NFL Seattle Seahawks

Seattle Seahawks Could Return to AFC West

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By @The12thDude

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Getty Images

Most NFL fans are probably aware by now that Los Angeles wants a football team again, and they want one now. L.A. is the second largest market in the nation, so it is very likely that they will land not one, but two struggling franchises in the league between 2015 to 2016, as originally reported by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The primary targets for L.A. are the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and the St. Louis Rams — all of which played in L.A. at one time.

The Rams are free to leave the Edward Jones Dome after this season, while the Raiders and Chargers have unsettled stadium situations that could bring them back to the City of Angels.

The Chargers currently play in Qualcomm Stadium, which is extremely outdated, and not very attractive to look at. But hey, at least the giant lot that surrounds the stadium makes for a pretty fun tailgating party! The Bolts are difficult to gauge because the organization remains committed to putting together a stadium proposal to remain in San Diego; however, 30 percent of the organization’s local revenue comes from the L.A. market. Any addition to L.A. would economically hurt the Chargers — two would be a serious issue. While the Bolts are working towards remaining in San Diego, their No. 1 priority is to protect their business interests.

The Raiders, meanwhile, are on their way out of Oakland. It is more of a question of where they will land — L.A. or San Antonio — which seem like the two most likely destinations. Mark Davis has made his interest in relocating to L.A. known, and that is more than likely going to be the case.

So how does the potential of two teams moving to L.A. affect the Seattle Seahawks? The NFL doesn’t want two teams sharing a city to be in the same conference — for example, the New York Giants (NFC East) and the New York Jets (AFC East) are two teams in the same city that do not represent the same conference. Davis has already volunteered to move to the NFC West in exchange for one of the four teams currently in the division. It appears as though Davis is gung-ho about moving the team.

The Seahawks apparently make the most sense because it would be a move back to their original stomping ground, where they represented the division from 1977-2001. A lot of Seahawks fans may enjoy the switch because the majority of the Hawks’ history was obviously played in the AFC West, and many might see this as the division they rightfully belong to. Hall of Fame players like Steve Largent, and Cortez Kennedy used to play in the AFC, way before there was ever a big rivalry between the Hawks and the San Francisco 49ers — but that is exactly why I would not like the switch.

The majority of the Hawks’ history may have been played in the AFC West, but the most successful years have been in the NFC West, where the Niners and the Hawks have become bitter rivals over the past 12 seasons. I was born in 1985, and I have gotten used to the NFC West. To me, it feels like home. The rivalry between Seattle and San Francisco may be relatively new compared to old rivalries like the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is currently the best rivalry in the NFL today. Moving the Seahawks back to the AFC West would completely squash that, and that is not good for the NFL, or the cities of Seattle and San Francisco.

What are your thoughts? If the time comes when the NFL has to move a team from the NFC West to the AFC West, would you like to see the Seahawks make the jump?

Tyson Sweet is a Seattle Seahawks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @The12thDude, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google!

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