The Freeman's Take Seattle
What happened today in Seattle will most certainly be written about by some sports writer for some publication somewhere.
That’s what I thought to myself several months ago now as the events were unfolding and the wheels of this story were spinning in my head. In fact I never saw anything about what I noticed on Friday, June 19–not that I searched far and wide. But in the course of my daily sports reading the story I thought I would read never inserted itself into my feed. So I’ll take a moment to mention it myself because it deserves a write up. What makes the events in Seattle on that day particularly remarkable is due in large part to events that took place nearly 30 years ago and on the same exact coordinates. And the stories could even start in the exact same way:
SEATTLE – A. Freeman had a day to remember.
Monday September 30, 1996
SEATTLE – Antonio Freeman had a day to remember. The second year wide-receiver of the Green Bay Packers turned in a career best performance with game highs of 108 yards and two touchdowns on seven receptions. After a lukewarm start to the season, Freeman’s breakout day helped the Packers to a 31-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks at the Kingdome and push the Packers to 4-1 on the season.
And the article would continue on…but I want to add some context to our opening story. The NFL scheduling formula prior to the 2002 season, compounded by the fact that the Seahawks were in the AFC until 2002, made a Packers-Seahawks matchup a bit rarer than it’s been the past quarter century. The Packers and Seahawks played six times in 20 years prior to the 1996 matchup, then went on to play each other ten times in the 20 years after the 1996 matchup (not including 3 additional playoff games). The week 5 game in 1996 was also the first time the Packers played the Seahawks in Seattle.
Now, back to the game for a few more notes. Freeman scored the game’s first points; a corner route into the end zone from 13 yards out. He also scored the game’s final points, three plays after “catching” another pass on a corner route that took the Packers to the Seahawks 1 yard line. On the scoring play, Brett Favre was up to his usual exciting antics. After taking the snap and dropping back, Favre scrambled up into the pocket and then ran to his left, poised to run it in himself. Instead, he spotted Freeman wide open in the end zone and proceeded to flip the ball to Freeman backhand, like a shortstop deep in the hole flipping the ball to the second baseman trying to turn a double play. Freeman lunged forward and caught the ball as it was flipping end over end through the air, like a kickoff, trapping it between his green long-sleeve covered arms and his stomach. Vintage Favre.
But wait, why the quotes for catching a few sentences prior? Well, upon further review in 2026, there’s a good chance that catch wouldn’t stand. Falling down towards the sideline, Freeman has the ball for a moment but, in NFL parlance, the catch does not survive the ground. Or the ball does not survive the impact…or whatever it is. It’s close, that’s for sure. But the NFL was between eras that utilized replay, having eliminated it after first implementing it between 1986 and 1991 before reinstating it in 1999 (after a controversial—of course—play in the 4th quarter of the 1998 Wild Card Game between the Packers and 49ers that was pivotal in a 49ers win. Yes, Jerry Rice fumbled, although the box score will never show it).
As mentioned before, this was Freeman’s first game with 100 receiving yards and multiple touchdowns. He went on to have 20 such games in his Packers career and from 1996 on established himself as Favre’s primary and perhaps most associated weapon through 2001.
Saturday June 20, 2026
SEATTLE – Alex Freeman had a day to remember. Playing and starting in a home World Cup, the 21-year old centre-back scored a crucial brace for his country with his first ever competitive goal for the United States Mens National Team. The goal came in the 43 minute following a deflection from a free kick to put the USMNT up 2-0 over Australia, a score and lead they’d hold for the remainder of the contest. Right place, right time. And to think – a little over a year ago Freeman’s place on the team was all but a certainty.
Yes indeed, Freeman received his first ever call up to the senior team in May of 2025 in what was an "unexpected surprise" for him, according to Freeman. It was the result of USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino trawling the depths of the US soccer player pool, along with Freeman’s own dogged determination to make a name for himself. In fact, Pochettino was bringing up a number of new and unproven players throughout 2025 in order to test the quality of the US system and provide critical experience to players who may be counted on when the World Cup landed at America’s fields in 2026.
Freeman stuck, and when the USMNT opened the 2026 World Cup against Paraguay, he was in the starting eleven. He started match day 2 against the Socceroo’s of Australia in Seattle at “Seattle Stadium,” the temporary name FIFA demanded for Lumen Field during the World Cup. The building sits on the gravesite of its’ predecessor, the Kingdome, the very building where another Freeman burst on to the scene in his sport nearly 30 years earlier. The Kingdome was imploded in 2000 and the replacement was built specifically for soccer with the goal of eventually hosting a future World Cup game. That day finally came on June 19, 2026. And once again, as he has since his senior call up, Freeman made the most of his moment.
Sometimes, the universe brings it all together like that. And that makes me smile.
Like father, like son. “Football” runs in the family, and apparently, so does scoring in the PNW.