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Seahawks could learn something from ’85 Bears

Elements of the post-Super Bowl chatter sound familiar.

One of the youngest teams in the league … a compelling head coach … a defense for the ages … an efficient offense … a scrappy, undersized, instinctive leader at quarterback …

The question now is, do the 2013 Seahawks have a chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions?

Answer the question with a question: Did the 1985 Bears have a chance to repeat?

Yes, the Seahawks have a chance to repeat. No, the Bears didn’t repeat 28 seasons ago.

Another question now is, do the Seahawks have a chance to become this decade’s dynasty?

Again, answer the question with a question: Did the Bears have a chance to become the dynasty of the ’80s?

Yes, the Seahawks have a chance to dominate this decade. No, the Bears didn’t dominate that decade.

The message is that there are no givens.

These Seahawks could learn something from those Bears about how to first repeat as champions and then become a championship dynasty — or more precisely learn from those Bears how not to do either.

The first lesson would be to avoid getting too full of yourselves and quit being obsessed with winning the Super Bowl. The Seahawks have to keep the focus on football rather than on chasing fame, fortune and every endorsement opportunity that arises like the Bears did.

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson has to come to training camp in July in top shape instead of looking like a blown-up doll of himself like Jim McMahon did.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has to be content being a head coach rather than striving to become a conglomerate the way Mike Ditka did.

Seattle owner Paul Allen has to remain in the background instead of thinking he was a football man the way Mike McCaskey did.

The Seahawks have to maintain this season’s camaraderie instead of allowing jealousies to chip away at it like the Bears did.

Some damage occurs that is out of any NFL team’s control.

Seattle has to hope that Wilson is more durable over the duration of his career than McMahon proved to be. The Seahawks eventually will lose assistant coaches to other teams, but at least for one more season neither coordinator is leaving the way Buddy Ryan left the Bears.

The Bears had it easier back then because there was no salary cap in the 1980s and only limited free agency. Still, management managed to lose premier linebacker Wilber Marshall to Washington.

Money was the issue, naturally. Fortunately for the Seahawks, Allen has more financial resources today than the Bears’ McCaskey family had back in the day.

Times are different, the NFL is different, the league’s economic structure is different, just about everything is different.

One thing remains the same, however: The goal is to not have any regrets decades later. No team should be like those Bears, who still shake their heads over not being all they should have been.

The 2013 Seahawks want to be celebrities in Seattle years from now the way the ’85 Bears still are in Chicago, but with an empty feeling over the championships they didn’t win.

The Seattle franchise shouldn’t do what the Bears did, leave their fans yearning for more and nearly three decades later still be in pursuit of their second Super Bowl title.

The Seahawks have that young core, great defense, compelling head coach, scrappy quarterback and dynastic potential that are familiar to longtime Bears fans.

What Seattle doesn’t want are the regrets that still haunt Chicago all these years later.

mimrem@dailyherald.co

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