SEATTLE, WA - SEPTEMBER 25: Quarterback Russell Wilson #3 of the Seattle Seahawks looks on from the sidelines after coming out of the game in the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field on September 25, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. Head coach Pete Carroll is at right. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The Seattle Seahawks had all the hallmarks of a budding dynasty in late February of the 2013 NFL season. They were young, confident and already champs.

They’d just crushed the Denver Broncos 43-8 in the Super Bowl, shutting down the most prolific offense in league history. It was the first genuine pasting the NFL had seen in the big game since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thumped the Oakland Raiders 48-21 back in 2002. How did they do it? Through dominant defense, power running, and efficient quarterback play.

Not to mention an atmosphere where all the players were held accountable, even the quarterback. According to Greg Bishop and Robert Klemko of Sports Illustrated, that was true of Seattle during their rise to the top. However, things began to change the next year. Many of their elites on defense began to see the coaching staff driving a wedge between them and quarterback Russell Wilson.

It was subtle at first but became more and more prominent as the months began to pass from their triumph in New York.

The 2014 season was the beginning of the end for Seattle

Richard Sherman got married this offseason and invited several of his Legion of Boom teammates down to the Dominican Republic for the event. It was there that a number of them began to open up about how a team that looked poised for multiple championships could fall apart so quickly. Some blamed injuries. Others the harsh business of the NFL. Yet there were quite a few who claimed it was the coddling of Wilson that led to a breach of trust that fractured the locker room.

“The dismantling of a great defense dates back to one random 2014 practice, which ESPN first reported last summer as a catalyst for the Seahawks’ rift. That afternoon, Sherman intercepted Wilson, the two traded words and Sherman yelled “you f—— suck” as he flipped the ball back at the quarterback. The pick itself wasn’t as important as what happened afterward, when several players who spoke to SI said Carroll gathered his offensive and defensive leaders and told them they needed to protect Wilson, to treat him more gently than they would their other teammates… …“He protected him,” one Seahawk says. “And we hated that. Any time he f—– up, Pete would never say anything. Not in a team meeting, not publicly, never. If Russ had a terrible game, he would always talk about how resilient he was. We’re like, what the f— are you talking about?” That Seahawk uses a pack of wolves as an analogy to explain his thinking. It’s as if Carroll sent his pack out to hunt but kept one wolf back, and that wolf still ate when the others returned with food.”

That’s a fair gripe for sure.

At first the treatment was an annoyance, but one can imagine it reached entirely new levels in the Super Bowl that year. The Seahawks were on the cusp of winning their second-straight title. They had the ball on the Patriots 1-yard line with just under 30 seconds to go. A timeout was in their back pocket and it was 2nd down. Everybody in the stadium expected All-Pro running back Marshawn Lynch, Beast Mode himself who’d gained 102 yards to that point, to get the ball.

Then the inexplicable happened. The Seahawks’ worst fear. Pete Carroll made his fateful choice, going away from the teams’ identity and calling for a pass play by Wilson. Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted it, ending the game and crushing Seattle’s hopes of a repeat. The team was never the same after that game, and many still hold a grudge against Carroll for it.

That’s why the coach and management basically blew up the veteran core this offseason. It was self-preservation. They realize their seats are getting hot and if they wanted to avoid a mutiny, they had to reload the roster with new players and hope their faith in Wilson sees them through. Many former teammates don’t see that happening.