Agreed, but devil's advocate: what if I'm a Hawks fan?

*barf*

Okay, I got that out of the way. I'm pretending I'm a Seahawks fan now.

Quote

This game shows not just Seattle, but the entire NFL, that we are for REAL.

Here's my response: This Seahawks team has been circling the drain for a few years now. Problems in the locker room after a blown Superbowl, finally paying our excellent and grossly underpaid QB, losing important pieces of our O line, the retirement (and eventual betrayal) by Lynch, the aging Hawks defense who now lack hunger, the failure of Cable and moreover of Bevell to field an NFL quality product, and so on... YOU, dear Rams, have NOT arrived. It is merely our team, grown complacent by the fat of its many playoff runs, who has finally faltered. A defeat of the Seahawks merely reveals the downfall of the Seahawks, not the rise of the Rams. Los Angeles is merely occupying a position that was vacated by Seattle through our own incompetence.

So, no. This will not show all of Seattle--at least the Seattle fans and perhaps several of the players themselves--that the Rams are now a contender. It's the tendency of all fanbases, including our own, to look to our own team for problems and minimize or even outright dismiss the possibility that an opponent has vastly improved. I think it'll take another year or so of division and NFL dominance by the Rams (whose dominance currently comprises all of 3 games...) to truly convince our division rivals that we have arrived.