SEATTLE — Once upon a time, the Seahawks and 49ers had the NFL's best rivalry, hands down. Certainly, it was the most heated — maybe in all of sports. The coaches had well-documented friction, the talented young quarterbacks were vying for supremacy, and the stakes were constantly at the highest level.
The intensity began to dissipate after the 2014 season when San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh left for Michigan. It fizzled even more when the 49ers sank to the bottom of the NFC West Division for a four-year span, going 17-47 between 2015-18. By the time they got good again in '19 under Kyle Shanahan — three coaches removed from Harbaugh — most of the players who made Seahawks vs. 49ers such riveting theater had retired or moved on (or moved from Seattle to San Francisco, in Richard Sherman's case).
Could we be on the verge of a revived second chapter of this rivalry? Though it's highly unlikely the Seahawks and 49ers will ever match the dynamic personalities (and personality conflicts) that flowed through both rosters in the heyday, or replicate the tension between the coaches, Saturday's playoff game at Levi's Stadium could well be the precursor to a new era of meaningful games between them.
