Zorn Comes Full Circle With Seahawks

Thirty years ago, the Seattle Seahawks joined the National Football League, hatching out of a blue, white, green and silver egg -- a football Easter of sorts. Their quarterback was, as far as I am aware, the only QB whose last name began with a "Z" -- Jim Zorn. The guy with the funny last name played at a school with a funny name: Caly-Poly Pomona. Good luck finding it on a map.


Zorn, that ole lefty gunslinger


But speaking of maps, that's exactly where Jim Zorn put the Seattle Seahawks. Zorn was a gunslinger who was cut from the same cloth as Daryle Lamonica -- "The Mad Bomber" of the Oakland Raiders, whose philosophy was "If it's 3rd-and-six, let's go for SIXTY, not six." In other words, 180 degrees from Steve Mariucci's pop gun offense. Zorn heaved it, and heaved it often -- and deep. He liked to look for Steve Largent, the Hall of Fame receiver. In 1978, '79, and '80, Zorn threw for over 10,000 yards combined and 52 touchdowns. The fact that he also threw 48 interceptions was largely due to his fearless style of quarterbacking.

Zorn also led the 'Hawks to their only previous appearance in a Conference Championship Game -- in 1983-84 when Seattle fell to the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders.

Now Zorn comes full circle with the team with which he has been so closely associated. Zorn, 52, is the Seahawks' quarterback coach. His tutelage of Matt Hasselbeck has been a huge part of the Seattle quarterback's success. Head coach Mike Holmgren, himself a professor of quarterbackdom, says Zorn has "drills I'd never even heard of. He has way more drills than I do."

Zorn is a big believer in proper footwork. He wants his quarterbacks square and balanced, and always ready to skidaddle out of the way. Zorn practiced what he now preaches. Jim Zorn could scramble with the best of them.

"Some quarterbacks, the young ones, like to fade back and plant their back foot firmly into the turf," Zorn says. "That puts them in a bad position if they need to pop up and look for check off receivers. I want my quarterbacks to be light on their feet and not plant that back foot so much."

It must be working. Hasselbeck, in his fifth year under Zorn's watchful eye, has now thrown for over 3,000 yards four seasons in a row. The last Seahawk QB to do it even three times in a row? Jim Zorn.

Hasselbeck also can move in the pocket, a la his teacher. In five Zorn years in Seattle, Hasselbeck has rushed for nearly 700 yards.

When Zorn and the Seattle Seahawks entered the league together, the team took an "Oh, what the hell" attitude and introduced a wide open offense. The Seahawks knew, as an expansion team, that they were going to lose some games. So they may as well lose them in an exciting fashion. Again, 180 degrees opposite from our Lions' philosophy.

So Zorn chucked it, Largent more often than not caught it, and the Seahawks soon became a team with which to reckon. Zorn is not a Hall of Famer like Largent, but if there was a Hall for southpaws, he'd be in it. Zorn might have been, in fact, the second best lefty QB ever to play in the NFL, behind Steve Young -- with apologies to Kenny Stabler. And Todd Marinovich. Certainly he's the best ever to come out of Cal-Poly Pomona, no?

Jim Zorn is not the head football coach of the Seattle Seahawks. But he has, in a very real, tangible way, helped bring his team all the way from expansion chicks to Super Bowl hawks. He is the man who has propped up Matt Hasselbeck for five years, culminating in an appearance in Super Bowl XL.

Maybe the Lions could give Greg Landry a call? Oh -- they tried that already.

See how memorable it was?