Seahawks-Bears Contest

Sorry, jezbian. Brad was on the road, and having really interesting air travel experiences. Winner announcement coming soon!

"The winner will be announced Monday."

FAIL.

Thanks to KIRO's recent switch to FM radio, I was able to listen to the game.

I was on the bus when Hills recovered a fumble and ran it to the 6 yard line.

Throughout the bus you heard my echoing "GOGOGOGOGOGOGO WOOOOOOOOOO!"

I subsequently texted 3 friends, "HELL YEAH!"

Go Bills!

Two exciting things about the game: Justin Forsett, and the three or four Bears fans who got ejected from the next section. Ha! Silly Bears fans.

wow i don't even have enough energy to read the first post, however my favourite memory of the 'hawks (AND the kingdome) came back in the very early 80's when i was in jr. high school.

my parents had had season tix from the onset of the 'hawks being in town (previously they had had husky season tickets, but the thought of being able to sit INDOORS away from the meteorological elements was enough to drive them to switch to the brand new pro team...) - and when my parents wouldn't use the 2 tickets for themselves, my dad would either take a client (tax writeoff, anyone?) or my brother or myself.

the games themselves usually weren't all that special, but the whole ritual of driving into the city (from blahvue, mind you,) parking at the super secret parking area a handful of blocks away, marching with the thousands of others through the seats for basketball that would sit out in the parking lot, listening to the program hawkers, and entering that glorious dome was a beautiful thing to my young (not quite out to myself yet) dyke self.

i remember that the first nachos i ever had were at a seahawks game. and i think they were at THE game that sticks in my head most. dad and i went and got our seats, and there was an announcement on the PA system before the game that this was THE game where the BRAND NEW "DIAMONDVISION" screen was being unveiled/used for the first time. this was a big thing as the screen before it apparently wasn't nearly as clear for the ever-more-important instant replays.

well, our seats were on the 100 level, just 2 rows behind the aisle that went ALLLLLL the way around the entire fawkin' dome. and at some break in the game, a local TV channel camera crew came through and stopped to ask our seat neighbours in front of us what they thought of the new screen.

being the dorky geeky kid that i was, when they were filming the people in front of us, i leaned over and waved to the camera and mouthed 'HI MOM!' - not thinking that that clip would ever make it onto the air.

flash forward to awkward dorky me going to my alternative public jr. high school the next day. i think it was my washington state history class. our teacher was saying something completely unrelated, and then all of a sudden points to me and says 'i saw YOU on tv last night!' and then proceeds to re-enact my whole 'HI MOM!' wave in front of the class. he was a really great, friendly teacher who i adored, but i was completely unprepared for this anecdote to be shared with my class.

after that time, i made sure to avoid any cameras i saw in the dome....but the nachos were still fair game.

i miss the dome a lot, and when it came down i lived at 9th and james, and had a 'bye bye kingdome' party - got a bunch of ppl to bring b'fast/brunch stuff over, and we walked to the terraced backside of harborview (along with hundreds of others) and we had a champagne toast to the loveable arched concrete mammoric figure before she was taken down.

and about 10 mins. afterwards we were rushing back to my apt. so as not to inhale pints of dust that quickly came our direction. my freshly cleaned car had to be taken back to the carwash for a 2nd time that week.

well, those are my fondest 'hawks and dome memories. i've been to 2 games at qwest field, and it's just not the same for me. it's not as loud, the weather's usually too cold for me to sit through a whole game, and the nachos cost way too much. i satisfy my game watching at home in a much more affordable way.

h., who still has a ticket stub from a hawks vs. cowboys game in '78 (i think)

p.s. - driving home today from work i went past the stadia, and good goddamn! $50 for parking? i think i'll take myself AND a friend for dinner AND drinks instead. and i can watch the game in a nice air conditioned restaurant/bar.

