Seahawks arrive in Munich, stay up, practice, go bowling. It’s how Pete Carroll did London

Geno Smith watched film. And he slept.

“I just watched some tape, went to sleep, woke up — and we were here,” the starring quarterback said, with a red FC Bayern Munich scarf around his neck.

Quandre Diggs tried to sleep. But the Pro Bowl safety said the 300-pound linemen on board were snoring too much.

The Seahawks arrived in Munich Thursday for the first NFL game in Germany, Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady’s team is scheduled to arrive Friday.

The Seahawks practiced Wednesday afternoon at their facility in Renton. Then they boarded a jet for the 12 1/2-hour flight to Munich. They got in around noon Germany time Thursday, nine time zones ahead of Seattle. They players dropped off their bags at their riverside hotel and came straight to the main training facility for Bayern Munich’s first team, one of the premier soccer teams in Europe and the world.

Practice. Flight across the world. Practice — at 8 a.m. body-clock time.

“I know, right? I seems like one long, big day,” Smith said.

“I’m extremely excited. Looking forward to it. First time playing in an international game,” the 32-year-old, 10-year veteran quarterback said.

“We are trying to see what Munich’s all about. It’s extremely exciting for the guys. We are looking forward to enjoying all these moments.”

He is the clear Seahawks’ star of this trip. The surprise of the league through his first nine NFL starts in eight years this season, six of them Seattle wins, had by far the most cameras pointed at him from the European media at Thursday’s practice. He got the most questions after the workout from reporters speaking accented English.

This week NFL Germany showed Smith’s Seahawks likeness superimposed onto the Olympiaturm Munchen, the Olympic Tower at the site of the 1972 Munich Games.

“I thought it was photo-shopped,” Smith said. “To find out it’s real, I’m honored.”

Carroll had the players practice almost immediately after arriving. Then he took them on a team bowling outing in Munich into the evening. That was to keep the groggy players from sleeping in their hotel beds until later Thursday night, to get them on a German sleep schedule three nights in advance of the game.

“Everyone is working on a system to make sure we are making the transition really well,” Carroll said.

The method to Carroll’s Germany approach

Carroll is modeling this trip off what he had the Seahawks do in 2018 when they played the Raiders in London. That time they also arrived on a Thursday for the Sunday game and immediately went to practice, then had a team outing, Top Golf, that first evening, to get the players on a British sleep schedule.

That worked — wonders. Seattle won that game 27-3 at Wembley Stadium.

“Our never-sleep R&D department went after it,” Carroll said of the team’s research in how to manage sleep schedules and acclimation from Seattle to Europe. “We really just put our heads together and figured it all out, based on all the experiences that we’ve had.

“To me, it’s really about the attitude,” Carroll said. “The attitude that you put together, and how you go about it. You don’t take it as a drag, and it’s a burden and all that kind of stuff.

“You turn it in the right direction and try to make the very most of it.

“We are patterned very much like we were in London, and that worked out very well for us.”

The Seahawks’ attitude upon arrival in Germany is like it usually is back in Renton: Raucous party!

Bayern’s coaches and staffers watched from their office windows and came out to the training grounds to see the Seahawks’ high-tempo, music-blaring practice to Germany.

As the sun set on a beautiful, 13-degree Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) autumn day in Bavaria, the NFC West-leading Seahawks brought their Techno Thursday dance music with them to practice overseas.

The special-teams units were jumping up and down in the huddle and before snaps to the music former Seahawks tight end Luke Willson brought to team popularity — some players say infamy — years ago.

Linebacker Darrell Taylor showed he is healed from the groin injury that’s sidelined him the last two games. He danced, comically, to the techno sounds on the sidelines during the special-teams portion of practice on Bayern Munich’s grass pitch.

Taylor is on track to resume his third-down, pass-rushing role on Sunday against Tom Brady and the NFC South-leading Buccaneers.

So is wide receiver Marquise Goodwin. He missed Seattle’s win at Arizona last weekend with a groin injury but was on the field catching passes from Geno Smith Thursday.

3 million requests for 67,000 tickets

This is the first in the series of NFL international regular-season games that began in 2007 to feature two division leaders. Alexander Steinforth, head of NFL Germany, said this spring three million requests were processed when tickets for Seahawks-Bucs in Munich went on sale. Allianz Arena, site of Sunday’s game and Bayern Munich’s home stadium on the city’s outskirts, seats 67,000.

“A staggering number” Carroll said of the three million wants for tickets to this game. “I can’t imagine. It’s an honor…we will respect the heck out of every aspect of this.

“I would bet when we kick it they are going to be really excited,” Carroll said with a laugh.

Smith said Seahawks players are proud to embrace what feels like a bowl game in the middle of the 17-week NFL season.

“Definitely not a nuisance. Anytime you get to represent your country internationally, it’s a big thing,” Smith said.

“I liken it to being on USA Basketball, or something like that, where you go overseas and you are playing your sport, but you are also representing your country and bringing new fans to your sport, as well.

“I know there’s a big following out here. And we are looking forward to putting on a show for those guys.”