First, the gloating:
"Seattle is better on both sides of the ball, but I have to go with Peyton Manning" they said. "Russell Wilson can't keep up with Peyton Manning," they said. "Offense wins championships NOW," they said. "How is the Legion of Boom going to cover all those elite Denver receivers," they said.
"They" can all choke on 43-8:
"They" can also all choke on what ESPN's Tom Jackson described as Seahawks vs. Broncos looking like a pro team playing a college team in terms of physicality and size. Denver didn't belong on the same field with Seattle. They were an average team with a Hall of Fame quarterback who couldn't move. Those "elite" receivers got the bodily fluids pounded out of them on every route. They're probably still all curled in the fetal position in the Bronco locker room. Seattle was superior at 52 out of 53 roster spots, and that one exception couldn't possibly - and should never have been expected to - make up that gaping deficiency.
"They," lastly, can choke on the fact that this Seahawks club averages less than 26 years of age per capita, including Russell Wilson and the entire LOB. Just like....the 1971 Miami Dolphins, the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 1981 San Francisco 49ers. Are dynasties still possible in the free agency age? Yes...they...are!
Am I going to be a "total pain" for the next year? That depends on how you define the term. Not in any "nyah-nyahnyah-nyahnyah-nyah" sense; I fulfilled that task above. But in sporting my 'hawks Super Bowl XLVIII championship gear as much as laundering allows? You're damned right I will.
You have to understand the sports history of where I live. If Green Bay, Wisconsin is "Titletown USA," Seattle, Washington is its diametric antithesis. New York has a rich championship tradition, Boston has one, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and yes, Denver. Before tonight Seattle had the
But let's go back forty years. 1974. I remember watching the sports report where the NFL announced the awarding of two expansion franchises to Seattle and Tampa. I was at my aunt & uncle's house in Moses Lake, Washington. I was ten years old.
Or fast-forward five years. I remember watching the final seconds of Game 5 of the 1979 NBA Finals count down at the Cap Center in Landover, Maryland, as the SuperSonics celebrated their first, and only, NBA championship.
I was in the ninth grade.
I tried to explain to my son last week how it felt as a fan to watch a team you lived and died with come all the way back from a crushing defeat in the previous year's Finals to win it all. And I couldn't do it. I remembered watching it, I remembered what I did and how I reacted, but I couldn't remember what it felt like to be part of a World Championship. It had been too long. Thirty-five years. If you had told me on June 1st, 1979 that I wouldn't enjoy another Seattle pro sports championship (No, the Storm don't count) until I was knocking on the door of fifty, I may have taken up green Chinese pottery instead.
And now we have not just a professional sports championship, but the biggest one of all. The Lombardi trophy.
It might not be that big a deal anymore to Steeler or Cowboy fans with their six each, or Niner fans with their five, Packer fans with their four, or Pats fans with their three, but for us, to quote the noted somnolent statesman Joe Biden, this is a big f'ing deal. And to quote ESPN analyst and ex-49ers QB Steve Young - one of the "They" that was jerking off Peyton Manning for the past two weeks - "Nobody can ever - EVER - take this away from us!".
Now begins the journey for another. And if the 'hawks repeat a year from now, some people are going to learn what a "total pain" really is.
UPDATE: Okay, I couldn't resist this one.....
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