Once upon a time, the Seahawks and 49ers had the NFL’s best rivalry, hands down. Certainly, it was the most heated — maybe in all of sports. The coaches had well-documented friction, the talented young quarterbacks were vying for supremacy, and the stakes were constantly at the highest level.
The intensity began to dissipate after the 2014 season when San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh left for Michigan. It fizzled even more when the 49ers sank to the bottom of the NFC West Division for a four-year span, going 17-47 between 2015-18. By the time they got good again in ’19 under Kyle Shanahan — three coaches removed from Harbaugh — most of the players who made Seahawks vs. 49ers such riveting theater had retired or moved on (or moved from Seattle to San Francisco, in Richard Sherman’s case).
Could we be on the verge of a revived second chapter of this rivalry? Though it’s highly unlikely the Seahawks and 49ers will ever match the dynamic personalities (and personality conflicts) that flowed through both rosters in the heyday, or replicate the tension between the coaches, Saturday’s playoff game at Levi’s Stadium could well be the precursor to a new era of meaningful games between them.
And, after all, that’s how rivalries initially percolate — via two teams who constantly find the other one blocking their path toward a championship. Consider the current landscape of the division. The Rams mortgaged their future for last year’s Lombardi Trophy and now could be facing a prolonged dry spell. The Cardinals are in a state of disarray following a 4-13 season that resulted in the firing of their coach and resignation of their general manager.
The 49ers and Seahawks, meanwhile, have much brighter outlooks that portend many more significant encounters like Saturday’s. The heavily favored 49ers built a powerhouse and have emerged as one of the Super Bowl favorites. The Seahawks vastly overachieved expectations after trading quarterback Russell Wilson and now have a No. 5 overall draft pick coming, courtesy of the Broncos, to add a high-impact player.
There’s little reason to envision a 49ers decline any time soon, especially with rookie Brock Purdy emerging as a potential solution to their ongoing quarterback question. And with all the rookies who played key roles for Seattle in 2022, it’s not unreasonable to think their upswing will continue. Geno Smith gives them a competent placeholder if they chose to find their quarterback of the future in the draft — perhaps much more than that.
What remains to be seen is if they can replicate the sheer audacity of the rivalry that flourished from 2011, when Harbaugh left Stanford to coach the 49ers, through 2015. In those years, the road to the NFC West title, and usually the Super Bowl, traveled directly through Seattle and San Francisco (or eventually Santa Clara).
More accurately, you can pinpoint the rivalry’s starting date to Nov. 14, 2009, when Harbaugh opted to go for a two-point conversion late in Stanford’s eventual 55-21 victory over Carroll’s powerhouse USC team.
When Carroll and Harbaugh met for the postgame handshake, a grim-faced Carroll posed the question that became the fulcrum of their future dealings: “What’s your deal? You all right?”
Replied Harbaugh, “Yeah, I’m good. What’s your deal?”
Who knew they’d wind up in the same division of the NFL just a few years later, Carroll having taken the Seahawks job in 2010? Both were at the forefront of powerhouse teams on the rise. Under Harbaugh, the 49ers made it to the NFC title game three years in a row, advancing to the Super Bowl after the 2012 season. The Seahawks, meanwhile, were unleashing the “Legion of Boom” dynasty that peaked with the Super Bowl title the following year.
Long before he became a lightning rod of the social justice movement, Colin Kaepernick was a dynamic dual-threat quarterback who popularized “Kaepernicking” — kissing his biceps after each touchdown. Wilson was mastering the read-option and perfectly complementing the Seahawks’ great defense (with plenty of help from Marshawn Lynch). They were billed as the pioneers of a new style of quarterbacking.
The rivalry peaked, of course, with the NFC title game at Century Link Field on Jan. 19, 2014, when Sherman tipped Kaepernick’s pass in the corner of the end zone to Malcolm Smith for a game-clinching interception. Sherman’s postgame interview with Erin Andrews, in which he raged about Kaepernick’s intended target, Michael Crabtree — “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you gonna get!” — is the stuff of legends.
There were other flashpoints over the years, such as when Harbaugh — according to Sherman and Earl Thomas — drove by the Seahawks’ team bus in the Candlestick Park parking lot after a 49ers win in 2012, honking his horn and waiving. And when 49ers running back Anthony Dixon tweeted derisively about the “She-Hawks,” and K.J. Wright tweeted back a reference to the “Forty-Whiners.” And when Harbaugh, asked about the suspensions of Seahawks players for performance-enhancing drugs, replied, “If you cheat to win, then you’ve already lost.”
Carroll always insisted he enjoyed the competition with Harbaugh and held no animosity toward him. When Harbaugh underwent a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat in 2013, Carroll tweeted out, “Sending best wishes to Jim Harbaugh for a quick recovery … Get well soon, we gotta alotta ball games left!”
Turns out they didn’t have many ballgames left against each other after all. And the rivalry, which had already turned in Seattle’s favor, steamrolled in that direction. From the time they drafted Wilson in 2012 through Wilson’s departure after last year, the Seahawks compiled a 17-4 record against the 49ers.
But this season the 49ers have a 2-0 advantage, looking for No. 3 and favored by 10 points to do so. The Seahawks say they are going into the game with a “nothing to lose” attitude that veteran receiver Tyler Lockett says is liberating and should free their minds to facilitate optimal performance.
The 49ers and Seahawks, back where they always used to be — trying to ruin the other’s season in a high-stakes game. So what’s their deal? Well, it sure looks like the reawakening of an old rivalry.