This is WAAAAAAYYYY too long to post here...but...the hell with it...I'm going to win me a prize. For a history class in college last year I had to write a memoir recounting a historical event I have participated in. Sure, most people wrote about 9-11, but I spent two weeks persuading my professor to let me write about none other than the Seahawks NFC Championship victory and the Super Bowl. He finally conceded and let me write the essay. Its cheesy but its the story of my greatest moment as a sports fan:

I had a feeling. The summer day was getting hot as my friend Mathu and I pulled up to the Eastern Washington University campus. We were not students; just fans. We were there to watch our beloved Seattle Seahawks as they scrimmaged on those heavily watered fields out in the middle of the prairie. Training Camp was in full swing and as I stood there and took in the glory that is the return of football, I had a feeling. We were going to win this year. Maybe even the Super Bowl. It sounds stupid. It was stupid. There was no reason to believe we could make the Super Bowl; there was no evidence or hint of great things to come in the previous season. I'm an optimistic person, but I'm also a fan of Seattle sports teams; therefore I am conditioned to expect little and rejoice on the rare occasion that expectations are exceeded. I was familiar with the '84 and '86 Seahawks, the '96 Super Sonics, the '95 and '01 Mariners; yet the feeling was strong. The Seahawks were special this year. But moments later my mental jaunt down Sports Fantasy Lane halted, and I forgot the feeling I had.

(Five Months Later)

I remember. Its a miracle! The Seahawks are 13 and 3 and have just completed their greatest regular season in history; and I remember. I remember that day at Training Camp. The playoffs loom...we have a bye in the first round. I already attended my usual one Seahawks game I manage to go to per year, against the Houston Texans on Sunday Night. But this is the playoffs...I HAD to go. The game the next week was at home and I just couldn't miss it. I scraped together what money I could and, along with my fellow Seahawks die-hard Jared, we bought tickets and planned our trip. We skipped out on school and headed to Seattle where the atmosphere was palpable. The Seahawks beat the Washington Redskins, winning their first playoff game in 15 years! Nothing could have been better than that moment; deep down...I still had the feeling. My friends, brothers Matt and Steve who were also at the game, queried me: "So, are you coming back next week? Its the NFC Championship game!" I told them the honest truth, I was broke. I was barely able to pay for this game. No way I could buy a ticket for next week. Two days later on a Tuesday, Matt called me. "Jordan," he says, "What's your schedule like next weekend?" I told him I had to work and I was watching the game, of course. He said, "Well, do you think you could get work off?" My obvious reply was, "why?" Matt launched into this speech: "Well, because Steve and I were overwhelmed last week after you left and we just felt like we were supposed to buy you a ticket for the game. We were able to find one on eBay and we have arranged for you to drive over with our dad next Saturday. Dave said you can stay at his house in Seattle, and we also bought you a plane ticket to fly home with Steve on Monday morning." I was floored. This couldn't be real. But it was. And five days later I was at the NFC Championship game with my friends. I still can't believe it; there was, indeed, something special about that season. And that - is how I came to be a participant in what is the most significant event to happen to the Pacific Northwest since Mount St. Helens erupted: the Seahawks trip to the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is the most watched television event of each and every year in the United States of America. The Super Bowl exceeds the championships of all other sports and leagues. No other event is bigger in the media, nor seen by as many eyes. Not just sports websites and sports magazines cover the Super Bowl, but every magazine and newspaper and television network and website in the country covers the big game. Not just football fans watch the Super Bowl - everyone watches the game. The NFL is the king of sports in the USA, and the Super Bowl is its crown. For the two weeks from when the teams are determined to the kickoff of the big Sunday game, the entire country buzzes with talk of the game. Whether you are anticipating the commercials, busy making your bets, fretting over how you'll fit 25 people into your living room, aching for that chili and cheese dip, or just waiting for the kickoff to see the best football of the year, everybody is getting ready. For those two weeks, the focus of the entire media world is on three places: the city where the game is being hosted and the cities of the two combatants. Thus...for two weeks in January of 2006, Seattle was the epicenter of the Super Bowl blitz. It had been decades since one single event rocked the Pacific Northwest like Super Bowl XL did. And I was a lucky young man to be at the heart of the ruckus.

