Jan 17, 2026
3 min read
It's been 12 years since the Seahawks defeated the 49ers in the NFC title game in what became known as "The Tip."They clash again in...
Seconds before scoring the most important catch in Seahawks history, Malcolm Smith recognized a special gift — a vague hint of what was to come — from the San Francisco 49ers' backfield.
Even now, 12 years later (holy crap, has it really been that long), Smith can still picture himself in that moment, lining up at the center of Seattle's defense, reading the 49ers' lineup and contemplating his next steps.
In the true, Smith admitted in an interview the week that he was not necessarily destined to finish in the end zone, where he would arrive just in time to get Richarent in the closement of the Seahawkers' 2014 nfc Championship game win.
"The Tip" is the most famous defensive play in Seahawks history, completed by Smith after being sacked by 49ers running back Kendall Hunter on an early read.
Smith, an outside linebacker, was assigned to cover a possible pass to the running back that filtered down the floor.But once Smith saw Hunter scan the Seahawks' defensive front before the snap, I knew Hunter would stay in the backfield, at least initially, to help block quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Going through a pre-check list, Smith quickly eliminated the other potential threats in front of him - there were no tight ends or slot receivers lined up on the side of the field - and came to the conclusion that Kaepernick would throw a fade to his primary receiver, Michael Crabtree, in the corner of the end zone.
While studying film earlier this week, the Seahawks were preparing for this very play.Smith recalled that it was the same throw Kaepernick made to Crabtree a year earlier on a big play in the NFC Championship game in Atlanta.
Smith was ready for iso.Sherman was there too.
"For me, as someone who didn't have a big personality in the locker room, I was always thinking, OK, how am I going to make a play to earn the respect of my teammates?"Smith recalled."My chances up to that point in the season were few and far between, and I was desperate — desperate to even try to make a play."
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Here, 12 years later, the Seahawks and 49ers return to the big stage for the first playoff game in Seattle since the 2014 NFC Championship Game.
Comparisons between the Seahawks' Legion of Boom at the time and the new era under Mike McDonald aren't perfect.But the waves are at least similar.
Shipping is playing the third of his category in the top of the Jim Harbadigh.They have the thekhwoks's company won up to their own place.
Today, the 49ers are once again the team with the most recent playoff success -- appearing in three straight championship games under Kyle Shanahan and losing a heartbreaker to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years ago -- and are once again the team the Seahawks need to beat to take the next step.
Back then it was a fierce competition.Once again the acrimony on both sides has become increasingly fierce.
Don't expect Sherman to light the flames this time.
Sherman, now an NFL analyst for Amazon Prime Video, has close ties to both organizations and wore Seahawks and 49ers hats in a recent YouTube appearance on his podcast.As vociferous as he has been as a player — as he taunted Crabtree after the "tip," as he's done loudly in postgame TV interviews — Sherman has taken a diplomatic stance, declining to make an official prediction for Saturday's game on this week's podcast.
"It's pick 'em for me. It can go either way," he said.
Having played on both sides of it, Sherman knows this rivalry as well as anyone.
“You know how those Seattle Seahawks-San Francisco playoff games go, I do.I know exactly how they go,” Sherman said."It will be fireworks.It will be walks and hits.It will be physical.Better take helmets with you.Keep your kids away - this will be rated 'R' for physicality.It's going to be the type of physicality that makes kids uncomfortable."
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There was a group chat with about 10 front-line players from the Legion of Boom era, and Smith said the line was particularly active this week in the making of the game on Saturday.(Former Seahawks Smith defender did not expect to hear that, KJ Wright, a key figure in the LOB defense who was in his second season as assistant coach with the 49ers.)
From afar, as he watched the Seahawks progress this season, Smith said he felt a nostalgic pull.
"We were just texting about the plane ride the next day after a good win, all the moments in the locker room, getting shirts and hats and taking pictures and everything," said Smith, who retired in 2022 after a 10-year career with six NFL teams."When you get older, you miss the locker room. You miss that feeling."
He recognizes some of the same traits from the LOB days for Seattle's evolving defense.There is a unity and common pursuit of football that looks familiar.
"I see that a lot with some of the guys playing for the Seahawks right now," Smith said."Obviously, they've got it now and I'm happy for them."
There was intent, Smith said, to what the Seahawks did under Pete Carroll.In the early days of the LOB, they knew how good they were, and they knew how great they were.
“We want to be intergenerational,” Smith said."And that will come from doing things that are very underrated or things that other teams might consider luck. Like just thinking there's going to be a game. But you have to make yourself available for things like that to happen. We don't believe in luck or bad luck."
It goes back into the path as Smith stepped into the end zone to catch Sherman's tight end.
Smith, a former seventh-round pick, credited then-linebackers coach Ken Norton with inspiring him and the rest of the linebackers to constantly think two or three steps ahead before the play, and not be satisfied with just "doing their job" while covering a portion of space.
Everyone's job, they learned, was to make a play, whatever it took.There was a right freedom that came with that, too.
"As a player, you don't appreciate it until you go somewhere else and realize how hard it is," Smith said.
When Smith saw that Kaepernick was throwing Crabtree, he started chasing the ball, if needed.
"If you're passionate, there's an opportunity to create a play," Smith said."We'll never know what happens if we don't try."
Smith made the interception and, after a few steps and a flip from safety Earl Thomas, knelt over the Seahawks logo in the end zone for a touchdown.
Two weeks later in Super Bowl XLVIII, Smith was named MVP as his 69-yard pick-six punt highlighted Peyton Manning's 43–8 rout of the Denver Broncos.
This Super Bowl football is on display in Smith's home in Southern California and is a treasured keepsake.
He also kept "The Tip" ball, though he laughed when asked where the football ended up.It turned out that the ball became the favorite toy of his two young daughters during indoor soccer games.Everyone seems to be still playing at the Smith house.
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