The Seahawks are Super Bowl Champions. Let me repeat that. The Seahawks are Super Bowl Champions. To say that I am ecstatic would be an understatement. It’s almost a week later and I still don’t fully believe it. But to fully comprehend the magnitude of this victory in my life, we need to go back and learn some of my story.
My journey began in 1998. People often ask me, “How did a kid from Chicago wind up a Seahawks fan?” It’s simple, really. I grew up during the Wannstedt years in Chicago. I didn’t want the Bears as my team. So I set out in search of a new team. I laid out a few criteria for picking this team. First, it had to be a team that nobody around me liked. I wanted to stand out and forge my own identity (little did I know how much that identity would come to define me). Next, I wanted a team without a history of success so that no one could accuse me of being a bandwagoner. Teams like the Cowboys, 49ers, Packers, and Steelers were quickly eliminated. Finally, I wanted a team with a unique logo. This search led me to two finalists: the Cincinnati Bengals and the Seattle Seahawks. My favorite player at the time, Ricky Watters, had just signed with the Seahawks, so that settled it. They were my team.
It’s never easy being a fan of a team that is far from where you live, but it was even more difficult in the late 1990s. Finding team gear was challenging, as was finding news about the team. I did not have internet access at home, so I could not keep up with the team via websites or blogs. The team treaded water those first few years of my fandom, and my interest in the team and the NFL as a whole neither grew nor faded during this time.
The Seahawks finally took flight around the same time I found my wings as a person. I started playing fantasy football, and I liked being able to keep up with all the stats. I thought it was great that the rise of the Seahawks mirrored my rise as a person. The team made the playoffs in 2003 and 2004, and even though those trips did not go as well as I would have liked, I was hopeful for what was to come.
The team reached their first Super Bowl after the 2005 season. Even though I missed most of the games that season because I worked Sundays at Super Target, this appearance could not have come at a better time. One of the greatest things about sports is that it provides a diversion (albeit temporarily) from everything else in your life. At that time, I had a lot that I did not want to think about.
Super Bowl XL would come to define the next few years of my life for a couple reasons. It was the last time I ever heard from my friend Katie before she passed away in a car accident that March. She knew I was a huge fan, and she called at halftime to let me know she was thinking of me and rooting for my team. My greatest regret in life is that I did not talk longer on the phone that day. I was frustrated by uneven play and even more uneven officiating. The Seahawks lost 21-10, and that loss consumed me every day for years.
That loss was the first of many losses in my life for a number of years. I am not so foolish to believe that their loss spurred mine, but their loss was a harbinger of things to come. I became well acquainted with coming ever so close to realizing my hopes and dreams, only to fall just short. Over the course of the next few years, much of my life would fall apart. I lost the closeness of my friends. I lost in love more times than I would care to count. I was defeated in life so many times that I began to lose sight of all my hopes and dreams.
After that Super Bowl loss, the Seahawks gradually fell apart as a team as well. They remained competitive the next two seasons before the wheels ultimately came off. I remember watching one of their games in 2009 (the Mora year) and thinking about how far away they were from even being competitive. Little did I know what was to come.
The Seahawks got a new coach and general manager and began to rebuild in 2010 around the same time that I began to rebuild my own life. Things did not get better right away (for them or for me), but there was the belief that things were going to eventually come together.
I made it to Seattle in June 2012 and got to tour CenturyLink Field. It was an amazing experience to walk on the field and into the locker room and traverse through the same places that many of my childhood heroes did. Little did I know what was to come that season.
All of a sudden, the Seahawks got better, just like all of a sudden I finally got a full time teaching job. That year, my dad and I made it to the Seahawks/Bears game in Chicago. It was unbelievably awesome to watch them in person, and the fact they won in overtime made things even better. They entered the playoffs hotter than any team in the league, and I started to think that maybe, just maybe this was the year.
It wasn’t meant to be. They got too far behind in Atlanta, and even though they put forth a valiant effort, they fell just short. I was devastated. I got my hopes and expectations up and felt crushed once more. But I woke up the next morning without the lingering feeling of “What if?” that usually accompanied their playoff losses. Instead, I felt a great excitement for the following season.
2013 was the most challenging year of my life. I endured loss upon loss and disappointment upon disappointment. Quite honestly, the only thing that kept me going in fall was the excitement of Sunday afternoons. And the Seahawks did not disappoint. They entered the season with unbelievable expectations, and they did not crumble under that pressure.
A funny thing happened between the 2012 and 2013 seasons. My dad and sister converted to the 12th Man. The three of us made it to the game in Indianapolis against the Colts. Unfortunately for us, they lost. I remember feeling disappointed, but about halfway through the ride home I felt at ease. I realized that I’d rather them lose the game I was at than the Super Bowl in February (should they make it that far).
Despite a couple hiccups along the way, the team performed admirably and made it to the playoffs. I did all sorts of crazy pregame rituals, not because I believed they would help the team but because they’d put my mind at ease. I was immeasurably hopeful for them to go all the way, but in my heart I believed it wouldn’t happen. It just seemed too good to be true.
It’s interesting how far away that hopes, dreams, and goals seem until they are finally reached. Even though the Seahawks were the best team in the NFL all season, the idea that they would win the Super Bowl felt unrealistic. But a funny thing happened. They won a playoff game. Then they won another, this time against those abominable 49ers. They were back in the Super Bowl!
I was a wreck for those two weeks leading up to the game. It would have crushed me to come so far only to fail again. I’m not exactly good at letting go of my failures. It took me 7+ years to stop loathing the Steelers, and that only happened because I met a gorgeous Yinzer that I subsequently wound up developing romantic feelings for. I figured that if they lost, I’d never be able to watch a commercial with Peyton Manning ever again.
Most “experts” didn’t think the Seahawks could pull this off. Most of my friends didn’t think they had a chance. Yet all of those people were wrong. The team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. By the time it was all said and done, it was the greatest Super Bowl blowout in decades. 43-8. Forty three to eight.
As the clock ran out and the team began to celebrate, I cried like a baby. I cried thinking about Katie. I cried thinking about the last eight years and everything I lost during that point. I cried thinking about how I thought this day would never come. And I cried because I finally realized that things CAN turn around.
In my life, I’ve only ever really wanted three things to happen. I want to have a family and spend the rest of my days with the one I love. I want to work a job that I love so much that it never feels like work. And I wanted to see the Seahawks win a Super Bowl. It took almost 27 years of my life, but one of those things finally happened.
This group of guys isn’t exactly the group of players that the “experts” would expect to come together and win a Super Bowl. They’ve been overlooked, underappreciated, and counted out before they even had a chance to prove themselves. And yet, they refused to accept their supposed fate. They’ve fought for everything, and they’ve now succeeded in front of 111 million people.
After 16 years of being a fan, the Seahawks are on top of their world. After nearly 27 years, I am ready to be on top of mine.
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