Getty The Seahawks are wearing "PGA" patches to honor owner Paul Allen.
The Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen died on October 15, 2018 and the team is honoring him with PGA patches on the team’s jerseys. The PGA patch has nothing to do with golf, but stands for Paul Gardner Allen. The patch also features a photo of the 12th man flag that is raised before every Seahawks home game.
Seahawks will be honoring @PaulGAllen with this jersey patch on Sunday and for the remainder of the season. Paul will always be close to our hearts. #thankspaul
Seahawks fans are referred to as the team’s 12th man, hence the number 12 is featured prominently on jerseys and flags all over Seattle. Seahawks vice chairman Bert Kolde released a statement on October 26th announcing the addition of the patches.
“Seahawks will be honoring @PaulGAllen with this jersey patch on Sunday and for the remainder of the season. Paul will always be close to our hearts. #thankspaul,” Kolde tweeted.
Paul Allen Died After Battling Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
Allen passed away after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll spoke about the suddenness of Allen’s death and his impact on the team.
“Well it’s a shock of enormous proportion,” Carroll said per 247 Sports. “We knew that Paul was sick but he has always battled and been so gritty about getting back. His attitude when I last talked to him was, ‘Here we go. We’re going to after it again. I got the right doctors. We’re going to get this thing knocked out again. And just the same spirit that he always had about just moving forward and always keeping moving. He was bigger than life. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. So it was a big shock and I can sense from around us and what we’re hearing around the community, everybody is really taking this to heart, because he was such an extraordinary person and had such an extraordinary impact on so many.”
Allen is recognized as one of the key factors in getting CenturyLink Field built at a time when Seattle was in danger of losing the team. Russell Wilson shared a story with the News Tribune of how he bonded with Allen over a shared love of Frank Sinatra.
“Sure enough—I didn’t know Paul loved music that much—sure enough the next day, I had a little note, and it had a bunch of old CDs of his that he had, just personal CDs and everything else of his that he had of the Rat Pack and Frank Sinatra. It was just a cool little gift, you know, of just thinking about music and everything else. Nothing huge…
The thing about Paul is he always had a purpose to everything he did. I think that that purpose will live forever. I think that purpose will continue to impact lives, impact communities.
He was a quiet guy, for sure—but I think that, Paul, if you really got to know him, he wasn’t very quiet. He loved music. He loved people. I think that’s what he did and that’s part of the reason why he probably wanted to create Microsoft and do all the things. He was very creative. But ultimately, I think he loved people more than anything else.