Fellow fans: Does losing hurt more than winning feels Good?

[purpleneer]

To follow on the point of degrees and different feelings, the losses that hurt the most for me are when you are the best team and lost because of bad decisions or someone being lazy, selfish, or showboaty. I'm not talking about debatable playcalls (at least the part about considering it a given that Lynch just pounds it in like the opponent isn't trying), more about the kind of decisions that still happen despite the analytics showing them to be pretty much wrong. When a team tries to sit on a lead too early, when a coach punts and loses because he can blame the loss on the players that way, when a coach refuses to foul up three because he's more afraid of the loss that's like a tenth as likely, when a team refuses to adapt to an opponent or to changing circumstances.

 

[Palmegranite]

I enjoyed the SB win and the comeback playoff win against Green Bay way more than the SB loss hurt. I would even say that the GB loss to the Seahawks must have hurt their team and fans way more than the Seahawks loss two weeks later.

The Patriots and the Broncos both lost Super Bowls and lived to win another. Stop being cry baby gloom-and-doomers, and start believing in your team. This team still has multiple Super Bowls in its future.

 

[anonFAFA]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion

 

[MontanaHawk05]

In otherwords, does the pain of how SB 49 ended eat at you more than the thrill of anihalating the Broncos for our first SB win?

No.

And I certainly do not sit around refusing to even acknowledge that we won a Super Bowl (and reached another) in order to diminish any of those players, coaches, or front office in the service of clamoring for their departure for Seattle so I can feel like SOMETHING is being done.

 

[Russellmania3]

I never believed I would get to watch the Hawks win a championship in my lifetime. After 48 it's all gravy.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Weird thread.

As someone that has watched that game over a hundred times because every time I fly I replay that game on my laptop?

The answer is no.

Losing does not hurt worse than winning feels good.

Weird question.

The glow from that win resonates this many years later. It probably will never lose that shine.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I never believed I would get to watch the Hawks win a championship in my lifetime. After 48 it's all gravy.

This is how I feel.

If we hadn't won SB 48, and lost 49 the way we did? That might have been the end of me. Sure I want more SB's, cause I'll never forget that euphoria...........but if we never get back? I got my SB, I'm good.

 

[kobebryant]

I've been floating since 48, one was all I needed. I'm over losses now in about 10 minutes.

I don't blame players for how they feel though, they're the ones who put so much into it.

 

[SHOCKER315]

I think SB49 tends to bother newer fans more then old timers.

After suffering for decades of gut-wrenching losses through the 1970's-2000's, the dominance of the SB48 win washed away any worries I would never see a Seahawks SB victory. My own personal journey as a Seahawks fan over the years is fulfilled. The rest is icing on the cake.

And here is the thing about SB49... Literally everyone on the planet thinks, the Seahawks "should have won". Even Patriot's fans will tell your this... off the record. While it won't show in the record book, in reality SB49 kinda comes with an asterisk. Listen to whenever SB49 is brought up by any sports pundits/announcers/fans. They say, "Pete Carroll and the Seahawks went to back to back SB's, won one, should'a been two."

I have come to grips with the fact that SB49 has gone down in history as a great game, that ended on a great play by an obscure player, due to a questionable play call. It won't be forgotten, but neither will the SB48 win. Those two SB years (along with the NFC championship games) cemented the Hawks into NFL history and lore forever. That can't be denied.

Before Pete Carrol and SB48 the Seahawks were always an afterthought. Seattle never got any respect from other fans or media. As a kid growing up, I would watch NFL highlight videos in the 1980's and 1990's hoping see a clip of the Seahawks. Many times there were none. The Seahawks were just ignored. Like the barley existed. The hawks were just that crappy expansion team out in southern Alaska. If there were any highlights, usually it was Bo Jackson running over the Hawks on Monday night football, or an occasional Steve Largent catch.

Today, thanks to SB48/49 Seahawks highlights are everywhere, people all over the country wear their jerseys, and players and coaches are household names. 12th man flags are waved by fans all over the world. So much has changed with this franchise in the last 10 years... for the better.

I have a hard time feeling "hurt" about anything.

 

[JGfromtheNW]

I hardly give 49 a second thought, but 48 will always be special to me. I never thought I'd be able to watch the Mariners or Seahawks win it all so for that I will always be grateful and the losses, especially to good teams, don't really phase me anymore.

