Connected sports records
Season reference
Team unit rankings
| Season | Offense | Defense | Special teams |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | #22 | #29 | #19 |
| 1985 | #1 | #7 | #13 |
| 1986 | #1 | #1 | #11 |
| 1987 | #1 | #1 | #14 |
| 1988 | #1 | #1 | #1 |
| 1989 | #8 | #13 | #3 |
| 1990 | #3 | #3 | #27 |
| 1991 | #16 | #11 | #19 |
| 1992 | #15 | #8 | #14 |
| 1993 | #16 | #19 | #11 |
| 1994 | #14 | #14 | #13 |
| 1995 | #13 | #10 | #13 |
| 1996 | #17 | #15 | #14 |
| 1997 | #1 | #1 | #20 |
| 1998 | #22 | #26 | #10 |
| 1999 | #16 | #20 | #17 |
| 2000 | #14 | #16 | #17 |
| 2001 | #11 | #15 | #9 |
| 2002 | #1 | #1 | #1 |
| 2003 | #3 | #4 | #11 |
| 2004 | #24 | #11 | #16 |
| 2005 | #22 | #9 | #12 |
Season reference · 1984–2006
Year by year
Seattle entered as a 9-point favorite. Chicago won 23–16. Cody: 166 passing yards, 0 TD.
Lost 43–40 in overtime to San Francisco after leading 33–0.
“33–0”: San Francisco won 43–40 in overtime after Seattle led 33–0—the largest postseason comeback in NFL history. Cody: 466 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT. Joe Montana: 514 yards, 6 TD, 0 INT.
NFL MVP. Packers 36, Seahawks 20. Cody: 408 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT. Brett Favre: 505 yards, 4 TD.
Final season with Seattle.
First season with San Diego.
Cincinnati beat San Diego 29–17.
Tampa Bay beat San Diego 28–20.
01 / Biography
Life and background
The McCauley Rules and reform
Cody wanted the older rules restored without additional protections. He accepted hard football contact but rejected deliberate attempts to injure someone.
He regarded the commissioner’s 2037 recording as vindication and demanded immediate repeal. He later supplied football credibility to Tyrese’s reform effort.
Childhood and upbringing
Cody grew up in a normal household in Seattle.
High school and Washington
Cody was already a star in high school and was expected to become the first overall pick long before the draft arrived. He played at Washington from 1981 through 1984, following a straight line from elite recruit to the top of the professional draft board.
First overall in Seattle
Seattle selected Cody first overall in 1984. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year immediately and spent the next seventeen seasons as the center of the Seahawks’ identity.
His defining professional partnership was with head coach Caleb Walls, who is unrelated to the Walls football dynasty. Caleb built Seattle’s culture alongside Cody and remained the coach Cody trusted most.
Nine Super Bowls · 6–3
Cody won Super Bowls XXI, XXIII, XXIV, XXVI and XXX with Seattle, then XXXVI with San Diego. His three losses were XIX against Thomas Walls’s Raiders, XXXIII against Denver and XXXIX against Tampa Bay.
Seattle stayed in the NFC throughout Cody’s Seattle career. The Seahawks lost the 1987 NFC Championship to Chicago, then completed their perfect 1988 season by beating the Raiders 24–16 in Super Bowl XXIII. Cody moved to San Diego for the 2001 season and won Super Bowl XXXVI, beating Arizona 33–26. His final Super Bowl appearance ended with Tampa Bay’s 28–20 victory over the Chargers in XXXIX.
Leaving Seattle
After his final Seattle season, Cody became a free agent. Seattle’s owner from 1998 to 2004 was the man later known as The Commissioner. Cody became disillusioned with the organization’s direction and publicly criticized its leadership. Caleb’s final Seattle season was 2002. Fans largely sided with Cody and Caleb; declining attendance and financial damage preceded the owner’s 2004 sale.
Cody never regretted attacking the front office and later summarized his position simply: “I’d do it again.” Cody joined San Diego in 2001. Caleb remained Seattle’s head coach through 2002 before joining San Diego in 2003, reuniting with Cody through his final NFL seasons.
Marriage and family
Cody married Zoey Harrison. The couple had no children.
Zoey Harrison
Zoey was confident, direct and independent, with an outgoing, playful and sarcastic side. She and Cody met at college.
Retirement and the NEFL
Cody entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012 and reconciled with a changed Seattle organization. He made peace with his career, described himself afterward as “just an average man,” and rarely revisited the 1990 collapse publicly.
A joking conversation and $250 million bet with Jaxson Walls eventually became the NEFL. Cody founded a competing league that never adopted the McCauley Rules and became one of the most consequential post-career figures in football history.
Death
Cody Harrison died from old age on October 30, 2061, at 98 years old.
Additional biographical details
02 / Career & Football Identity
The player and the résumé
Cody’s career was built from one aggressive, all-in trait that produced both historic peaks and spectacular failures. In 1988 he went 16–0, won Super Bowl XXIII and finished with 5,209 passing yards, 50 touchdowns and six interceptions—an era-adjusted season with a legitimate claim among the greatest ever played.
Two years later came “33–0.” Seattle led San Francisco 33–0 in the 1990 NFC Championship and lost 43–40 in overtime. Cody finished with 466 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions while Joe Montana produced 514 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions. Cody skipped the media afterward, went directly to his team and called the loss unacceptable while taking responsibility himself.
Cody went 3–5 in postseason games as an overwhelming favorite. All three wins came during his perfect 1988 championship run. The five defeats were the 1987 NFC Championship, the 1990 collapse, the 1997 NFC Championship loss to Brett Favre, the 2002 AFC Championship upset by Tyrese Holloway’s Bengals and Super Bowl XXXIX against Mac Walls.
Those defeats existed beside six championships, nine Super Bowl appearances, six MVP awards and 81,829 passing yards. The same refusal to back away from risk made both halves possible.
03 / Personality
The person behind the record
Cody was grounded, blunt and completely authentic. He did not manage his image, manufacture contrition or soften opinions for public approval.
His lack of excuses included himself. Cody took direct responsibility for failure without blaming teammates, even when injuries or roster problems offered him an obvious defense.
He had no tolerance for incompetence but could still connect with a locker room without needing to be everyone’s friend. Loyalty, once earned, was durable enough to determine career decisions.
04 / Relationships
People in the record
05 / Legacy & Analysis
What the life and résumé mean
Cody is remembered as the Inconsistent Genius—not a choke artist, because six championships and the 1988 season make that label incomplete, and not a pure clutch hero, because the 3–5 overwhelming-favorite record makes that equally impossible.
His post-career importance extends beyond quarterback rankings. Founding the NEFL created an alternative professional institution built outside the McCauley Rules framework.
The official ledger settles his MVP total at six: 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1997 and 2002.
He publicly and unprompted conceded the GOAT title to Mac in 2017, then later shifted his personal vote to Jaxson after their friendship developed.