. Referee Bill Leavy later admitted that he missed calls that altered the game. Before 2005, the Seahawks had not won a playoff game since December 22, 1984, a streak of 21 years (five teams had ever had a drought of twenty years at the time, with their six straight losses being tied for third-most in history). That drought ended with the win over Washington.
In the 2006 season, the Seahawks finished 9–7 and won the NFC West. The defeated the Dallas Cowboys 21–20 in the Wild Card Round before losing to the Chicago Bears 27–24 in the Divisional Round. In the 2007 season, the Seahawks finished 10–6 and won the NFC West. The team defeated Washington in the Wild Card Round 35–14 before losing to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round 42–20. The 2008 season saw the team go 4–12 and finish third in the NFC West. Holmgren departed from the team after the 2008 season, after the end of his contract.
Jim L. Mora era (2009) Defensive backs coach Jim L. Mora was named as Holmgren's successor. In 2009, the Seahawks finished 3rd in the NFC West with a 5–11 record. Shortly after, Mora was fired on January 8, 2010 and Pete Carroll was hired.
Pete Carroll era (2010–2023) Pre-Super Bowl (2010–2012) In the 2010 NFL season, the Seahawks made history by making the playoffs despite a 7–9 record. They had the best record in a division full of teams with losing seasons (Seahawks 7–9, Rams 7–9, 49ers 6–10, Cardinals 5–11) and won the decisive season finale against the Rams (not only by overall record, but by division record, as both teams coming into the game had a 3–2 division record). In the playoffs, the Seahawks beat the defending Super Bowl XLIV champs, the New Orleans Saints, 41–36. The Seahawks made even more history when Marshawn Lynch made a 67-yard run, breaking nine tackles, to clinch the victory. The fans reacted so loudly that a small earthquake (a bit above 2 magnitude) was recorded by seismic equipment around Seattle. Lynch's run would be nicknamed the "Beast Quake". The Seahawks lost to the Bears in their second game, 35–24. The 2011 season saw the team go 7–9 once again, but they were not able to get into the postseason with a third-place finish in the NFC West.