- [Narrator] It's January 19th, 2014.
We're in Seattle, Washington for the NFC Championship game
between the hometown Seahawks
and the San Francisco 49ers.
the Niners have the ball down six
and are 18 yards away from taking the lead.
Clock ticking towards 30 seconds,
Seattle is looking to keep them out of the end zone
and punch their own ticket to the Super Bowl.
To appreciate what comes next,
and remember the hate-filled journey that got us here,
we should rewind.
(pensive music)
Okay, so first things first.
See this guy?
He hates this guy.
And him?
Well, he really doesn't like this guy.
And we'll come back to these two guys,
but they definitely don't get along.
Why, though?
(video rapidly beeping)
(videotape clicking)
In 2002, Seattle changed conferences,
joining the 49ers in the NFC West.
Both on the lookout for a fresh rival,
these newfound division mates
agreed to regularly disagree pretty early on,
but it took nearly a decade
before their pot actually boiled over.
(static crackling)
When the Seahawks joined the NFC,
Pete Carroll was busy turning USC into a powerhouse:
multiple national championships,
seven straight conference titles,
and one big thorn in his side.
A thorn named Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh's Stanford program
became the David to USC's Goliath.
The Cardinal ended USC's perfect season in 2007,
one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
Two years later, Harbaugh was out for blood,
actively running up the score in a Stanford blowout,
which led to this very awkward post-game handshake.
- What's your deal? You all right?
- Yeah, I'm good.
What's your deal?
(crowd chattering)
- [Narrator] Nice comeback, Jim.
These dudes did not get along.
So when Carroll left for a new gig in 2010,
and a year later,
Harbaugh had the chance to join him in the same division,
he jumped at the opportunity to beat Carroll once again.
(static crackling)
These coaches immediately ramped up this divisional rivalry.
There's a good chance
that they could have fueled it on their own,
but a critical piece came from how they built their teams.
They had pretty similar visions.
Both guys wanted to rely on a power running game,
and they had the backs to do it.
They beefed up offensive lines capable of paving the way
and keeping their young mobile QBs upright.
They had chain movers in the passing game
capable of blowing up any given week.
But for the most part, that wasn't necessary,
thanks to the play on the other side of the ball.
Each team ran through a defense that set the tone every week
and catapulted both franchises straight into contention.
That last part became massive for this rivalry.
Bad teams can enjoy playing spoiler to good teams, sure,
but when you have two talented rosters
directly competing for the same goal
in the same division at the same time,
then you're cooking.
San Francisco took extreme pleasure
in knocking Seattle out of playoff contention in 2011.
There were even rumors of Harbaugh gloating
while Seahawks players watched from their team bus.
Easy claim for Harbaugh to deny.
But then when you give out quotes like this,
it's hard to act like you're not dumping fuel on the rivalry
in broad daylight.
(static crackling)
So, we have spicy quotes, coaches who don't get along,
and then in 2012, it happened.
Both teams made the playoffs
in the same season for the first time since 1988.
That meant that even with San Francisco's
eventual Super Bowl appearance,
the NFC West was guaranteed to no one in 2013.
(video rapidly beeping)
Jumping back to tonight,
here in Seattle, you know how the division played out.
And if this score holds,
the hometown crowd will watch their Seahawks
take the 49ers' place in this year's big game.
But if there's anyone who could change that
in these closing seconds,
it's this guy.
(video rapidly beeping)
(videotape clicking)
When San Francisco
drafted Colin Kaepernick 36th overall in 2011,
experts saw a talented quarterback prospect
with great physical traits who was raw as hell.
Sure, he made up for that with his legs.
But for success in the Pros, he needed some work.
Kap landed in the perfect spot for that.
Not only could he lean on Harbaugh, the QB whisperer,
but he sat behind Alex Smith,
a cerebral signal caller who made up for a lesser-than arm
with high IQ and some sneaky athleticism.
(static crackling)
For 18 months, Kaepernick learned and he waited,
and then the injury gods intervened.
Week 10, 2012, Kaepernick came in for a concussed Smith.
Considering the circumstances, he played pretty well.
Not a gaudy performance, but he did enough to battle back
and tie things up at the end of regulation,
then marched them in position to win it in overtime,
only for David Akers to spoil the ending.
A week later in his first career start,
things went far better.
This came against one of the league's best defenses,
therefore making it easier for Harbaugh
to stick with Kaepernick despite Smith being cleared.
While Smith's play
made that decision look like a head-scratcher,
any potential quarterback controversy
was squashed in Week 12.
Kaepernick's tool set took this offense to a different level
and offered another way to grind games out on the ground.
It paid off pretty well for San Francisco,
like in a record-breaking sort of way.
Kaepernick nearly even claimed the Lombardi Trophy
for the Niners,
but fell as short as one could against the Ravens.
And maybe against the referees, but that's not our story.
(static crackling)
Our story is this 2013 version of San Francisco.
Kaepernick propelled himself
into preseason MVP conversations.
The expectations surrounding his squad
felt reminiscent of Niners' teams from decades past.
Opening the year with a rematch from last postseason,
Kaepernick only fanned those flames.
He showed his smarts by leaning on Vernon Davis.
The explosive tight end has thrived
with Kaepernick throwing him the ball,
which led to Davis's first-ever All-Pro season.
The QBs favorite target, though,
has been newcomer Anquan Boldin.
Their connection has been major on its own,
but even more so when remembering
that the receiver room operated at less than full strength
the majority of the year.
