I've broken the rules a little before, and now I'm gonna do it again a little.
I've got two things to say about yesterday's number, both from my first Seahawks home game. And then I'll talk a little more about today's number. If you read what I say below, you'll see that the things I say about yesterday's number and today's number are closely related in my mind, and why.
So... when I went to my first Seahawks home game, I stayed at the home of a friend from high school and her family in Puyallup. On the day of the game, my friend took me to where I could catch the train that would take me to the game. On the train, I was surrounded by people in Seahawks gear in a way I never had been before. I had seen a bunch of other Seahawks fans at my hotel in Las Vegas in November of 2018, the first time I had watched a Seahawks game with other Seahawks fans, but it wasn't like this. On the train to the game, I was completely surrounded by fellow Seahawks fans wearing the team colors (mostly the current colors, but the original colors were represented too). At that point, I thought about my dad, who had supported me being a Seahawks fan so much over the years, and I wished I could call him and show him what I was seeing. That was the first time that day I noticed the serious dust-in-the-air problem that would affect me a few times that day.
I saw one guy wearing a college-navy (current-color) jersey with the number 80 on it, and it occurred to me that that combination had never existed. When the guy looked my way, I asked him "what name is on the back of your jersey?" He said "Largent." I said "that's pretty cool. I asked because when I saw it, I realized that combination of number and color never existed." A few seconds later, I saw him explaining to the woman with him why I had said that.
I had splurged on the ticket for that game. After 42 years, I thought I should get a great seat, so I did. I was pretty much right in front of the 50-yard line on the Seahawks side of the field. I was in the club level, not the field level. I did this because I thought I'd be able to see the action on the field better from there, and I suspect I was right. If I lived in the PNW and could get season tickets, that's where I'd want them to be. Anyway, at halftime, I was inside the area with the food counters (I ate a surprisingly good meatball sub) and I saw a kid wearing a royal-blue Largent jersey. When I say "kid," I mean he looked like he was somewhere in the range of 16-20 years old. I said something about his shirt and said to him "I have to ask, because you can't possibly be old enough to remember..." He didn't even wait for me to finish before explaining "he's like my great uncle" or "he's, like, my great uncle." I', not sure how to punctuate what he said because I wasn't sure if it was just kidspeak or if the "like" meant that Largent wasn't actually this kid's great uncle by blood, but I didn't think it was important enough to ask.
OK, sorry 'bout that. Back to today's number.
When I was at my seat and looking around at the stadium I'd only seen on TV and the web before that day, I noticed that the sign representing Jacob Green's place in the Seahawks Ring of Honor was right behind and above my seat, and that dust-in-the-air problem I'd noticed on the train flared up again. I once again thought of my dad and wished I could show him the sign. Green had been one of my favorites when I was a kid. Even though I knew I wouldn't be able to show it to Dad, I took the picture, and it's in
my second comment from today in this thread.