Dave wanders Seattle
I’m just rubbing it in at this point because it’s hilarious to see newbie sad Seattle fans not able to deal with a heartbreaker. I saw so many posts on reddit, in fan forums, everywhere in Seattle fan circles where some fan would say “How are you guys dealing with it? I can’t seem to get over it” and the like. It’s so cute. I love it. It’s like watching someone deal with their first break up.
So I was in Seattle for a couple days mid-week and I found myself with some free time, so I wandered around downtown and saw all the tourist sites. Of course this was a mid Feb weekday, so there weren’t many tourists. Despite living only 3 hours south I hadn’t been to Seattle since I was 9 years old on a vacation with my family. The city I remember was so much smaller. When did Seattle become a massive metropolis? I’ve never been the “big city” guy and big cities always made me kind of uncomfortable, and I wasn’t expecting to get that with Seattle but apparently between age 9 and now the tech industry took over. Seattle is a big boy now.
I walked down to a completely empty Century Link field, stood in the parking lot and then right in front of the big tower wondering if security was going to get suspicious at this random dude just chilling in a very empty square. It is a really nice stadium and I have to give Seattle props, that place looks great. Especially if they’d remove at least some of the 20 plus 12 flags I counted on just one section. Stupid 12 flag, I don’t get it. It’s not even the right color blue. Flag should be Seahawk blue with green highlights or vice versa, not what looks like Detroit Lions blue. The 12 was still everywhere, but I imagine it would have been 3 times as bad if they had won.
And yes, I walked around Seattle with my Trail Blazers hoodie and Giants hat. No one commented on the Giants hat but got some hate for the Blazers hoodie. Still bitter about the Sonics, which I completely get.
Being a Seattle native, I’m surprised people bagged on you for the Blazers hoodie. I never known anyone that was sour towards Portland. Also, the Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh was the real first breakup. That one stung. Although, this one was worse because of how close we were… We Seahawk fans have been spoiled lately so it was a real humbling experience lol
And I think it’s not Seahawks blue because we can’t directly affiliate the Seahawks with the “12th man” because of the deal with Texas A&M. 3rd parties can and that’s where you get the T-shirts and all that but yah.
As a Packers fan, honestly, I know exactly how they feel. Losing is hard. Losing is a heartbreaker is… heart breaking.
To be fair, losing a Superbowl is bad enough. Losing a Superbowl like that…ouch. I think everyone rooting for Seattle – especially Seattle fans – were as amped as we’d been the entire game after the Kearse catch, it just seemed like it was going to happen. Then…nope. Poor bastards went from the highest peak of hope and joy to the deepest, darkest despair in the space of three seconds.
They’ll just have to make do with it being tainted by the other side’s sharp practices.
Looking back at the unprecedented smugness quotient of XLIX, it was the first Super Bowl in decades where I wanted neither side to win. And I maintain that this came to pass.
New England didn’t win it. They just happened to be there to pick it up when Seattle literally threw it away.
That’s some BS. Butler made an absurdly talented play on the ball and Seattle wouldn’t have even been in that position had Kearse not made the flukey catch that had a million and one lucky bounces. Plus in the rest of the fourth quarter, the Pats offense had 2 killer drives for touchdowns to take the lead, and the D held Seattle to two 3 and outs in a row. New England completely won that game.
I’m a ‘Hawks fan and I completely agree with this. It was a well-played game and NE earned the W.
If, ahem, I may be permitted to bring in a story from the National Pastime.
Back in 2003, when Moises Alou had a temper tantrum, and Mark Prior stopped pitching, and Cubs couldn’t win that game—or the next. The Buthurt in Chicago was glorious.
I had a good friend who wouldn’t let it go. I finally told him I didn’t want to see him anymore if he wouldn’t stop whining. He got mad and said oh, you’re a Cardinal Fan, you don’t know what it’s like to come so close and lose it all.
As if the following never happened
We lost 8 World Series
We lost 6 League Championships
Speedster Vince Coleman was run over by the automatic tarp in before Game 4 of the NLCS.
Don (F’in) Denkinger (Our “Wide Right”)
Prior to the 2000 Postseason, Catcher Mike Matheny gets a hunting knife fir his birthday, promptly tries to cut off his throwing hand, out for playoffs.
2004 World Series. We don’t talk about 2004.
And that’s just off of the top of my head.
The point of all of this is, Dave, while I love your comics,
Baseball is better.
Yup. Every team goes through this when they lose the Super Bowl. It’s just more fun-well, not fun, but you know what I mean, more like interesting-when it’s bandwagon fans that have to deal with the loss.
I know Seahawks fans on Twitter; I doubt any of them were happy about that loss
What a bunch of candyasses. The Seahawks have one of the youngest teams in the league. Their QB is gonna be entering his 4th year and probably has 10 more ahead of him. Yeah, if Lynch walks he’ll be tough to replace but I think most decent RBs would be productive in that offense. That team is gonna be in the hunt for the foreseeable future.
