I am not much of a sports fan, I admit. Not being sporty growing up, I never really got a taste for killing an entire weekend watching every college football game on television. And I never, ever watch tennis. I can’t think of anything more boring than two people smacking a ball back and forth on a court of dirt or grass.
And as we all know, I’m not a fan of baseball. Been to the games, but if they didn’t have beer, I don’t think I could have survived even one inning, let alone nine, ten, eleven…
I only have two sports weaknesses… unlimited hydros, of course, and NFL football. My thing for hydros is well documented. But as for football, I’m not really sure how I ever got into the game.
I do know that I’ve only had three teams in my life. I seem to have been more loyal to teams than spouses. When I was about 8, I got the football bug. My first love was the Green Bay Packers during the Lombardi years with Bart Starr at quarterback. This was in their heyday and I had managed to pick one of the most legendary teams to have ever played the game.
When Vince left the Packers, I did too. I cast about for another football team to love. And there they were. White and blue helmets, with a stylized ram horn on them. The Rams of course were in Los Angeles back then. It was the day of the Fearsome Foursome, with Merlin Olson (pre-Little House on the Prairie), Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy and Deacon Jones. The quarterback was Roman Gabriel and they were once again the dominant force in football. I remained a fan until 1976, the year Seattle finally got their own team.
I attended my first game, the third one the Seahawks played, because we were fielding 1,776 musicians to perform the halftime show. The legendary Meredith Willson, who wrote 76 Trombones, directed us in that song. I still can remember ending the last note and hearing the Kingdome warble from the sound waves. It was cool.
The early Seahawks were fun to watch because no one expected them to do well. Jim Zorn would regularly flush from the pocket and run for his life and Steve Largent became his favorite receiver. They were famed for odd gag plays, including the time kicker Efren Herrera broke free from a fake field goal and caught a 20 yard pass from Jim Zorn. As I said, always exciting.
Over the years, I had expected that the Seahawks would mature into a dominant team like my other loves. I continue to wait, unfortunately.
While we got to play in one Super Bowl, we have usually stumbled our way into the playoffs as wild card entries or worse, we win a division with a losing record and go to the big show not as the best team, but the best of the worst.
It’s been a very painful ride for the 12th man in Seattle. Each year, there is new promise. We get some stellar players who leave us after a season or two, we hang on to totally useless players, we try to make franchise players of the likes of Brian Bosworth, and we almost let the team sneak away in the dead of night, headed for Los Angeles. Ken Behring almost got away with one of the biggest robberies in history.
As a lifelong fan, I’m not always sure we got the best part of the deal. No matter who comes and go, we never seem to be the team that can dominate the opponent consistently in a season. Sure, we’ve had some winning years and even some heart pounding finishes. We’ve gone to the playoffs a couple times and blew a Super Bowl appearance. Always so close… and always denied.
I only thought of this all because the first season the Seahawks played they went 2-12. They actually somehow found a way to win two games. I’m not sure they are going to even win one this year. I was sitting in a local bar on Sunday and watched them play the Steelers. It must have been the fourth quarter. I thought we were doing great, only because the close captioning streaming on the screen was covering up the score. When it went to commercial, it was 24-0. I am beginning to think that close captioning should be required on all Seahawks games so we at least can have the illusion that it’s a good game.
Now that I live in Florida, you would think I would be loyal to the three teams there, or at least one of them. After all, they have the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay. How could I not love them?
As I said, I’m loyal. I endure the heartache of every Seahawk season. I relish all the possibilities with unbridled optimism in the preseason. I think to myself, like most fans do, “man, this is going to be our year.”
And it is, our year to demonstrate to the world that we are pathetic. Even when we are winners, we are losers. But like a bad car crash, you just can’t take your eyes off of it. Even in Florida, I try to catch a game whenever I can. I can safely say that I am the only person in any bar in the state who is rooting for the team. I know there must be others from Seattle, but they remain mute, obviously ashamed of their connection to the Emerald City and the oompa loompas who take the field each Sunday (I apologize in advance for insulting the people of Oompa Loompa Land) wearing a hawk on their helmet.
Still, I soldier on. I will always be a Seahawk fan. And it does have its advantages. While my friends still arrange their calendars around their favorite team games, my schedule gets freed up pretty early in the season. I never have to worry about a conflict down the road for a playoff game and certainly not the Super Bowl. Within two or three weeks, I can turn my attention to next season, ever hopeful, always disappointed, a 12th man in a lot of pain, but with a lot of company.
Out on the Emerald Coast, taking one for the team, again!
– Robb