Seattle’s LGBTQ community members say they hope that this Friday’s World Cup “Pride Match” between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle, WA
An insider's take on Seattle Seahawks OC candidate Byron Leftwich
Former nine-year NFL quarterback and Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich is the latest name to emerge in the Seattle Seahawks’ OC search.
Report: Another Seahawks OC candidate gets 2nd interview
NFL on CBS insider Jonathan Jones reported on social media Friday morning that Leftwich has interviewed for the Seattle job, making him the fifth reported candidate to do so.
Leftwich, 45, spent four seasons as Tampa Bay’s OC from 2019 to 2022. During that time, he directed some of the league’s highest-scoring offenses. With Jameis Winston at quarterback in 2019, the Bucs finished fourth in the league in scoring. Then after Tom Brady took over at QB, Tampa Bay ranked third in scoring during its Super Bowl-winning 2020 season and second in scoring in 2021.
However, the Bucs tumbled to 25th in Brady’s final year in 2022. Leftwich was fired after that season and hasn’t coached in the NFL since.
Rick Stroud, who covers the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times, joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Friday to share his insight on Leftwich. Stroud said it remains perplexing that Leftwich hasn’t gotten another NFL gig, especially after he was considered a front-runner for the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job prior to the 2022 season.
“The production (was) really remarkable in terms of the passing game,” Stroud said. “And then of course, once they got Tom Brady, the team really took off and won a Super Bowl. So I think it’s unfortunate for Byron. He didn’t get much credit for what was done here, but he was the game planner. He was the play caller. And he had some of the most prolific offenses in the National Football League.
“It’s really been kind of frustrating for him and mysterious that he hasn’t gotten that attention (from NFL teams),” Stroud added.
During the Jaguars’ 2022 head coaching search, there was a report that Leftwich turned down the job because he didn’t want to work with general manager Trent Baalke. Leftwich denied those claims, according to a recent article published in The Athletic.
“There were a lot of rumors and things that he doesn’t understand – one of them being that he wouldn’t want to work for Trent Balke,” Stroud said. “He told me, ‘Rick, I never had one discussion about the general manager in Jacksonville. I would have taken that job no questions asked about who was in the front office.’
“So in this day of agents and media – and sometime media sharing the same agents, quite frankly – guys push people that they have relations with. And Byron is not a campaigner. He’s the most affable guy I’ve ever worked with. I know the players love him. (He) never had a problem with a coaching staff member that I’m aware. So I think it’s just that, in an era of self-promotion, that’s the part that he may not have done very well. … But he’s ready to coach again.”
During his four-year run in Tampa Bay, Leftwich had one of the league’s top passing attacks. The Bucs ranked No. 1 in passing yardage in both 2019 and 2021, and No. 2 in passing yardage in 2020 and 2022. However, their ground attack was lagging, ranking in the bottom quarter of the league in rushing yardage all four years. In Leftwich’s final two seasons, Tampa Bay had the lowest run play rate in the league.
That run-pass imbalance would seem to be at odds with what Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald is looking for. Macdonald and the Seahawks moved on from offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after one season, citing philosophical differences that appeared to be centered around Seattle’s inability to get the run game untracked. The Seahawks finished 28th in rushing yardage and had the fifth-lowest run rate in the league.
Stroud was asked whether he thinks Leftwich’s pass-heavy background in Tampa Bay would be an issue for Seattle.
“The offense that he ran is really an adaptation of what (former Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay head coach) Bruce Arians did for years and years,” Stroud said. “And it was good enough to win a Super Bowl with a 43-year-old quarterback who wasn’t the most mobile guy in the world. They started that Super Bowl season 7-5 and they made some changes. They shored up some protections and convinced Tom to take more shots down the field, and that’s when their offense really took off.
“And look, there’s a lot of ways to get things done. And a lot of times (with) the screen game, throws in the flat are just an extension of the running game. But I’ve never known Byron to be averse to running the football when you’re doing it successfully. So there’s definitely a philosophy. It was more of a pass-first offense – there’s no question about that. But they attacked people and they created a lot of problems for the defense.”
Listen to the full conversation with the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Seattle Sports.
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SEATTLE — Seattle police are investigating a shooting that left a 17-year-old boy injured early Thursday morning in the High Point neighborhood.
At about 12:48 a.m., dispatchers received multiple reports of rapid gunfire near Sylvan Way Southwest and Southwest Morgan Street.
Officers arrived and found a 17-year-old boy suffering from a gunshot wound to the hip area. Medics transported the teen to Harborview Medical Center in serious but stable condition.
Before officers located the victim, they found a car that had crashed and become disabled near Sylvan Way Southwest and Delridge Way Southwest. Police said multiple suspects were seen running from the vehicle through a nearby Home Depot parking lot.