Michael Crabtree, the team's leading receiver in 2012,
who showed great rapport with Kaepernick down the stretch
and throughout the playoffs,
needed off-season surgery
that shelved him for the team's first 11 games.
Now, they did fine without him.
Once Crabtree hit the field in Week 13,
the Niners have been undefeated ever since.
Correlation, causation, who knows?
The point is Kaepernick has all of his key playmakers.
They carried that momentum into Lambeau
where they beat Aaron Rodgers for a fourth time in a row.
Then, a week later traveled to Carolina
and the defense put the clamps on Cam Newton.
Winning every way possible,
they've become the hottest team left standing.
(video rapidly beeping)
And right here, they're in position to steal this game.
Kaepernick's got plenty of options in this moment,
but if he decides to look Crabtree's way down here,
well, then, he'll also be looking in this guy's direction,
which hasn't been too smart this year.
(video rapidly beeping)
(videotape clicking)
In 2011, no one could have predicted
that Richard Sherman would become the face
of the Seahawks' defense
or the mouth of the whole team.
153 players heard their names called in the NFL draft
before the Seahawks took Sherman.
The fact cornerback
remained a somewhat new position for him
might explain Sherman lasting that long,
but if you ask him,
you'd hear a different answer
for why he dropped in the draft.
Spoiler, these guys don't like each other.
Surely there's a video about that somewhere.
In just his second year,
Sherman showed why the 31 other teams made a big mistake.
That first team All-Pro season
showcased more than just his talent.
(static crackling)
The front office had been crushing it with draft picks.
That's how Carroll and Schneider
remade this defense overnight,
finding heavy hitters, and ball hawks,
and assembling a secondary
that became known as the Legion of Boom.
That nickname quickly spread to the rest of their defense,
a collection of players who all played football
as if their lives depended on it.
Some had pedigrees like Earl Thomas,
but most were like Sherman, passed over round after round.
Malcolm Smith, for instance,
landed in Seattle as a 7th round pick
and played behind unstoppable linebackers,
like K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner.
But when injuries thrust Smith into a starting spot,
he immediately delivered.
During a pivotal stretch of this 2013 season,
Smith filled in for Wright with performances
that proved how deep the defense's talent ran.
As a whole, they pulled off a regular season
the League has rarely seen.
They demoralized offenses
and reminded old heads of the '85 Chicago Bears,
one of the greatest football teams ever.
Oh, and naturally, Sherman played a major part in that.
The defense drove this team on an incredible ride,
delivering Seattle its best season
since the last time they reached the Super Bowl.
After their first round by,
the defense kept Drew Brees
in the high-powered New Orleans offense off the scoreboard
until the fourth quarter.
When Marshawn Lynch dealt the final kill shot,
we were gifted with a third battle
between these division rivals.
And tonight, Seattle's needed the defense
to be at their best.
On the first snap of the game,
the Seahawks gifted the Niners a short field,
but that deed didn't break.
Well, not at that point.
Few have contained Kaepernick
for a full 60 minutes this season.
In the 49ers' first drive of the second quarter,
he delivered again.
As the Seahawks pressured Kap,
QB looked like a gazelle evading lions.
He took a perfect angle to bust loose,
then bounded for 58 yards before running out of gas
and succumbing to Kam Chancellor.
The next 10 yards proved much harder to pick up,
but the Niners punched it in on fourth down
to take a big 10-point lead.
Despite Seattle's defense calling out for help,
the offense didn't wake up until the third quarter.
With a game plan revolving around feed Marshawn,
it finally paid off.
After that, it was Russell Wilson's turn to Cook,
13 yards to Doug Baldwin, 15 to Zach Miller.
Then, finally, a 35-yard score to Jermaine Kearse.
That kicked off a reckless fourth quarter.
On the ensuing drive,
Cliff Avril looped all the way around
and chopped Kaepernick's arm.
Michael Bennett nearly had himself a Pizeman moment,
but at least set the Seahawks offense in great position.
(static crackling)
Four snaps later, though,
it was Wilson's turn to cough it up.
While unscathed on the scoreboard,
that micro drive
saw 49ers' all-world linebacker NaVorro Bowman
crumble down with a brutal knee injury.
And so after Kaepernick turned the ball back over
two snaps later,
Seattle's offense
faced a San Francisco D without their leader.
They burned some clock, drove as far as they could,
then made this a six-point game,
forcing the Niners to need a touchdown.
But, if they get that here,
they're an extra point away
from a second straight Super Bowl appearance.
While this hasn't been his finest hour,
Kaepernick has still stacked more magic
on an already magical season
and can now deliver in the clutch once again.
With Harbaugh, this team is on a path to glory
that hasn't been seen in San Francisco since the '90s.
That said, Seattle knows the stakes,
they know what they need to do,
and they've done it all season.
They're on the cusp
of their first Super Bowl appearance since 2006,
and eye in the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Oh, plus, the bragging rights from tonight
will be pretty sweet.
No matter what, though.
It all starts with this play.
Welcome to "A Moment in History."
- [Commentator] Colin Kaepernick
with a chance to take the lead.
(audience cheering)
Kaepernick, Henshaw, Crabtree, broken up, picked off.
This game is over.
(audience cheering)
Knocked in the air, intercepted by Smith.
(audience cheering)
Off the hands of Richard Sherman.
(switch clicking)
(gentle music)