Vikings, Seahawks, and the ghost of Blair Walsh

New hawk, new wings?

With an ironic twist that many authors wouldn’t even try writing, Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks signed Blair Walsh to a futures contract the very next year.

Contracts of the such are low-risk and usually quite inexpensive. Considering the Seahawks wanted to move on from their own high-priced place-kicker Steven Hauschka–who had struggled with extra points himself in 2016–the decision may have seemed a little shaky but was construed as sound.

Boy, did the Sea-chickens make a mistake.

How does one know when a guy in such a precisely crucial position as an NFL kicker just cannot be relied upon? Is it in the reading of stats, of facts–or something more human? The way he holds or hangs his head, answers the press, shields himself?

I don’t know. Maybe nobody does. But when Walsh lined up as the Vikings’ kicker for that 27-yard playoff-win layup in January of 2016, there were plenty of us that knew he might miss.

In 2017, Walsh started the season 12 for 13 in field goals for Seattle.

The very next week, Walsh missed all three of his field goals attempts (39, 44, 49 yards) in a devastating home loss to the Washington Redskins.

A couple of weeks later, Walsh missed a 52-yard game-ending field goal–a kick he made 12 times in a row to start his career–against division rival Atlanta Falcons.

Finally, at season’s end, with the Seahawks clinging to the possibility of ending 10-6 and slipping into the 2017 playoffs, Walsh missed what would have been a game-winning 48-yard field goal in front of a home crowd in Seattle.

His last kick as a Seattle Seahawk went right with 32 seconds remaining, giving another division rival, the Arizona Cardinals, a 26-24 win.

On national television, Seattle head coach Pete Carroll was seen mouthing the word “unbelievable”, on the Seahawk sideline.

It was the first time in his career that Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson had missed the playoffs. It was also the last time the ‘Legion of Boom’ would be together.

Now, can you truly put this all on Blair Walsh? No.

But as a Viking fan who is less rueful than wise, you can say something like:

“Dudes, you really should have seen this coming.”

In 2017, Minnesota turned the Viking ship around after a disastrous previous season, winning five more regular-season games with a less-than-perfect Kai Forbath and reaching the NFC Championship Game.

To note: In the playoff divisional round, Forbath struck a 53-yard kick through the uprights to keep the Vikings alive at home against a New Orleans Saints team that had stormed back from behind to take a late fourth-quarter lead.

It was a huge kick and set the stage for the ‘Minneapolis Miracle’.

In 2018, entering now their third season after appearing in back-to-back Super Bowls, the Seattle Seahawks are a bit enigmatic. Exclusive of the extraordinary singular talents of signal-caller Russell Wilson, the team is a bit of question mark at numerous positions; including running back, offensive and defensive line, and defensive back.

Second banana in the NFC West to the young Rams of Los Angeles, for Seattle, it must seem a strange place to be.

The Vikings, on the other hand, seem to be full oars ahead into what appears another successful–albeit challenging–season.

Blair Walsh, no doubt, perhaps somewhere between the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, is most likely looking for another NFL futures contract.

Will an NFL team consider him worth such a thing?

It’s another thing we just don’t know.

Meanwhile, Walsh’s respective former teams clash tonight in the NFL’s third preseason game, the Vikings far and beyond his past professional mishaps, the Seahawks trying to rid themselves of the shadow of his play.