Officers cordoned off the area and searched for the suspects with assistance from the K-9 Unit, but were unable to locate them. Police recovered the vehicle and impounded it for processing.
During the incident, gunfire struck at least three vehicles and two buildings. No other injuries were reported.
Officers processed multiple nearby scenes and recovered evidence before clearing the area. Detectives with the Gun Violence Reduction Unit will lead the investigation.
Seattle, WA
Council eyes street barricades in fight against violence, sex trafficking in north Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council is expected to vote next week on a plan that would give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) the authority to close off street access for public safety reasons.
The proposal comes after months of outcry from residents in north Seattle who say sex traffickers and sex buyers are looping through the streets surrounding Aurora Avenue North.
The street-closure proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be voted on by the full council next week.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the crime has gotten much worse, much more violent, and much more predator,” said District 5 councilmember Debora Juarez. “I think that we do have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the lives of those who live there.”
Frustrated neighbors have installed their own homemade barricades after a spate of gun violence between sex traffickers in May.
RELATED | SDOT removes street barricades near Aurora Ave; neighbors doubtful of temporary measures
Councilmember Bob Kettle says street closures will help tamp down sex buying in certain areas, but he emphasizes it must be accompanied by an increase in outreach and enforcement.
“We have to have a sustained effort,” Kettle told KOMO News. “My concern is for every action, there’s a reaction. We need to take this flex and then really attack it … because if we do just a bit and our attention wanders, we could have this conversation three months from now and we’re talking about the same thing.”
A 15-year-old boy was shot near 95th Street and Aurora Avenue North around 10:45 p.m. last night. The teen initially claimed he had been shot while walking down the street, but investigators now say he was shot by a passenger in his car.
RELATED | Seattle police say ‘drive-by’ on Aurora Ave. was actually passenger shooting teen driver
Kettle credited the city’s Real Time Crime Center cameras with helping investigators quickly piece together the events of the shooting.
“Just as important to finding out what happened, the cameras help police determine what did not happen,” Kettle said.
According to Seattle police data, reports of shootings and shots fired in the north precinct area are at their lowest levels since 2021.
Through the end of May, there were 48 total reports of shootings or shots fired, with one fatal shooting and seven nonfatal injury shootings.
That’s down from 63 total reports of shootings and shots fired – one fatal and seven injuries – in 2025; and 64 shootings or shots fired reports – one fatal and 17 injuries – in 2024.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councilmembers pointed out residents are calling for a new police precinct to be built on Aurora Avenue.
Ten years ago, a new North Precinct building was slated to be built at 130th Avenue and Aurora Avenue North to replace the existing precinct building, which was decades old and did not have enough space for the department’s needs.
Led by former councilmember Kshama Sawant, the “Block the Bunker” movement successfully got the North Precinct replacement project killed in city council.
Kettle said the city’s current financial issues make it essentially impossible to bring back a project similar to the one the previous council defeated.
“We have to connect the dots back,” Kettle said. “If we want to know why we are where we are today, we have to look at decisions made over the last two councils.”
Seattle, WA
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
Seattle revels in its reputation as a welcoming place and Pride flags are visible all over the city, all year round. Its June Pride weekend is one of the biggest in the United States.
So, ahead of December’s World Cup draw, it was only natural that local organizers designated the June 26 match to be held in the city as a “Pride Match.”
Then the draw happened — and the two teams scheduled to play the game were Egypt and Iran.
Egypt’s Football Association urged global soccer governing body FIFA to prevent any Pride-related activities, arguing such events clashed with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relations can carry the death penalty, filed an objection with FIFA.
Some in Seattle have doubts over the teams in the ‘Pride Match’
But in Seattle, there is no question that the Pride Match will go ahead as planned.
“The World Cup is going to come and go in three weeks,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years.
“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings given the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
Cairns, however, said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the world’s biggest sporting event could offer.
“My reaction is let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sports is one of the biggest brokers historically of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the U.S.”
He cited black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised-fist protest in 1968 as moments where “only international sports could reach that big of an audience.”
“They’re not going to turn off the World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and separate of FIFA, a spokesperson for soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
Seattle’s LGBTQ community sees an opportunity
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has grappled with stark differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In 2022 World Cup host Qatar, the emir said visitors should “respect our culture” when asked about gay people attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands that had been planning to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, Seattle’s “Pride Match” was an opportunity to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was outlawed.
“I’m choosing to believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries to have the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise,” he said outside the club, which will host a watch party for Friday’s game.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s “Believe” before introducing fellow drag performers to the stage, clapped and cheered by a raucous crowd.
Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would bring increased visibility, anticipating perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and share places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human learning (from) different experiences, but also it can get hard — because you’re on the shorter end of the stick, always trying to have to explain yourself around people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
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