why are they called the 12s

They’re called “the 12s” because Seattle Seahawks fans are treated as the 12th player on the field, supporting the 11 players who actually play in a game.

Why Are They Called the 12s?

Quick Scoop

In American football, only 11 players from one team can be on the field at a time, but the Seahawks say their crowd noise and energy act like a “12th player.” To honor that idea, the team retired jersey number 12 back in 1984 specifically for the fans and began building a whole identity around them.

For years, those fans were widely known as the “12th Man,” a term that originally came from Texas A&M University, which started using it for its own fans in 1922 and later trademarked it. The Seahawks had a licensing agreement to use “12th Man,” but when that deal expired in 2016, the team shifted to calling its fanbase “the 12s” instead—shorter, unique, and safely theirs.

Today, “the 12s” is more than just a nickname:

• It shows up on huge “12” flags flown around Seattle and at Lumen Field.

• It’s tied to the stadium’s reputation as one of the loudest in the NFL, loud enough that fan celebrations have even registered on seismic equipment during big plays.

So when you hear people talk about “the 12s” in a football or Super Bowl context, they’re almost always talking about Seattle Seahawks fans and their role as that extra, noisy, game‑changing presence.

TL;DR: They’re called “the 12s” because Seahawks fans are honored as the 12th player on the field, and after legal issues over the “12th Man” name, the team adopted “12s” as its own fan identity.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.