Now, if the Pats had lost, on another impossible catch, with Brady about to turn 38… that would’ve been very difficult to stomach.
Yeah, poor Brady and Patriots fans would only have those three other Super Bowl wins to fall back on.
None in a decade, and the third straight lost in the closing moments of the game.
A gorgeous week in Seattle while a blizzard was going strong in Boston.
I guess God had his money on the Seahawks?
As a 49er fan after SB47, I’d say I felt sorry for the Seahawks…
but I don’t.
I visited Seattle back in 2010.
The Sounders were a bigger deal there at the time than the Seahawks.
True story.
In June 2012 I figured they were about equal. By MLS standars the Sounders are off the charts in local popularity.
Seattle fans new to sports heart ache? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
This city has never (and still, frankly isn’t) passionate enough to actually have “heartache” apply. “Pernicious indifference” is more applicable. Sure, the teams have been AWFUL. But even when they’ve been “good”, the fandom lasts until the first losing season. And then it returns when it looks like it can get on the win-train again.
I love Seattle’s weather, its activities, its proximity to mountains and water and the fact that it’s a two hour drive (tops) to get away from light pollution (or at least from a lot of it). But man, the people in this city are jerks, and even if I didn’t kinda like the Patriots, even if I hadn’t grown up a fan of a division rival, I’d be happy for the loss to spite the bandwagoners that think they’re special. Here’s a hint: you aren’t. You aren’t special fans. You’re jerkwad fans. You’re just jerkwad fans who happen to be the beneficiaries of the best stadium architecture in the league. Except for like… maybe 20k people in the greater Seattle area– y’know, the ones showing up to every game in the 1980s, watching every game in the 90s. Those folks? You 20k out there? Yeah. They can gripe and complain about heartache. The city as a whole? The city as a whole did NOTHING to save the Sonics, and if Seattle had had its way on the Clink ballot, the Seahawks wouldn’t even be in Seattle any more. Hell, Seattle barely wanted the Seahawks in the first place; it took a massive amount of effort and ballot funding TWICE, to have measures *BARELY* pass, to make it happen.
Sorry– I love Swaggy Pete Carrol. I love Russel Wilson (I was livid when we drafted Brock in Denver instead). I love Lynch. About the only person I don’t like is Sherman, and even he’s someone I can mostly respect when he just keeps his damned mouth shut. On any other team, my “Well, if the Broncos can’t win…” root-for-’em would probably shift from the Patriots. But Seattle’s “fans” can go to the deepest pits of Oakland and choke on a Raider.
The comments about losing our Sonics were a low blow. A lot a of people fought hard for them to stay but they were gone as soon as they were sold to the name that shall not be spoken. There was little we could do. Seattle was a Basketball city. When we lost them, we needed a replacement. The sounders were doing great so that was okay for a while… But soccer sucks. Then we got Wilson and new uniforms…
Anyway, I don’t believe we would have had as many band wagoners had the Sonics stayed. But don’t bring them up. It’s still a sour topic…
Good thing I said “newbie sad Seattle fans” and not “Seattle fans”
Seasoned Seattle fans wouldn’t be making these “HOW DO I COPE WITH THIS LOSS” sorts of posts around the web because they already perfectly understand it.
The whole rest of the country goes on comfortably ignorant of Seattle Sports for ages, and it takes all of one year where they are forced into the limelight to make you little shits upset that they’ve got the arrogance to pretend they existed before then.
Here’s some light reading.
http://www.seattlesportshell.com/featured-article/2008-a-seattle-sports-apocalypse/
Nice to see Dave stretch his legs a bit, he’s finally found something other than “Huurrrr Russell Wilson is REALLY short.”
I love the idea that Seattle was always this insane crazy town of 12 and nobody noticed until recently, come on man.
I’ve never blasted the die hards, I have respect for you guys, I knew a few in the early 00’s and they had the same sort of mentality you see out of current Browns or Lions fans. I mock the new bandwagoners, the people who never talked or mentioned the Seahawks 5 years ago but now go to every game decked out in Seahawks gear and shout SEAHAWKS GO HAWKS at me when I pass them on the street wearing a Giants hat. The people who ask me “who?” when I mention Shaun Alexander or Steve Largent.
Let’s not pretend Seattle as a whole always cared about the Hawks as much as they have in the past 4 years or so. Some people, sure. But this isn’t the first time you’ve had success. In 2005 you went to the bowl and there wasn’t nearly this level of Seahawks fever.
Who cared what Seattle was doing in 2005? I remember the story going into that, it was the big Jerome Bettis going away party. Shaun Alexander had one of the best years a Running back had ever had, and it was a side note to the homecoming of the Bus. Years later, things were going the same way in 2013, “well the defense seems to be pretty great, but we’re only talking about them because of that loudmouth corner. Peyton Manning is going to finally have another ring to shut up the Tom Brady crowd, etc.” Sherman’s polarizing antics are apparently what it takes to get noticed up here.
