SEATTLE — The Seahawks have been flexed out of what would have been their final prime-time appearance this season.
The "no longer ready for prime-time players" have been demoted by NBC. Instead of playing the 49ers on Sunday Night Football on Dec. 5, the Hawks and 49ers will be just another Sunday matinee, while the Chiefs-Broncos game gets promoted to prime time.
That's what happens to 3-and-7 teams. They no longer get to sit at the winner's table.
That's not to say the Seahawks are losers. This organization has done plenty of winning over the last decade, including taking home the NFC West title just 11 months ago.
In my mind, Pete Carroll gets a pass. While most 70-year-old men are enjoying retirement or wandering around the local hardware store wondering where they keep the wax rings, this guy keeps plowing forward. He's fueled by his love for the game of football and the extreme passion he has for being a head coach.
It's one season. A season we have no idea how it will finish.
Pete has watched three offensive-minded coaches come into the NFC West in recent years and rattle the divisional cage with creative play-calling and talented players on that side of the ball.
Meanwhile, he's had three offensive coordinators in the last five years. That kind of inconsistency doesn't breed success.
The team's newest coordinator, Shane Waldron, wowed fans for six quarters this season. The Hawks lit it up in the opener against the Colts and for the first half of the following game against the Titans. For whatever reason, they fell into predictability from there.
I'm not here to bash Waldron. It's his first year as an offensive coordinator in the NFL - he has a lot to learn. I'm also not here to bash the head coach and general manager, or for that matter any of the players on the roster.
No. Not today.
Truth is, we're all pretty good at pointing out problems. It's a lot harder to find solutions.
In any business, you have to evolve, or you will eventually fail. Amazon started out as an online bookstore. Netflix was renting DVDs through the mail.
As for the Seahawks themselves, they seem to be stuck in the world of VHS right now, especially on offense. One that has become archaic.
The NFL is ever-changing. This team has to reinvent itself. It also has to re-invest in key positions, starting at running back. We all love Chris Carson and his demolition style of running, but talent and physical ability are just two qualities it takes to be successful. Availability may be the most important quality. If you're injured, you can't help. Carson played just four games this season. He's scheduled for season-ending neck surgery.
Fellow running back Rashaad Penny has played seven games the last two seasons.
The average career of an NFL running back is two and a half years. It's a brutal position in a brutal business. A business that demands you win now.
Or, as in the title of Pete's book, "Win Forever."
Nowhere in that book is the phrase, "Be Kind, Rewind."
But reinvent?
That's a word the Seahawks should live by.