Recently retired KJ Wright is leading a Seattle Seahawks contingent in a weekend full of appearances and events throughout Metro Vancouver.
“Do things like this, engage with fans, get out there in the community, show love,” said the former Pro Bowl linebacker. “Seahawks are forever in my heart.”
On Friday night, the Seahawks reps attended a Coquitlam high school football game. Wright – along with Seahawks mascot Blitz, members of the dance team and team band Blue Thunder – engaged with fans, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Wright is also teaching a youth flag football camp Saturday, with the team hosting a viewing party for the Seahawks/49ers game Sunday afternoon at Jack Pool Plaza. The team calls the weekend trip the 12 North Tour.
The Seahawks currently have more than 3,000 season ticket holders from Canada.
“Coming up to B.C. is huge for us,” said Jeff Richards, Seahawks vice president of marketing and community engagement.
“To spend a weekend, to get to interact with fans here who have been coming to Seahawks games for years and years, it’s huge for us.”
Richards says fans can expect a bigger ‘Hawks presence moving forward, thanks to a new, league-wide push to go global.
“So, this last year, the NFL introduced their International home marketing area initiative, and now we can treat Canada like it’s Seattle, like it’s our home market,” he said.
Vancouver’s lone professional football team, the BC Lions, also had members of its team in attendance Friday night. Richards says the Seahawks view the Lions as friends, not competition.
“We’ve been talking with the group over at BC Lions for a handful of months now,” said Richards. “We have a shared passion for football, so the idea is the work that we want to do together, the work that we may want to do on our own, is to grow the game of football.”
Richard says the Seahawks plan to throw more viewing parties this season.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
