When football analysts look back on Pete Carroll’s career as the Seahawks’ head coach, be that two or 12 years from now, his decision to start undersized rookie quarterback Russell Wilson over mega-million-dollar free agent Matt Flynn will surely prove a pivotal one. Wilson had a spectacular preseason, to be sure, but Flynn, like Matt Hasselbeck before him, had put in valuable time as the understudy to a Pro Bowl quarterback (in Hasselbeck’s case, Brett Favre; in Flynn’s, Aaron Rodgers), and acquitted himself nicely during the same preseason in which his competitor excelled. But preseason, as the Seahawks learned in a lackluster week-one loss to Arizona, rarely means much, thus making Carroll’s decision to cast his lot with a talented but untested rookie look all the more curious in today’s contest with the Green Bay Packers. Regardless, what could’ve been Flynn’s chance to show his former employers—and a national Monday night audience—what they’re missing is now merely an opportunity to be less reliant on Icy Hot when holding a clipboard at home. MIKE SEELY

Mon., Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m., 2012