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Fans of the Seattle Seahawks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 12s (or formerly the 12th man) refers to fans of the Seattle Seahawks. Across the city of Seattle, fans often display a 12 flag in support of the team whenever the Seahawks make a postseason appearance or prior to the season opener.[1][2][3][4][5] Fan devotion grew immensely during the early years of the millennium, resulting in engineers designing Lumen Field to funnel crowd noise onto the field to intimidate opposing teams.[6][7] Fan interest peaked again during the 2010s following the hiring of head coach Pete Carroll, in addition to the famous Legion of Boom defense propelling the franchise to win Super Bowl XLVIII.[8][9] In 2014, local sponsor Boeing even painted a 747 Cargo plane in a Seahawks' themed livery, with the number 12 on the tail, making its flight path into the shape of the number 12.[10][11]
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Throughout much of the franchise's early history in Seattle, the team suffered from poor attendance; culminating in former owner Ken Behring attempting to relocate the franchise to Los Angeles in 1996.[12] Despite this; fan interest grew rapidly in the early 2000s under new owner Paul Allen who had purchased the team from Behring in 1997.[13][14] Things further improved for the franchise with the hiring of coach Mike Holmgren in 1999. Under Holmgren, the Seahawks managed four consecutive division titles and appeared in Super Bowl XL in 2006. The team's fans have known to be immensely devoted to their team since Holmgren's tenure, with the organization placing a large flag in the endzone with the number 12 in 2003.[15] The fanbase grew exponentially during the 2010s with the hiring of Pete Carroll as their head coach during the 2009 offseason. The Seahawks narrowly beat out the division rival St. Louis Rams for the division title as both finished with a 7-9 record, but the Seahawks managed a famous upset victory over the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. During the fourth quarter, the Seahawks led by four points prior to snapping the ball in Marshawn Lynch's famous Beast Quake run that returned the ball 67 yards while breaking 9 tackles to secure the victory. Fan reaction was so loud that seismologists reported that the crowd had created an artificial earthquake in the process.[16] The Seahawks' fans have set the Guinness World Record loudest crowd noise at a sporting event on two occasions. First which being on September 15, 2013, registering 136.6 dB during a game against the San Francisco 49ers[17][18] and again on December 2, 2013, during a Monday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints, with a roar of 137.6 dB.[19][20] In May 2016, mountaineer David Liaño González carried a 12th Man flag to the summit of Mount Everest.[21]
The Seahawks fanbase grew notorious through the latter half of the 2010s for being obnoxious and superficial in addition to their rise in strength, with many highlighting the team's prior attendance woes of the 1990s as proof of them supporting the team once they found success during the 2000s.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] In addition to their own growth in playoff success, their fellow rivals such as the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers had also made prominent returns to playoff success during the decade, leading to frequent clashes with rival Rams, or 49ers fans often escalating into violent confrontations.
For numerous years into the 2010s, the Seahawks marketed The 12th Man name heavily, though its origins began through Texas A&M dating back to 1921, later being trademarked in 1996.[29] A legal agreement was reached in 2016 between the Seahawks organization and Texas A&M to cease use of the name in their marketing.[30] Today, much of the Seahawks fans are simply referred to as The 12s.[31][32]
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