Seahawks hand Mariners golden chance to make Seattle the new 'Titletown'

Over the decades, Seattle has struggled to be taken seriously as a sports town by the rest of North America, not helped by being tucked away in the Pacific Northwest and sometimes referred to as South Alaska, and not in a positive way. There was no NHL team until 2021, they lost their first MLB team after just one season in 1969, and the NFL did not arrive until 1976 followed by the return of baseball a year later with your Seattle Mariners.

There were plenty of times when Seattle sports fans thought they were cursed due to things going wrong even when everything seemed set up to go right, including the NBA's SuperSonics having a franchise record 64 wins in 1995-96, but then running into the 72-10 Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals. The 2001 Mariners equalled the Major League record of 116 wins, but lost in the ALCS to those damn Yankees, while the 2005 Seahawks led the NFL in scoring but then got screwed over by the refs * in Super Bowl XL and lost to the Steelers.

* Please note that for legal purposes, we are stating this as an opinion not a fact.

However, perhaps best encapsulating what it meant to suffer as a Seattle sports fan, we present to you the year of 2008. (And we apolgize in advance for taking you back down this dark road.) The Seahawks went 4-12 in Mike Holmgren's final season as head coach, the football Huskies went 0-12, the Mariners became the first MLB team to accumulate 100 losses with a $100 million payroll and, worst of all, the Sonics left for Oklahoma.

The tide is turning in Seattle with its sports teams

Since then, the tide has turned for the better in Seattle. The Sounders came to town in 2009 and have created a winning tradition which includes two MLS Cups and a CONCACAF Champions League. The Seahawks finally won their first Super Bowl at the conclusion of the 2013 season and NHL hockey finally returned to Seattle in 2021, with the Kraken.

Now the stakes have been raised even higher in Seattle, with the chance to actually earn the moniker as the new "Titletown." And yes, we're being totally serious, thanks to the Seahawks' 29-13 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday in Super Bowl LX.

The last time the Seahawks won the Super Bowl following the 2013 season, the Mariners were quite frankly not in the World Series conversation, especially following a 71-91 record which saw them finish fourth in the AL West. This time around, it's an entirely different story.

The Mariners are coming off a 90-win season which saw them come within just eight outs of their first ever World Series berth. And now they are considered among the favorites to go all the way in 2026, with FanGraphs giving them the best odds to represent the AL in the World Series and the third-best odds to win it.

There would be a certain poetic symmetry as well if the Mariners could win it all this season. The 2025 season was the Seahawks' 50th as an NFL franchise and they won the Super Bowl, and wouldn't you know that 2026 will be the Mariners' 50th season in existence.

Josh Naylor and the Mariners showing some love

Josh Naylor has made no secret of his love for all things Seattle and has gotten caught up in it all, as he proved by attending Super Bowl LX in San Francisco with teammates Cal Raleigh, Bryan Woo and George Kirby. As per Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, last week Naylor had said:

"This would be like a lifelong memory that I would have if I’m able to go and support them. It’d be a cool team-bonding opportunity, like we’re gonna go support our team that’s a jump and a skip across the street.And maybe when we’re in the World Series, they’re gonna come support us."

Josh Naylor

For anyone who's wondering if this is an outlandish fairytale unlikely to befall Seattle, the same city winning the Super Bowl and World Series has happened before, including in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New York and the San Francisco Bay area. In total it has been achieved on six occasions, including twice this century by the same city.

The city in question is Greater Boston, in 2004 and 2018 with the Patriots and the Red Sox — in other words, the idea here is to kick New England while it's down after losing the Super Bowl. Lets have the Mariners win this year's World Series to help Seattle become the new "Titletown" and finally be able to truly flip the bird at those who even now still claim they aren't a serious sports town.