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Stacy: There's a path for Seahawks, Mariners to reach rare feat together

Before any final outcome to a season, it’s easy (and fun!) to talk about some pretty crazy what ifs. How about this one: with the Seattle Seahawks set to kick off their season in a few weeks and the Seattle Mariners in the thick of a wildly competitive American League playoff race, why not wonder… what if both the Seahawks and the Mariners win their divisions this year?

Is it heavily favored? A likely outcome? No. But neither the AL West nor the NFC West has a heavy favorite and that is, at the very least, the groundwork for seeing something very rare.

Where Seattle Mariners’ playoff odds stand after rough Baltimore series

Think about the landscape in either division. In the NFL’s NFC West, the Rams beat the Seahawks by virtue of a fifth tiebreaker to get to the postseason last year, and while they’re the popular pick, they’re also a flawed team (not to mention one that doesn’t have its starting quarterback practicing right now). The 49ers have been a dominant force in the NFC for years but are in a state of flux, having moved on from some key personnel. The Cardinals could always surprise, but have given fans no real reason to pick them outright.

The Seahawks aren’t favored by most critics, but one notable voice has them finishing in first place: FOX Sports host Colin Cowherd. On Wednesday’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the FS1 host pointed out his own questions with the Rams’ health for two key players: Stafford (dealing with a back issue) and starting left tackle Alaric Jackson, who’s dealing with blood clots.

In MLB’s AL West, the Mariners — for the last week one of the hottest teams in baseball before dropping a series to the Orioles — have made up a seven-game deficit. They were briefly hanging onto first place alongside Houston before dropping to 1 1/2 games back entering Friday. Still, it’s a massive hole to have climbed out of, and something fans should be excited about.

That, and consider that this year’s Mariners aren’t last year’s: they’re significantly better offensively. Cal Raleigh remains the league’s home run leader and is putting together what could be the best season — ever — by any catcher. Julio Rodríguez is looking like late-season Julio; he’s slashing .300/.334/.667 with six home runs over the last two weeks and is having his best defensive season. Seattle acquired the two biggest bats at the deadline and now are just hoping their pitching can start to look like its 2024 self.

It’ll be an incredibly tough road for either team, but for the first time in a long time it feels like there’s a path.

When has it happened before?

It’s rare, but not overwhelmingly so. For NFL and MLB teams from the same city, it just happened last year!

In 2024, the Phillies won the NL East for the first time since 2011 (they fell to the Mets in the NLDS) and the Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC East and went on to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.

It wasn’t just in Philly: the 2024 Houston Astros and Houston Texans also both won their respective divisions for a second consecutive season. Neither went on to appear in a championship.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rays both appeared in a championship in 2020, though only the Rays did so as a division winner; the Bucs won Super Bowl LV as a wild card team (the Lightning also won, which was just an unreal season for Tampa).

Though that season feels, at the very least, more possible than what the Patriots did in 2018. The Patriots and Red Sox won their divisions and went on to win their league’s championship (Boston sports fans have had it pretty good for the past 25 years). The Seahawks and Mariners aren’t close to either story here; the Patriots entered as defending AFC Champions and the Red Sox division win that year was their third consecutive.

So yeah, in Boston’s case … sometimes you can see dominance coming. Other times, though, a wild finish to a season surprises us. What are the odds it happens for Seattle fans this year?