Unsurprisingly, that’s the tact they took to turn things around after 05, they got a really casual fan-friendly approach to play up the stadium noise thing that really came to a head in that 05 Giants game, and the organization ran with it. They weren’t really good after 05 until Pete Carroll came around, and by that time it had definitely evolved into the monster it is today. Chalk that up to Carroll’s USC/college swagger and John Schneider injecting a lot of his Al Davis roots into the roster which also reflected in the freakshow in the stands.
I’m not trying to shine you on that the fanbase has looked THIS WAY forever, but it’s transparency is greatly exaggerated by those who weren’t bothered by it before.
Judging by the Super Bowl reaction videos, the die-hards are outnumbered by the bandwagoners by about a 12:1 ratio.
Though in fairness, we’ve got plenty of bandwagoners here in New England. But our bandwagon has been rolling along for almost a decade and a half now.
I’ll admit, I’m not used to it, but the 12th man bandwagon Fandom really brings it upon itself. I have a friend who supposedly was a diehard packers fan when the seahawks were crap but come 2012, he’s a Seattle fan. Personally, I don’t let the comments get to me as it’s mainly based towards the bandwagoners. I usually shut them up by pulling out my old Lofa Tatupu pro bro jersey. But nonetheless, the comments will come.
You’ve got no idea how many Seahawk/Patriot double dippers I saw in various forms in the leadup to the game. Not to be a complete ass, but I chalk some of it up to the frequency with which Boston has been collecting championships in other sports. That Pats hadn’t been delivering in recent years, so there was a one foot out the door approach to jump on with the new hotness after smashing Peyton the previous year.
It’s interesting to think that at each level of the playoffs in the NFC there was a heartbreaker this season, the winner of each game losing the following match in a heartbreaker. Detroit @ Dallas, Dallas @ Green Bay, Green Bay @ Seattle, and Seattle v. New England.
Tangentially, how did you come about the Portland and New York fandoms?
Grew up in Baltimore Suburbs- So I’m an Orioles fan. Although these days mostly casual fan at best with little real interest
My father is from New York and he converted the whole family to die hard Giants fans before the Ravens ever had a chance to claim me
I moved to Portland 4 years ago and have just sort of gradually picked up the Blazers as I’ve gotten more into basketball. Still nothing more than a casual fan at best but I’m learning.
Hey! I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, too. Which one are you from?
Oh so that’s a Trailblazers hoodie! Should have figured. I’m prompted to wear a Nets hoodie in Manhattan now
If you want to wear a nets hoodie to piss people off, do it in Jersey. I’m not even a big basketball guy, but I was a Nets fan before they betra… err… moved out of… the state of NJ. I can’t believe I’ll root for the freaking Knicks or Celtics against them now.
At least I still have my Devils, and of course the Giants (who are really NJ’s team)
“I can’t believe I’ll root for the freaking Knicks or Celtics against them now.”
These were my initial thoughts of the Nets organization moving to New York, not that I like the Celtics though.
Waiting for the Knicks to finally have a GOOD season though. If they had a team around Carmelo Anthony like there was one in his days as a Nugget, they’d probably be successful. At that, MELO is out of the question provided he’s out for the season on injury.
As a Seattleite, I don’t hate on the Trail Blazers, solely for the fact that they voted against moving the team to OKC. I guess it helps when Paul Allen owns them too.
I miss the Blazers/Sonics rivalry. Really felt like it connected the two states. Hurry up and get a baseball team, Oregon!
In their defense, bandwagoning is hardly unique to Seattle. Even teams with a genuinely loyal, national fanbase (like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and even *sigh* Dallas) picks up more than its share of bandwagoners. And really, it’s the bandwagoners that create the next generation of die-hards. While most of today’s bandwagoners will eventually move on as they always do, a small percentage is going to keep going to games, suffer through losses, and most importantly have children who do the same thing right alongside them.
I was a very young bandwagon Giants fan who didn’t understand the first thing about football back when they won the Super Bowl in 1986, and was spoiled right through ‘Wide Right’. Then came the rise of the hated Cowboys, Dave Brown, Steve Mariucci going “bummer” (I can’t blame Trey Junkin for it), Jason Sehorn getting torched by Brandon Stokely(?!?!?!)… well, it was the long trek through the NFL wilderness that turned me into a real (and pessimistic) Giants fan.
Do you ever wash that Eli jersey?
No
Hey…I probably walked by you on my way to work (I walk through Pike Place)!
Btw, do you know that your site is about the only sports-related site in which I bother to read the comments? I sure hope YOUR fanbase doesn’t change. No trolls here (mostly), just true sports fans. And for that, I thank you.