Welcome to Super Bowl Weekend! You may have heard, the Seahawks are bound for the Meadowlands where they intend to prove to the world that they are the Champs! Here in the Emerald City, this is a VERY BIG DEAL.
I have not lived in an NFL town outside of my year in Pittsburgh, and they weren't in the Super Bowl that year, so I don't know if this is normal or not. But even the natives here tell me that this time, it feels different than it did the last time the Seahawks went. And the Seahawks have only gone to the Super Bowl twice. The first time was some odd years ago when they lost to my beloved Steelers on a bad call. A call, in fact, that was so bad, the referee who made it came out later and admitted it was a bad call. To say it remains a bitter loss is a gross understatement.
But you know, Seattleites do not hold onto bitterness and bad feelings. This town has a positive and upbeat energy, and people are generally happy and friendly. And they are absolutely thrilled that their team is in the Super Bowl. You can't go 5 feet without seeing the 12th Man flags everywhere. The skyscrapers downtown, peoples' homes, the gas station, even the Space Needle sports a 12th Man flag! The Boeing jet painted to honor the 12th Man flew a special flight pattern yesterday that was in the shape of a 12. The city is abuzz, on fire, and alight with Seahawks fandom.
I took that one from I-5 in my car coming back from Everett yesterday. Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle. I was there for a hearing, and when I cam out of the courthouse, they had live music on the courthouse lawn to celebrate the Seahawks Super Bowl trip! Things like this are happening all over western Washington.
I haven't been able to take very many 12th Man pictures, so the two above are from the internet. This is just a small example of what is happening all around us here. It's hard to not catch the Seahawks fever! There is no other topic of conversation right now, and people who don't care about football or know anything about it find themselves saying things like, "Peyton is awesome, but no one beats Russell Wilson on the read-option."
AllRecipes.com has gotten in on the action, tagging Marshawn Lynch's love of Skittles, and has a recipe for a Seahawks cocktail, made with the blue and green Skittles. Yep.
Maybe this city is more excited than other places when they go to a championship game because Seattle is generally a beleaguered sports town. It's rated pretty low on the list of sports towns, and true fans are abused more than having something to celebrate. The Sonics leaving was a slap in the face Seattle has had a hard time getting over. UW has struggled to rebuild in the college realm, and the Mariners are, well, the Mariners. The Mariners are beloved because they are a team of pretty good guys, not because they win a lot. Anyway, having something to celebrate in the world of mainstream sports in Seattle is huge. (I left the Sounders out of this discussion - I think they are the anomaly - always pretty good.)
If you follow pop culture at all, you have heard of a rap artist named Macklemore. He's a Seattle guy. His songs have a positive message and when he sings about Seattle you can tell he is having a love affair with his town. In a way, Macklemore is the true embodiment of Seattle: he's a positive, upbeat guy with a crazy-cool talent, but at the end of the day, just considers himself a regular guy. My favorite story about Macklemore is that he cut a record at a local small studio in Seattle (or it might have been his basement, I can't remember), and then immediately ran over to KEXP (local radio station) and asked them to play it, which they did, on the spot. 2 years later, Macklemore walked away with a couple of Grammies for that album, and the title of this blog is a reference to Macklemore.
Below is a link to a song by Macklemore, in which he pays tribute to Dave Niehaus, who passed away in 2010. Dave Niehaus was the voice of the Mariners. But this song is about more than Dave Niehaus, it's about Macklemore's great love for Seattle. What he's singing/rapping about in this song, that is what's happening now for the Seahawks. Now is their time, and this city is ready for a championship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvNQWQSwmow.
My, oh my, Seattle. I'm in.
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