We’ve got no specific issue with the Seahawks. (Other than, you know, those hideous green jerseys, which have screwed up our televisions -- and our retinas.)
But our commitment to exposing those who deserve to be exposed knows the boundaries of no team names or colors, and the Seahawks have on their roster a guy who deserves to be exposed.
Receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh chased the best offer he found in free agency to the Pacific Northwest. And he has been running his mouth ever since.
“I just want to let everyone know that Matt Hasselbeck and I will be leading the Seahawks to the playoffs this season,” Houshmandzadeh told Sporting News in June. “And we’ll be going to the Pro Bowl as a tandem. We’re both going to have top five seasons: He’ll have a top five quarterback season, and I’ll have a top five receiving season. I’ll put up stats I’ve never had before yardswise because they’re allowing me to be a complete receiver.”
Houshmandzadeh also has expressed annoyance at the autograph requests he received in Cincinnati, explained away the fact that he wasn’t getting any such requests in Seattle because of all the “millionaires” who live there, and griped about his Madden rating of 91 -- which based on his first three games in blue and radioactive green is about 16 points too high.
Most recently, he called out the Bears for not pursuing him in free agency, and Houshmandzadeh declared that he’d be open “95 percent” of the time against the Bears on Sunday.
The end result? Four catches, 35 yards, no touchdowns, and a lost fumble.
Houshmandzadeh’s explanation? “I was open all game,” he said, per the Chicago Tribune. “They just didn’t throw me the ball.”
This guy could indeed be the worst of all the diva receivers we’ve seen. Because, typically, the players who think their ability to run and catch footballs and score touchdowns causes the unpleasant aroma to disappear from the byproduct of their consumption of food adopt that attitude only after they have shown that they can run and catch footballs and score touchdowns.
Houshmandzadeh has placed the cart far in front of the horse. Currently, he’s on track to become the next Alvin Harper or Peerless Price. So, in our view, his best bet would be to humble himself and to focus on perfecting his craft.
That might cause him to regard us as “haters.” But, actually, if we were “haters,” we’d just sit back, shut our mouths, fold our arms, and smile.