Seahawks, 12th Man — image credit: http://www.mauricephoto.com
My first memories of being a Seattle Seahawks fan is going to games at the Kingdome when there was still a Kingdome. My father took me — we ate sandwiches in the rain not caring how soggy they were and wore jerseys that would now be considered vintage. (Thanks dad!)
Brian “‘Da Boz” Bosworth
Over the years, I recall game days, watching Steve Largent and ‘Da Boz, whom I expertly learned how to draw with exactly 14 lines.
We lost, we lost, we lost, we won, we lost, we lost… it went on like this for two decades.
In high school, we frequented Sarducci’s in Kirkland for the best subs ever made, where autographed pictures of players lined the walls — Sarducci’s sat smack between my high school (L-dub!) and Seahawks training camp.
I continued going to games… we continued to lose. Then sometimes we won.
Seahawks Stadium was built and born was the “12th Man” — team spirit spilling back unto the lives of me and all of my friends from school. The Hawks started to win; the Hawks got better and better.
I started working at a restaurant in my early twenties and got to know many of the players who frequented the restaurant as friends. Good stewards of athleticism, they ate steak and broccoli almost exclusively (and drank Rémy Louis XII to celebrate after winning.)
We went to the Superbowl for the first time. The Steelers won. The ref’s blew (figuratively instead of the whistle we needed to win.) But it was okay, to be a Seahawks fan is to know great pain… we all know this.
The 12th man remained supportive, fanatic even. Best fans ever. Of all time.
I moved to Washington, DC. The Seahawks started winning — a fete I continued to have missed as east coast stations prefer to air the Cowboys, the Patriots, the Giants… not sure why.
I took up being an Eagles fan — the green, the bird, it seemed reminiscent. But my heart, oh my heart, has always stayed with the sea-chickens (as we belovingly call them in the great PacNW.)
Today, I will watch the birds from DC in the division finals. Will they win? Will they make it to the Superbowl once again and if they do, will they win that? I told my friends that if they made it there, I would come home to watch the game and if they won, I would move home. Whether either of those events will occur is uncertain… but what is certain is that I am a fan for life. The team is in my blood, in my heart. My enthusiasm for the blue, silver and green runneth over, I simply can’t help myself.
Good luck Seahawks, thank you for being the BEST TEAM IN THE NFL, win or lose.
World on a Fork 