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As any true Seattle sports fan knows, being a true fan can be hard. We've had so many teams that never were, fell short, or worse yet, straight up choked. It pains me to even write these words, but unfortunately it's true. We've had many great teams that came to championships - '83 Seahawks, '95 Mariners, and the '06 Seahawks. Then there are those that should have won it all - '94 Sonics,'01 Mariners. And the final category that faced arguably the best team in the history of team sports, and still took them to 6 games - '96 Sonics.
I was watching a talk show and the host was talking to a cute little kid, and she said he loved all of Boston's sports teams. He said " Yes win or lose I love them all." Well in the last 7 years Boston has won a championship in all 4 major sports. It's easy to support your teams when they're winning. This same little boy in Seattle could be a middle aged man with teenagers and still not have seen a men's World Championship team. It's been 35 years since our beloved Sonics won it all. When I was the age of the kid being interviewed I was making a collage for the Super Bowl. I had already used crayon to color in the Redskins helmet. Now I had a piece of silver construction paper, ready to put a Seahawks or Raiders logo on it. I waited until the game was over holding out hope, but after the game I sadly painted the helmet Raiders colors. It was simply heartbreaking.
Another tough memory for any true Seattle fan is Super Bowl XL. I know, I know, too soon, but I'll just tell you a quick story about my experience. I went to a Super Bowl party with my girlfriend at the time, who was bringing a book to read. I was floored, "Who brings a book to a Super Bowl Party!" I thought. This house party was filled with your typical Seattle non-sports fans. Before the game started most people were worried about the food and catching the commercials more than the actual game, but after the bogus push off, "phantom" Steelers touchdown, and when Matt Hasselback got called for an offensive penalty when he was on defense. All of these docile sports fans wanted blood and my girlfriend simply started reading her book and I started thinking "WOW! You're the smartest person here.
I remember my girlfriend in college was from Colorado which was awkward at first because we had just met after Denver had upset the #1 seed Sonics (another story for another day). The reason I bring this up is because she told me when the Broncos were in the Super Bowl in the '80s her mother would make a an orange and blue Super Bowl cake for the party and every time it would just sit there being a sadder and sadder cake as those teams were getting blown out. The one thing I've learned about being a Seattle sports fan is it teaches you to be humble, but today I feel like bragging. If the officials call it even, the Seahawks got this. Here's to another sad Broncos cake just sitting there making everyone sad, GO HAWKS!
