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Seahawks should throw in the towel

By BUD KENNEDY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The entire state of Texas is under attack from the Pacific Northwest, where a trademark flap involving an obscure Seattle football team now has the people of Washington state whipped into a venti-cappuccino-size froth.

As every proud Texan knows, the Texas Aggies were first to promote the fans' role as the football team's "12th Man." A sophomore Aggie reserve squadman was called out of the press box to suit up during a bowl game in Dallas in 1922, and loyal Aggies now stand up every game to be ready to play if necessary.

I have no idea what the Seattle Seahawks fans were doing in 1922. But I know they weren't 12th Men. For one thing, the closest pro football team was in Illinois.

So Texas A&M is suing to stop the Seahawks, a team named for a predatory seafowl, from selling or licensing rally towels, flags and other souvenir kitsch with A&M's trademarked 12th Man.

From the Washington fans' reaction, you'd think A&M had demanded that the Aggies replace Seattle in the Super Bowl. Calling Texas the "Lone Brainstem State," columnist Greg Johns of the Longview, Wash., Daily News wrote jokingly that the Aggies should "back down your lawyers" or Seattle would send Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen "to buy out your little land-grant university and turn it into the southern branch of his Experience Music Project." Hey, Greg -- how would Allen like it if the Aggies copied and sold Windows?

On a TV station's Web site, www.king5.com, at least six Seahawks fans call Texans "morons." Texans are also called "bigots" and "idiots," and several fans suggest that Aggies do more than clone their animals.

Seattle crowds have been described colloquially as the Seahawks' "12th man" since the 1980s days of noisy crowds in the old Kingdome, fans argue. The team even retired a No. 12 football jersey in 1984, honoring fans.
But that jersey had only a number. The Seahawks weren't selling or promoting anything using A&M's full name of the 12th Man.

Sometimes, the team even refers carefully to the tradition of the "12th Seahawk."
This year, though, at least two references on the team's Web site refer to the "12th Man."

For the last 20 years, since the days of then-coach Jackie Sherrill, Aggie fans have shown that they are ready to play by clutching and waving 12th Man towels like sideline players.

This year, the Seahawks fans suddenly have "12" towels. "The outrage is that they not only are using our name, they are starting to use our traditions," said Susan Bailey, an allergist in Fort Worth and a former A&M university regent.
She has a close-up look at the conflict. A stepson, Greg Bailey, graduated from A&M. He now works as a sportscaster at KING-TV in Seattle.
Greg Bailey chose his words carefully. "It's a great compliment to the Aggies that Seattle fans are talking about them and taking up the 12th Man tradition," he said from Chicago, where he was making a connecting flight to Detroit for the Super Bowl.
Very nice.

Now, what about those towels?
Bailey remembered how the Aggies' towel tradition began in 1985. A senior at Lamar High School in Arlington, he was thrilled to go to College Station on Saturdays and watch A&M fans wave 12th Man towels all the way to victory in the Cotton Bowl.

Bailey has worked in Seattle since 2000. He said the Seahawks' "12th Man" tradition didn't seem similar to A&M's until he saw the towels.
"When I looked out at the first playoff game and saw all the towels, I couldn't help but think of that 1985 season," he said. "That's when the recognition set in for me that A&M started this with the 12th Man."
He wants the teams to work out a licensing agreement, he said. Maybe A&M should have complained about the trademark breach sooner. But who knew?

Almost nobody in Texas ever heard of the Seattle Seahawks. Once we finally got our own Starbucks coffee stands, we mostly quit thinking about Seattle.

I hope Bailey has warned folks up there not to mess with the Aggies. If this little dispute isn't settled by week's end, they might decide to invade Detroit and take over the Super Bowl.

I don't think Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones would like sharing halftime with the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. It wouldn't even be close.