Heartbroken In Seattle

Heartbroken In Seattle

The Seattle Seahawks had muscled their way into the Super Bowl after a mere thirty years of franchise existence. The entire Puget Sound area population was whipped up into a frenzied wave of Seahawks Fever; if a house didn’t have a Super Bowl party going on in it, that meant the house was empty and the occupants were at somebody else’s party.

Since I personally live in the Portland, Oregon area of the Northwest I’d not been very privy to all the hype. Honestly I didn’t even know the Seahawks were truly contenders until I was in the Seattle area at my parent’s house for Christmas and I overheard my brothers talking to my father about the Seahawk’s record. I’m an avid football fan, but this winter I’d been working full time and finishing my Bachelors degree so I had very little time for recreational television of any sort. I was understandably quite surprised and more than a little cynical the ‘Hawks would REALLY make it all the way to the big game. I’d been watching the many levels of disappointment for three decades.

My uncles bought season tickets the year the Seahawks were conceived. For the better part of a decade and a half they faithfully attended every home game the Hawks played. Every August from the time I was ten years old I would start hearing about how “this was the Seahawks year to go all the way”. All the men of my family coasted into the season with great hope and optimism for great things to come. By mid October the same men were talking about “all the changes we could make in the off season so we can do better next year”.

The memory that is drilled into my head from those early games is my step-father practically having a coronary and yelling at the top of his lungs, “Zorn you asshole!” Then, a few years later the same scenario only now the dialog was, “Craig you asshole! To get the true effect of that you need to imagine him saying it VERY loud and drawing each word out for quite a few seconds. It was scary then, it’s funny now! The quarterbacks changed but the scenario remained the same.
In 1983 my uncles finally decided the tickets were too expensive and the team was too disappointing, so they turned in their season tickets. 1983 was the first year the Seahawks made it to the playoffs and did quite well. Go figure.

The Seahawks went to the playoffs again in 1984 and managed to win one game and then lose the next. Next trip to the playoffs was 1987 (they lost), and then in 1988 (they lost again). My brother and my cousin decided the team was looking good and it was inevitable that their day was coming so they picked up the season tickets again. The Seahawks didn’t make the playoffs again until 1999 (they lost the first game). My brother and my cousin held onto the tickets for a few more years and then decided it was an unnecessary expense and gave them up last year. This year the Seahawks made it into the Super Bowl. Go figure.

Yes, the Seahawks have been a clear cut case of tough love for my family for three decades, but finally all the tears were to pay off; the Seahawks were going to the big game…finally.
I arrived at my parent’s house the Friday before Super Bowl Sunday; everybody was all aflutter. The local TV station KOMO had constant “countdown to Super Bowl” shows on with all sort of player and fan interviews. From the attitude on the television it was obvious the Seahawks were destined to win, or at least until you turned the channel to the National broadcasts. I sensed things were perhaps not properly balanced after briefly glancing at the TV in passing and realizing I always saw player in yellow and black on the screen. I did see the Seahawks represented by an interview with Coach Mike Holmgren a couple of times; I guess that should count for something. Heck, Holmgren took Favre and the Green Bay Packers to the bowl a couple of times, they had to interview HIM. As for the actual Seahawks team members and fans getting much airplay on the big sports shows, well, it was pretty slim picking’s.

I verbalized my observations to my father, whose face instantly clouded over and he said, “I know. I guess Pittsburg is playing themselves in the Super Bowl by the looks of it.” He added that Mike Holmgren had mentioned in his interview that the way you stop the nay sayers from saying you are a non-entity is to go out and win the game. Bold words, bold idea; however Dad didn't look completely convinced.

Sunday morning we got up bright and early and immediately began decorating the house in blue, green and white (Seahawk’s colors) in preparation for the big day. Maybe today the broadcast would be less lop sided. We were optimistic. Alas, Sunday’s pre-game was no different than the previous two days; mostly yellow and black with an occasional smidgeon of blue/green/white to at least acknowledge another team HAD flown in. My Dad was excited but he was starting to get a worried look that hadn’t been there previously.

We spent the rest of Sunday morning cutting vegetables and creating enough food to feed the actual Super Bowl audience, rather than just the small portion of it that would be in attendance with us. Isn’t over eating and over imbibing also a key part of Super Bowl Sunday?

