Three (Late) Thoughts On The Seattle Super Bowl Win

It still feels kind of hard to believe that the Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champions. Now, I have to admit, I am not a life long Seahawks fan. My vagabond childhood made me somewhat of a sports fan mercenary, especially when it came to football. From 1977 - 1981 I was a Dallas Cowboys fan, partly because of Tony Dorsett and Roger Staubach, but mainly because I liked their helmets. Yes, I liked the Cowboys for the same reason Dwayne Wayne picked the Buccaneers to upset the Raiders, costing ReRun's brother in law $500.00...helmet design is important when you are a kid.

 I started coming around on the Seahawks during the 1982 season, when Kenny Easley was roaming the secondary and Largent was hitting his prime. Dave Krieg started his first game with the 'Hawks, replacing the beloved (and much maligned) Jim Zorn. By 1983, the Seahawks were a force to be reckoned with on offense due to the addition of Curt Warner. The real turning point for me occurred on Thanksgiving Day 1986 when the Seahawks played the Dallas Cowboys. I found myself actually putting money on the Seahawks to beat the Cowboys that day, placing the bet with a low grade bookie in my PE class. I wagered $10 that the Seahawks would win, but his wager was a bit more on the novelty side of things - if the Cowboys beat the Seahawks I would have to fight him after school the Monday we returned from Thanksgiving break. In retrospect, that's a really odd f*cking bet. I was a little bit bigger than this kid with an untapped well of self-hatred that was more then ready to be taken out on someone else. Luckily for him, the Hawks handed the Cowboys their ass that day and I collected my $10, sparing...I think his name was Josh...a Ralphie from Christmas Story type beat down.

 Unfortunately, there really aren't a lot of Seahawks highlights from the 1984 playoff win against Miami to their first Super Bowl appearance in 2005. Being a fan of this team meant cheering for the likes of Kelly Stouffer, Dan McGwire, Chris Warren (the only RB in NFL history to lead the league in rushing by running backwards into the line of scrimmage), and the reanimated corpse of Tom Flores on the sidelines. Paul Allen buying the team led to investments in talent on the coaching and player front, so the team returned to respectability at the turn of the century. That's when Seahawks fans began their transformation into the current 12th man.

 Which brings me to the point of this rambling post, my three big takeaways and thoughts on the Seattle Seahawks finally winning a Super Bowl:

 3. I think I was happiest for the older fans, the ones that remember the crushing heartbreak of watching Curt Warner's knee give out during the opening game of the 1984 season. The Seahawks were riding high off of their first playoff win the year before and the outlook was bright, but Warner's injury was too much to overcome. The team resorted to signing Franco Harris, who somehow managed to rush for 170 yards running sideline to sideline in 8 games with Seattle. Things were never quite the same for the Hawks after that season, and they spent the next 30 years mired in mediocrity, a low point being the putrid 2-14 season of 1992. Being rooked by the refs in Super Bowl XL really stung because everything else broke right in 2005. It also led to a bizarre victim mentality with Hawks fans, with them blaming every thing on the refs...Shaun Alexander lost a step? Refs fault! Hasselbeck skipping passes off the turf or sailing them over the heads of WRs? Refs fault! It was really, really, really annoying. Having the Seahawks win the Super Bowl by shutting down the highest rated offense in NFL history will hopefully cure this affliction. It also helps to have players that don't buy into it, unlike the whiny Alexander. These guys just get after it and remind me of what made that 1983 team so awesome. The defense lays people out and the offense does what it has to do with a scrappy undersized QB. Oh, and Marshawn Lynch is the best RB this team has ever had. He may not put up the gaudy and meaningless numbers that Alexander did, but he's a tough runner that gives it his all on every play.

Which brings me back as to why this Super Bowl win should mean so much to the original 12th man, the ones that sat in the Kingdome and cheered and screamed and did the wave. The ones that heckled Elway, Alzado, Deron Cherry, and Fouts in the old AFC West battles. Those fans fought to keep the Seahawks in Seattle when Ken Behring tried to move them to SoCal. Without them, there would be no Seahawks...just the Mariners and the Sounders.

