Reminiscing: One Year Ago or Hawks Love Redux

Last year. 43-8 blow out. I think this year is gonna be closer.

One year ago I woke up early after getting home late from a show the night before. Heart beating outta my chest with nerves, excitement, anxiety and sat down and wrote this. Although some of the players have changed (Goodbye Tate, Browner, Harvin, Red Bryant and many others) the sentiment and excitement for the TEAM has remained, so I wanted to re-post somewhere. Here you go.

I’ve been struggling with how to word this explanation to my non-football loving, non-Seahawks fan friends and I am honestly not exactly sure if this proves my point or just proves that I am a bigger Hawks fan than even I thought, but I wanted to try to explain why this team is so amazing; why this Seahawks team has everything I love about sports and football and Seattle all in one and this is what I came up with.

This Seahawks team is special. I think they embody this city and Seattle sports better than any other team in our city’s history (at least in my lifetime). Better than the ’95 M’s (with Griffey and Edgar and that iconic doggy pile on home plate at a game I attended!). Better than the ’01 M’s (with Edgar and Ichiro and A-Rod back when he still was A-Rod and not that dick who left us for Texas (and then the Yankees) after lying and saying it wasn’t about the money). Better than the ’05 Hawks (with Hasselbeck and Alexander and that ’06 Super Bowl loss that should have been a win (even a REF admits those calls were horrible) and all the heartbreak that followed).  Better than getting an MLS team who constantly wins the Cascadia cup, but rarely gets any national attention. This Hawks team is different.

They are young. They are hungry. They have all the courage and hope and youth and excitement of a legacy in the making.

It’s our QB who is the same height as me, who volunteers at Children’s Hospital, who overcame a 3^rd round draft pick and his share of nay-sayers and turned down a potential baseball career and proved to his coach that he was the guy, and became a starter. Who shattered records and scrambled out of the pocket, who made big plays in clutch moments. Who threw to Kerse in the endzone in traffic on a 4-and-7 free play to bring us ahead of the Niners in the NFC championship game. Who never seems rattled, who has learned when to throw and when to throw the ball away, who never stops looking downfield, who has made countless game-winning plays. Who has captured the heart of a city.

It’s our soft-spoken, all about the action, boss, Beast Mode on the field, terrified of public speaking and reporters, skittles-obsessed running back. Who breaks free of tackle after tackle after tackle, who keeps his feet moving, straight-arming defender after defender after defender looking to break free. Who wears down a defense knowing that big run play will come, and it always comes. Who keeps them worrying about #24 so #3 can do his thing. So #15 can catch the ball, so #89 can catch the ball, so #81 hopefully won’t drop the ball, so #11 can hopefully stay in the whole game. He is a playmaker. But the fear that he will make a big play is what allows so many of our other players to shine.

It’s our 6’3”, U mad, bro?, shit talking, amped up, Stanford grad CB with dreds down to there, whose mouth never stops moving, brain never stops churning, tape never stops rolling, who never stops studying, who talks the talk but also walks the walk. Who shows he’s the best CB week after week after week. Who makes the big plays. Who changes a game. Who has the most interceptions in the NFL. Who’s not afraid to tell it like it is, who may be controversial but never intended to be and who can explain, in his own words, clearly and eloquently, exactly why he became a scapegoat and apologize for the reaction but never apologize for feeling those feelings. Who is one quarter of the Legion of Boom, the only secondary in the NFL who has their own title. Who is one man in the machine that has become the BEST damn defense in the league. Who is my favorite player on the field.

And it’s not just the players (although they are all spectacular) and it’s not just the head coach (who 72 out of 200 current NFL players ranked as the top coach in the NFL they would want to play for), it’s so much more. This team has gotten into our psyche. They have become our friends, our family, our drinking buddies, our big brothers, our boyfriends, our husbands, our fathers, our boys. Our team. My team.

And that, THAT is why when I see them on that field, every man, every number, every name is special. They have that special something. That ‘x factor’. And they have us, the 12’s, who will cheer them on today, tomorrow, next year, next season, forever. But this team is something. This team has it. This is my team. This is our year. This is our game.

GO HAWKS!