Lets go back to the beginning: Over to Seattle I drove with Kirk - Dave, Matt, and Steve's father. The next morning we arose early and the five of us headed downtown to catch church service before making our way to the stadium. Even as we drove through the city, we couldn't escape the Seahawks. The 12th Man flag flew from the top of the Space Needle, the skyscrapers downtown had monstrous Seahawks banners hung on their walls, every reader board in front of every business read "Go Seahawks!" You saw Seahawks hats and shirts and jackets on a person on every street corner. The city of Seattle had been waiting for this day for a long time. We finally arrived at Qwest Field and the energy was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. I'd been to Seahawks games, but this was different. There was one thought running through the minds of all 68,000 people there: If the Seahawks win this game today, we are going to the Super Bowl! This was a mind blowing revelation; because we were all lifelong, tortured fans of the Seattle Seahawks. We've been waiting thirty years (or 22 in my case since I unfortunately was born a few years too late) for this chance, to have our team in the Super Bowl! Everything just seemed to smell better and taste better on this day. The spirit inside Qwest was even more striking, I'd never experienced such euphoria; especially in such an environment. It was as if for those next three hours, my thoughts were in unison with every man, woman, and child in that building. We all were daring to dream of victory. It was loud. Loud like I'd not experienced before. Qwest is known for being a loud stadium, but I've not experienced it before or since as it was on that glorious day. The game started with Blue Angles flying above and fireworks lighting up the sky. Paul Allen, the team owner, came out to raise the 12th Man Flag and the stadium erupted into a chant of "Thank you Paul! Thank you Paul!" to show their gratitude for saving their team and keeping them here in Seattle and bringing us to this wondrous day. Needless to say, the energy was electric. As the game progressed and the dismantling of the Carolina Panthers neared its completion, the chants grew louder and more frequent: "Su-per Bowl! Su-per Bowl! Su-per Bowl!" and "De-troit! De-troit! De-troit!" As the clock wound down, I hugged more strangers than I ever have before or since. It was incredible, because the people in that building did not feel unfamiliar: they seemed like family. Rare is there a moment in a person's life when you feel as though you and 70,000 other people, all gathered together, are thinking the exact same thought at the exact same time: "They did it! The Seahawks did it! We are going to the Super Bowl!"

But that day was truly only the beginning. Seattle did not sleep that night. People were stumbling out of bars, clad in their Seahawks gear, at 6 am the next morning; having just completed celebrating the greatest win in Seattle football history. I didn't get to bed until 3 am. We first went out for celebratory pizza at Pagliacci's, and every time we walked outside we encountered someone in their Seahawks gear and everyone could talk of only one thing: the Seahawks were going to the Super Bowl. As soon as we arrived back at Dave's place I hopped online so that I could spend the next three hours scouring the world wide web to find any and every article and picture regarding the Seahawks and Super Bowl XL. But the impact of the Seahawks trip to Super Bowl did not stop at Seattle's city limits. When I arrived back in North Idaho, the Seahawks were all the talk. At church, every guy spoke of the Seahawks. It was even mentioned from the stage during the pastor's sermon. Yet, it was also there in Coeur d'Alene, that I had my second glimpse into how big an occurrence this Seahawks' Super Bowl was. The day after I returned home I was back to work at Just Sports in the mall. Just Sports sells sports apparel and memorabilia. It was the default place in Coeur d'Alene to get Seahawks goods. I thought that we might see a slight increase because of the Super Bowl, but I figured that it would be tempered because our distance from Seattle. I was wrong. Very wrong. Our store more than doubled our usual post-Christmas sales totals. We sold nearly every Seahawks item in the store. If we got a shipment of NFC Championship t-shirts in, they were gone before the week ended. We couldn't keep hats in stock. It was incredible. I didn't even have to try to sell anything that said Super Bowl on it. People just came in a grabbed it. People spend hundreds of dollars; because who knew what if this was our only shot for another three decades? People had been waiting half a lifetime for their first Super Bowl with their favorite team. These were no longer just regular Super Bowl parties the people of the Northwest were getting ready for; this was different – our team was in the game. Everyone had to have their shirt and hat and stickers and pennants and banners, etcetera. The insanity had busted out of Seattle and cruised along Interstate 90 all the way to North Idaho. And insanity it was; it was crazier than Christmas time. And every community across the Northwest was the same. When our store ran out of certain items, we'd inquire with our other store branches in Tri-Cities and Wenatchee, Portland and Tacoma to no avail; nobody could keep anything in stock. The Seahawks were the hot ticket. But what do you expect? The region had been waiting for a decade and a half before St. Helens and another baker's dozen since for this game. And it was finally upon us. Super Bowl XL impacted Seattle, the state of Washington, and the whole Pacific Northwest region like no event had in years. There must have been something to that strange feeling I'd had the summer before. Because I wouldn't have ever dreamed of or expected what was in store for us in the next 7 months. But it was incredible to see and experience, and I'm thankful for the part I got to play. Go Seahawks.