The Seattle Seahawks have a laundry list of stars who made a very strange stop throughout the years. In fact, they have a strange player under center right now in Geno Smith. However, some of the most famous players ever stopped in Seattle, and it’s likely fans have no recollection of it.
Former first-round pick Laquon Treadwell spent last season with the Seattle Seahawks. He is not the first really strange pairing, and he’s far from the last. The Seahawks have been known in the past as a place players go to finish their careers. In the 80s and 90s, nobody made sense in a Seahawks uniform.
In more recent times, the Seahawks tried adding stars that didn’t work out, like Jimmy Graham, Percy Harvin, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Some players had established resumes, while others were starting as rising stars. Either way, they went to Seattle and fell off a cliff.
However, they are nothing like some of the players who went to the Seahawks to end their careers. There are some players who look absolutely baffling in a Seahawks uniform. Let’s start with, by far the most famous.
Here are the strangest players we ever saw in a Seattle Seahawks uniform:
3. Jerry Rice
Most remember the pathetic final era for Jerry Rice when he tried to make the Denver Broncos. He pushed to make the roster in 2005, with the Broncos agreeing to a contract that paid him less than $800,000. Then, he was cut. It was embarrassing for the best wide receiver of all time. Yet, more people remember this than those who remember Rice on the Seahawks.
Jerry Rice had one amazing moment with the Seattle Seahawks in front of a national audience. He had 145 receiving yards against the Dallas Cowboys, scoring a 27-yard touchdown from the hands of Matthew Hasselbeck.
Rice finished his Seahawks career with 362 yards in 11 games. He even scored three receiving touchdowns, which brought him to 197 for his career. Still, to this day, it just seems odd seeing Rice in another jersey.
2. Franco Harris
The Jerry Rice saga was weird, but at least a moment stood out. The Franco Harris era in Seattle was just bizarre without any positivities. Everything about it was just sad. Harris asked for a pay raise from the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to the 1984 season. Harris was the team’s star, and he was closing in on Jim Brown’s rushing record. However, the Steelers balked at the request and released Harris instead of dealing with a holdout.
Harris signed with the Seattle Seahawks. It hit the NFL by storm. The Seahawks were a relatively new franchise with very few stars to its name. This city was desperate for stars, and one of football’s biggest chose to go there willingly. He was doing it with a chance to beat one of the biggest records in the league.
Harris was terrible with the Seahawks. Despite being 362 yards away from the rushing record, he failed pretty spectacularly to reach it. He finished the season with just 170 yards. Despite being so close to Brown’s record, he still retired after the season. The side-by-side fight with Walter Payton wasn’t enough to push him to keep playing football.
Harris became the first Seattle Seahawks player inducted into the Hall of Fame. It’s a strange honor, but everything about this is strange.
1. Edgerrin James
Edgerrin James was a surprise Hall of Famer when he was inducted in 2021. It’s not like he was undeserving. James was great for the Indianapolis Colts. After seven incredibly successful seasons in Indy playing with Peyton Manning and the high-quality Colts offense, he signed a four-year deal worth $30 million. It made a ton of sense for everyone involved. James was able to cash in and prove he was more than the Colts offense, and the Cardinals got a star to establish themselves.
James was good with the Cardinals. He had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Then, his production fell off in year three. When the mother of his children tragically died of cancer, James asked for his release from the last year of his contract.
The next stop on his journey was Seattle. He denied offers for months to grieve with his children. It was an honorable move.
He finally signed a one-year deal worth $2 million on August 24th. It was so late in the summer that James missed all of training camp. He was trying to catch up, but it never seemed to work. James looked like a completely different player, and he was cut in the middle of the season. It was a disappointing end, but it was for an understandable reason.