As the Super Bowl approaches, I’ve been taking a long look back at the entire Seahawks season, and how much this upcoming Super Bowl really means to me. Here are my thoughts/rant: January 8, 2011: As I jumped and screamed in the mind-numbingly loud crowd at then-Qwest Field, I had pretty much completely lost my voice but more in a state of utter shock and disbelief. How could a 7-9 team that made the playoffs out of the worst division in the NFL and had been drowning in mediocrity the past 3 seasons suddenly take out the defending Super Bowl champions with one of the greatest runs in NFL history? How did we just beat Drew Brees and a Saints team in a game many people thought we shouldn’t even have been allowed to play in? I will never forget that game and that moment. It was something special and unlike anything else I have ever witnessed in my entire sports fandom. You see, I spent most of my childhood and young sports fandom believing that Seattle was a cursed city. We lost our beloved Sonics to a greedy and selfish owner who wanted to move the team to his hometown Oklahoma City. The Mariners haven’t made the playoffs in since 2001. And while the Seahawks had our ups and downs over the years, we always just seemed to fall just short of success. Before last season, the only major sports championship Seattle had ever won was the Sonics in 1979…35 years ago. But when Marshawn Lynch broke eight Saints tackles on his way to the end zone, it was more than just a great run, it was the beginning of something special. The day John Schneider and Pete Carroll were hired to run this organization, the Seahawks finally had the philosophy and identity it lacked for years. From the scouts to the training staff to the starting QB to the 53rd man on the roster, everyone was going to compete, compete and compete some more until we were the best and most prepared to win football games as we could possibly be. It didn’t matter where anyone was drafted, where they went to college, or how much money they were making. Everyone was going to buy in to the philosophy and compete. Next came an incredible 3-year period of drafting. Among the players were drafted from 2010 to 2012 and became the cornerstones for this team were Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Russell Okung and Byron Maxwell, all of whom have ascended to the top of their respective positions in the NFL. When the 2012 season came around, this team was finally ready to prove we were a force to be reckoned with. Last season was nothing short of magical. The Hawks played with swagger and poise throughout the whole regular season. We capped off the NFC Championship with what in my opinion was the biggest play in Seahawks history and beat the damn 49ers. 2 weeks later, the Seahawks finally brought Seattle the championship it had been waiting 35 years for. The fan support throughout the entire season was mind-blowing. During the victory parade, nearly 1 million people showed up to congratulate the Hawks on the biggest win in Seattle sports history…Seattle has a population of about 700,000. We had finally ascended to the top of the sports world and when we dominated the Broncos in the Super Bowl, everyone around the country knew we were gonna be the team to beat for some time to come. This season has literally felt like a 5-month long dream. It quickly became clear that if we were going to defend our championship, we weren’t going to be able to do it the same way we did last season. Teams had figured out our weaknesses, we were riddled with injuries, losing games we shouldn’t have lost, sitting at 6-4, and not even sure we were gonna make the playoffs. For the first time in a season and a half, we looked like a vulnerable team. The media was destroying the Hawks, calling them “overrated” and “cocky” among other things, and I will admit there were plenty of times, that I wasn’t sure if this team was going to be able to make it back to the Super Bowl. Then things changed. We started playing the kind of football that we played in Super Bowl XLVIII. We started going out and bullying teams. We started getting guys back, playing dominating team defense instead of trying to play dominating individual defense. Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch started playing the elite players they are, and the offense really started to get going. And we all know what happened two weeks ago. This Hawks dont flinch. ********Non-Seahawks fans strongly advised to skip this next paragraph******** Unfortunately, with the level of success that this squad has had over the past couple years combined with the fact that we are a proud, die-hard, shameless fan base that prides itself on being the loudest fans in the league, the hate and disrespect from other fans and the media has come on pretty strong over the last couple months. Don’t like Richard Sherman? That’s fine. He’s a 3-time First Team All-Pro, Super Bowl Champion and well on his way to going down as one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history. He pretty much has earned the right to say whatever he wants as far as Im concerned. Earl Thomas? He’s already a 4-time All-Pro and has been the best defensive back in the league for about 3 years now…and he’s 25. Marshawn Lynch? I don’t think a lot of people realize that he has been putting together a Hall of Fame-worthy career because they can’t look past the fact he doesn’t like talking to the media. Give the dude a break. Come playoff time when you need someone to grind out tough yards against the best defenses in the NFL, who would you rather have out there than Beast Mode? But there’s one thing that bugs me WAY more than anything. I’ve heard a lot of people say things about Russell Wilson that makes me sad more than anything else. I don’t know what it is about him, but the man never gets the respect he deserves. Its the same reason he transferred to Wisconsin. It’s the same reason so many teams (including the Seahawks twice) passed on him in the draft. But it doesnt even matter to me anymore. It’s hard to believe sometimes, but 3 years ago, he wasnt even in the league. He has done nothing but win games, make huge plays and display the kind of poise, leadership and determination that we don’t even see from QB’s who have been in the league for years from his first day in the NFL. He probably played the worst 55 minutes of football in his career last week, had 4 interceptions and took a nasty shot from Clay Matthews in the first half, but remained poised and kept believing in himself and his teammates. When a couple things finally went our way in that game, he didn’t let the opportunity go to waste and came through with 3 clutch touchdown drives to end the game. To bounce back from that nightmare of a performance takes guts, maturity and poise that I’ve never seen in any quarterback, far less one who is in his 3rd season. There are a lot of incredible quarterbacks in the league today: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning just to name a few. Hes not be in the same category as those guys (yet). But if my team is down by four with 2 minutes to go and needs a clutch drive to pull out a championship, there’s no one I’d rather have with the ball in his hands than Russell Wilson. The word “dynasty” doesn’t get thrown around too much in today’s NFL. There’s a reason its been 10 years since a Super Bowl champion has repeated and before the Seahawks this season, no Super Bowl winning team had even won a playoff game the following season since 2005. This brings me to Super Bowl XLIX. What more fitting of a Super Bowl matchup could I ever have hoped for? The Seahawks vs. Patriots? Is this not the most highly anticipated Super Bowl matchup in NFL history? There’s no arguing with the Patriots’ success over the years. They were and still are the greatest dynasty in NFL history. Since Brady and Belichick paired up, their success is unreal. Super Bowl titles and 9 AFC Championships over 14 years. Even though in my opinion, Spygate and Deflategate will always put a slight dent on their legacy, and more importantly, bring light to their arrogance and negligence over the years; I’ve heard some pretty ridiculous things the past few weeks about how they should be kicked out of the Super Bowl and things like that. As much as I hate the Patriots and hope they lose multiple high draft picks and salary cap space over Deflategate, they are the standard for building a dynasty in the NFL...but I couldn’t have dreamed of a better matchup and the opportunity to potentially end another era by establishing our own. In my entire life, I have never been more emotionally invested or excited in a sporting event than Super Bowl XLIX. To me, this game is more than just my team playing in the Super Bowl, but is the pinnacle of the journey that it has been being a Seattle sports fan my whole life. I feel like these past 5 years have been a dream that I’ll suddenly wake up from, but it just seems to keep going and going. Regardless of what happens in this game, I couldn’t be more proud of this team and the way that the city of Seattle has united and rallied behind the Seahawks. This whole journey has been nothing short of life-changing for me to be a part of. I have never been prouder to say “Go Hawks” and can’t wait for my boys to go out there on Sunday and leave it all on the field. #12lieve #GoHawks #BeatBeantown
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 22:44:05 +0000
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