 As it became obvious that Seattle's defense wasn't going to allow Denver back into the game, I thought back to a handful of shipyard workers that used to play sandlot football with me and my friends back in the day. From 1985-1988 during football season, we played tackle football at Orchard Heights elementary school every Sunday. One day some 'old' guys showed up to play, and by old I mean they were in their mid-20s. For four years we met at Orchard Heights, rain or shine, to play football...but the time was dictated by when the Seahawks were playing because the old dudes didn't want to miss the game. If they played a local game that kicked off at 1pm, we played at 10am. If the Seahawks game kicked off at 10am, we played at 1pm. I have no idea what their names were, but they were good guys that loved the Seahawks and loathed the Denver Broncos...and for most of my teen years we beat the living piss out of each other on an elementary school field when the Seahawks weren't on TV. I hope those guys are still around and got a chance to finally see the Hawks bring the championship home.

 2. I kept hearing that Seattle 'needed' to win the Super Bowl so the city would be taken seriously. Uh, what the f*ck? Seattle has been a part of the cultural fabric since the early 90's. Name me another American city that has driven the cultural narrative more than Seattle over the last 25 years. From music to art/fashion to TV and film, technology and industry, Seattle and the northwest has played a significant role that defined the Zeitgeist. Now, I'm not going to go on a long tangent about craft beer, coffee culture, DIY music, etc. I think most of my 9 readers are well aware of Seattle's place in those particular discussions. It just struck me as odd how many local pundits were propagating the notion that Seattle had a self-esteem problem leading up to the Super Bowl. I never got that impression. I'll agree that there was a victim mentality,the feeling that higher ups in the shadowy sports illuminati had it in for Seattle dating back to the abortion that was the Sonics vs Suns playoff series in 1993 and David Stern assisting his buddy Clay Bennett to steal the Sonics and move them to Oklahoma City. Yet, I don't see how that impacted Seattleites on a personal level. Not having an NBA team sucks, I suppose, but I don't feel bad about myself because of it. I have better things to hate myself about.

 Anyhoo, I don't think Seattle 'needed' to win the Super Bowl...and had they lost I don't think Seattle would have turned into the second coming of Detroit. That may happen as Microsoft continues to lose market share and relevance and Boeing ditches the area for Texas. We'll talk about what the city needs when/if those two things happen, and Super Bowl wins won't amount to d*ck when it does. Does anyone think more highly of Tampa Bay as a city because the Buccaneers won a Super Bowl a few years ago? Is Oakland the land of milk & honey because they won a couple of championships during the Reagan era? No and no. If anything, Seattle can feel good about itself for not getting too stupid after the game, no cars burned, no windows smashed...there was some damage to the historical pergola in Pioneer Square, but private citizens have already donated the cash for those repairs. I think Seattle can hold its collective head high about that!

 Winning the Super Bowl was great, don't get me wrong. I just don't buy into the notion that catastrophic damage to the psyche of the 12th man and Seattle would have occurred if the tables were turned.

1. Seattle has always been a 'football town' and has been since I moved here in 1980. This area loves their high school and college teams and, of course, the Seahawks, regardless of win/loss record. Team spirit hits a fever pitch when the teams do well, which leads to accusations of bandwagon jumping...but that is true everywhere. Only the diehards go out and buy Rick Mirer jerseys when the team is 6-10, but you can't swing a dead cat today without smacking a Wilson jersey. A simple formula in sports is winning = fan enthusiasm. Someone much smarter than me needs to break down local economic activity and how it escalated after each Seahawks playoff win this season. It seems everyone was spending money on t-shirts, jerseys, hats, socks, 12th man flags, Fatheads, car magnets, etc. Winning the Super Bowl blew the roof off of consumer budgets. I'm thinking a certain percentage of the 12th Man is going to be late on car payments or rent this month and next as they factor in those had to have Harvin jerseys and commemorative footballs. Once in a lifetime, right? However, Seattle's love of the Seahawks dates back 38 years and this explosion in fan interest is the perfect storm of old fans and new fans drawn in by the success and unique personality of this particular team. While every team has their fair share of characters, there is something different and special about this Seattle roster. Russell Wilson embodies the work ethic, Pete Carroll the enthusiasm, Lynch the drive and toughness, and Sherman the swagger and confidence. This Seattle Seahawks team was assembled with parts that no one else wanted and dominated one of the most celebrated quarterbacks of the modern era and his record setting offense. They played hard every down, sold out on every play. Success won't get to this team's head like it did the 85 Bears, and it won't fuel the owner's ego the way the Cowboys success two decades ago did with Jerry Jones. I'm thinking this team is going to stick around for a while, so we had best get used to the success and start budgeting for those jerseys...

 I'd like to hear from fans in different cities, have you ever seen the outpouring of affection and hysterical devotion to a pro football team the likes of which Seattle just displayed? Steeler Nation might come close, those guys are friggin' everywhere, but does Pittsburgh go nuts the way the Seattle area did this season?