It is Super Bowl Sunday, which unfortunately, means Seattle Seahawks fans are forever condemned to relive one of the most iconic moments in Super Bowl history… which is simultaneously the single most painful memory in the entire history of Seattle sports: Russell Wilson throwing an interception at the goal line to Malcolm Butler to lose Super Bowl XLIX.
A decade later, this play still haunts the Pacific Northwest, and forever will. Yet with each passing year, we learn more and more about that fateful moment. Former Seahawks defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, who was on the sideline when the incident-in-question occurred, recently spoke about it to KIRO’s own Gee Scott on his radio program.
Mebane recalls seeing former Seahawks backup Tavaris Jackson reacting to the play call.
“So Tarvaris Jackson — I’m kind of not near him, but I can see him — has an earpiece in his ear, and they call the play. Tavaris Jackson says, ‘Nooo! Don’t run that play.’ He turns his back and walks up the sideline away from the play. And I’m like, ‘Where is he going, and why did he say don’t run that play?’ But he said don’t run that play. He walks back, and then they ran the play. And you know what happened after that.”
Initial reaction would certainly suggest blame lies at the hands of offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who called the play. This is the position running back Marshawn Lynch certainly has.
However, Mebane appears to be offering a new explanation. While Bevell may have made the play call, clearly, there were audibles quarterback Russell Wilson was empowered to make at the line. This is what Mebane is alleging in his recent interview, that Wilson himself made the ultimate decision to throw the ball at the goal line.
“Russell pops up and said, ‘Man, they was in goal line (formation), that’s why I threw the ball.'” Mebane declared. “I said, ‘Oh, OK,’ and then I walked off. So, pretty much, Russell changed the play. It was one play. Russell changed the play to that play and then what happened happened.”
The play will live on in infamy, a memory the 12th Man will forever be cursed to relive (in some capacity) each February. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I recall a former teammate directly calling out Wilson with sole-ownership of the interception.
In the end, we may never know who is truly to blame, or if there even is one singular reason why it happened. What we do know is it ended the championship aspirations of the Legion of Boom, as the Seahawks have still yet to return to even the NFC Championship game… let alone the Super Bowl.
“I think about how close we were to winning the second one,” Mebane reminisces. “And I think we could have went to three. I think we could have gone to one in 2012 if (OLB) Chris Clemens didn’t get hurt. I think we’d have had a great opportunity to play in that Super Bowl.”