At 2pm or so the gang began to show up and immediately the predictions of the game started flying around; “It didn’t matter if Pittsburg took an early lead because they were notorious for blowing leads”. Popular critique on the tube had been that the Seahawks were doomed because their defense was too small. Well, Pittsburgh’s defense was small too, so they in actuality should match up quite nicely. The theories flew back and forth faster than tennis balls at Wimbledon.
At last it was kickoff time, but I wasn’t in the house, I was outside playing ball with my dogs…oops. Bummer, because I missed Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem, I hear it was good. I DID make it in the house in time to watch the Seahawks make their mighty field goal and make it on the board first. A wave of joy swept the room; everybody knows the first team to score in the super Bowl almost ALWAYS wins!

From the field goal it all went downhill fairly rapidly. Midway thru the second quarter anybody who had yet to start drinking got up and poured a glass of one sort of spirit or another. My Dad was sitting to my left talking about how “he knew this was going to happen and the Seahawks do it every time”.

One of my brother was sitting to my right and we had to keep laughing about how Dad had already written them off when they were only seven points down in the second quarter. My other brother was sitting behind us and he was deeeeeep into a whiskey bottle. He wasn’t saying much other than an incredibly loud “YEAH!” every time the Hawks came to life, and really loud booing noises when they gave themselves yet another penalty. The score was Seahawks 3, Pittsburg 10 at the end of the second quarter. I know this to be fact because those are the numbes I had in the football pool for the second quarter and I won a whopping $6.25. Hey, don’t knock it, money is money!

The halftime show was not too bad; the Stones rocked it like they’ve been doing for the last forty years or so, and the commercials were good. Second half isn’t really worth talking about. If you want an accurate breakdown on it I’m sure you can read it on www.espn.com. What I will say? It just got worse and worse until at last it became obvious the Hawks were going to lose. Dad literally looked like he was going to cry and one of the neighbors from down the street was so upset he went home before the game was even over.

So, what happened? Were the Seahawks completely outclassed? Did they choke? Should they have never been in the game in the first place and it was all a fluke? I think the answers to all of the above are all “No”.

I stated earlier I’d watched no football this year; that’s true. However, my brother Greg sat next to me thru the entire game and HAD watched football this season, all of it. He’d at least watched as much as any one person can watch on any one TV in a season. Every time there was a penalty and the family wanted to call dirty pool and say “the official are against us” I’d ask Greg what he thought. After watching the replays Greg felt all the calls were legit and I had to agree.

Did Pittsburg beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XL? No. The Seahawks beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XL, pure and simple. Between ticky tack fouls, missed field goals, missed tackles and dropped passes, the Seahawks defeated themselves. Did the Seahawks look bad? No. They actually looked great; the ball just couldn’t quite make it past the goal line.

I asked Greg if the Seahawks had a young team and he said, “Yeah, their lineup for next year is pretty solid. One guy is going to be a free agent but I don’t think he’ll leave. Pittsburg is an older team and they are going to lose quite a bit of their line up next year”.

So there you had it. Yes, it was disappointing to lose and I wish for my Dad’s (and most of the Greater Puget Sound area’s) sake they could have pulled it off. BUT, the thing that’s true yet very difficult to see right now is the win comes in the form of the Seahawks making it there at all. I know there are MANY teams that started tough and later became dynasties. One of two that immediately comes to mind: the Denver Broncos. How many times did Elway have to get there before he finally got a ring? I could go look it up for sure, but I’m pretty sure it was three. Or who can forget the Detroit Pistons holding the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan from the finals again and again? I think the Bulls were turned back twice before they finally made it past Detroit and into the finals, and look how THAT turned out. If memory serves the Bulls took home five rings before their run was over.

No, the Seahawks didn’t get any respect from the press, and no they didn’t win the game. That doesn’t matter. They DID make it to the game, they all know what that feels like and every member of that team is going to do everything in their power to make it back in 2007.
Have a little faith Seattle. Have a little faith Charlie. Have a little faith Dad; there’s always next year. The winner has no place to go but down, the Seahawks have the ultimate motivation to make it to the mountain top. Just wait until September rolls around; it’s going to be a GREAT football season!