Sunday, January 22
Bittersweet Triumph: Seahawks in the Super Bowl
I grew up in Southern California, near the desert. It was hot and dry and brown in my home town. I hated it. I liked cold and wet and green. My dream home was Seattle. I loved visiting the city as a kid, and I wanted my parents to move us there. Well, that didn't happen, so I did the next best thing and became a Seattle Seahawks fan.Now, this was 1976, the Hawks' expansion year. I was eight years old. I had just been introduced to sports by my dad. He had played football in high school, and he was thrilled that I wanted to watch sports with him (no one else in the family ever would). So when I became a Seahawks fan, he became a Seahawks fan, too. This was a pretty miserable team that first year; they won only twice (once to the other expansion team Tampa Bay and once to Atlanta). But they had two future stars on that team--quarterback Jim Zorn and wide receiver (and future hall of famer) Steve Largent. Over the next decade, these two and the other members of the Seahawks would have plenty of downs but also a lot of ups. They had a winning record in only their third season, going 9-7. That season was special for me because I got to see a Seahawks game in person when the team played in San Diego. My dad and I drove down there and had a great time. I even got to insult the drunken Charger fans sitting right behind us (with their gigantic tubs of beer). Seattle lost that game and didn't make the playoffs, but it was a special memory all the same. It's the only pro football game I've ever attended, actually.
The Seahawks would make the playoffs in the early 80s, when I was in high school. I remember the 1983 season well, when the Seahawks made it all the way to the AFC championship game. I was so excited and nervous before that game that I could hardly sleep. The game was in Los Angeles, and I remember that it was special because the game was a sellout, meaning I'd be able to watch it on local TV (most Raider games were not sellouts, so no local TV coverage). However, the Seahawks and then-quarterback David Krieg (along with rookie of the year Curt Warner) were overmatched and lost big, 30-14. I was so depressed after that game that I actually got sick and stayed home from school for a week.
Still, big things were expected of the Seahawks in 1984, and those big things were almost dashed in the first game of the season when Curt Warner suffered a season-ending injury. The team would recover, post a 12-4 record, and make the playoffs for the second-straight season. But then they would lose to Miami in the second round of the playoffs.
I didn't know it then, but that was as good as it would get for Seahawk fans for the next 20 years. Sure, there were some good moments now and again--even a few division titles. But there were no playoff victories and no standout seasons (just lots of 7-9 and 9-7 seasons, with an occasional 2-14 disasters thrown into the mix). Plus, there were the gutbusters--moments when the team would somehow manage to take an easy victory and turn it into an embarassing and humiliating defeat (against Green Bay in the playoffs a few years back, against St. Louis on three occasions last year). I continued to cheer for the team, but as losing season followed losing season, it became more and more difficult to find any hope. Even Mike Holmgren's talents and gravitas couldn't push the team out of the doldrums in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Through it all, however, I stuck with the Seahawks. In part, this was because I'm a loyal person who abhors bandwagoners. If I'm going to root for a team, I'm going to root for them and no one else. But the real reason was for my dad. Football was his sport and it always had been. As I grew up, I gravitated towards other sports, like basketball and later baseball and soccer. However, I never stopped caring about the Seahawks or following football becaue it was the one thing that my dad and I could really discuss with frankness and openness (well, that and The Simpsons). I probably stuck with the Seahawks for my dad as much as for myself--which is odd since he only started cheering for the team because I cheered for them. I guess I never wanted to let him down, to dismiss the team and (by extension) dismiss his love and committment to me. See, cheering for the Seahawks and talking to me about the Seahawks was his way of telling me how much he loved me, how much seeing me happy meant to him.
I remember in 2002, moments after the Angels (my baseball team) won the World Series for the first time ever, my dad called me. The first words out of his mouth (or almost the first words) were, "Now we just have to get the Seahawks to the Super Bowl." I thought of those words tonight, watching the Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers to reach their first Super Bowl. It's been 30 years since my dad and I started rooting for this team.
Sadly, my dad could only make it through 29 of those years. He died last February, just missing out on the greatest season in Seahawks history, the one that has wiped away 30 years of frustration and mediocrity. When I called my mom and told her that the Seahawks were going to the Super Bowl, she paused, then said, "Oh, your father would have loved that." Yes, he would have. But he would have really loved to watch me, with my arms in the air as the seconds tick down to zero, waiting for the moment when the game would end and the dream would become a reality. He would have loved the game, especially the way the Seattle defense just dominated an overmatched and overhyped Panthers offense, but I know he would have loved talking about the game with me even more.
So, here's to you, Dad. I wish you were here, but I'll do my best to cheer for both of us on February 5.
