RENTON, Wash. _ Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin saw safety Earl Thomas talking, but what he really saw was opportunity.
Baldwin rested his hand on Thomas' shoulder and reminded him how he'd smoked him at practice the day before. Thomas just stared until Baldwin left.
"I never had a rep against him yesterday," Thomas said. And then he laughed. "Doug being Doug."
It was a brief peek inside one of the most dynamic and evolved relationships on the Seahawks. Thomas: always staring like a predator is going to leap out of the bushes. And Baldwin: always creating the tension he thrives inside.
Given a choice between surrender and certain annihilation, both Thomas and Baldwin would ready their swords.
The Seahawks are built on the creative tension that crackles between Baldwin and Thomas. Team chemistry is important, but so are the hundreds of little rivalries that unfold each day on the practice field, during film study, even in the minds of teammates. Baldwin and Thomas embody that dynamic.
They aren't usually viewed as a pair. In fact, they rarely match up at practice. But together they represent the atmosphere the Seahawks strive for.
Earlier in their careers, they were rivals as much as teammates. "Before it was more like, 'I'm trying to embarrass you,' " Baldwin said.
They're still capable of intense matchups and trash talk, but they originate from a different place. A mutual appreciation, if not a total ceasefire. They're both 27 and either married or soon-to-be married.
"Over the years, as many games as we've played, the meetings we've had together, the practice-field battles, I think all that combined with each other for me to feel, 'Man, this guy is the real deal,' " Thomas said. "The respect factor and that love is there."
"He wanted every challenge," Baldwin said, "and I admired that."
Their relationship may seem like a paradox, but it gets to the heart of the Seahawks' identity: collaborators and competitors, all at once.