It's crazy to think how much different this era would look if we had lost 48 to the Pats and then turned around to blow out the Broncos in 49. I think the stories of redemption and such would make some folks a lot less critical or upset that we haven't been a stronger team since then.

Then again, less criticism probably means we still have Cable/Bevell, so I'm ok with this timeline.

 

[kidhawk]

I look at this question in two ways. One is winning = Superbowl title / Losing = not winning the title (and for me not making the playoffs). In this type of scenario, I have no doubt that the feeling I get from winning exceeds the feeling I get when we lose by a long long ways. It's not even close.

The other way I can look at this is regular season games. Although, I can say that I don't take losses nearly as bad as I used to, I still feel more bummed about a regular season loss than I do a regular season win.

Outside of the superbowl win, my biggest wins of the year are (somewhat in order):

HFA Clinching wins
Division Clinching wins
Playoff Clinching wins
Divisional wins (Current order: Rams/Niners/Cardinals)
AFC West wins (in the years we play them)
NFC Playoff contenders (outside the West)
The rest of the wins are fairly equals


Most depressing losses are in a similar order, except I'd just group all the playoff scenarios into one game and that's the one that eliminates us from the playoffs. Otherwise the order is pretty much the same as the wins.


As far as superbowl wins and losses are concerned, we've been in 3, and I thought the first loss would be something I might never get over, but after winning 48, the other two losses are merely a blip on the radar for me now.

 

[TwistedHusky]

That first SB made me quit watching the NFL for 5 years.

That pissed me off.


Now THAT loss, I will never get over because not only were we screwed but it screwed Walter Jones out of a ring.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I’m a lifelong Seattle sports fan, I’m used to the losing.
The euphoric high of my team winning it all such dominating fashion in XLVIII didn’t wear off for probably 9 months.
XLVIII is my “happy place”. 8)

 

[pmedic920]

Is hitting yourself in the face with a shovel OK, because it feels good when you stop?

Every Seahawk fan loved #48, and contemplates what #49 could have been. Most hated what “49” ended up being.

This is an odd question for me, I liken it to this......

Did getting turned down for a prom date hurt worse that getting laid your first time felt good?


Get off my lawn.

:{)

 

[mrt144]

After 49, i resolved never to let something I had no agency in get me down like that. When playing games winning a big tourney feels much better than losing even in the final because I own it and the odds are already stacked against me.

 

[DYLcurry59]

As good as 48 felt, 49 hurt way worse. Like other people have said, after we won one I thought everything else was gravy - obviously not knowing the way the next season would end. As awesome as it was, I wish we would have lost the NFC Championship to Green Bay. Then I wouldn't have had to endlessly think about the end of 49. We were surprisingly terrible most of that game, but I could have lived with thinking it just wasn't our day. I think the worst part is that it would have been back to back. I can't even think about the joy of 48 without the pain of 49. Not sure how much it would be different if it wasn't a back to back situation.

Until all of the players and coaches from that team are gone, there will be somewhat of a black cloud over the team - at least to me anyway.

 

[pittpnthrs]

Until all of the players and coaches from that team are gone, there will be somewhat of a black cloud over the team - at least to me anyway.

Same here. Everytime I see Carroll, I think of 'The Play'.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Not me.

Without Carroll we not only don't enjoy that SB victory but we don't enjoy the dominating sneeringly good performances during that march to the SB.

What bothered me about Carroll is that he never acknowledged the error and worse, chose not to learn from it.

He won with a gameplan that focused on his ability to use his dominating RB, Lynch, to wear out the opposing defense while leveraging his own great defense to shut the other team down until his offense ripped the doors off.

The problem was that while that gameplan worked for that roster, he then was faced with a new roster and kept the same damned gameplan, that no longer worked because he no longer had Lynch. And he never acknowledged that his own OC was holding the team back.

So we lost 2 potential SB trips and for all practical purposes are no longer a real contender for the SB anymore.

He brought us one opportunity but squandered 3 more. So while I appreciate everything he has done, I really doubt he can do anything more and the longer we keep him, the longer it will be until we can reasonably expect to compete in the playoffs again. ( I do not count one wildcard win as 'competing')

 

[Seymour]

I am an original '76 fan and no way in hell does 49 ruin 48. I've waited all too long for that W to let some ridiculous ending destroy what I waited 37 years for. Yes, 49 was a major piss off, but 48 was a lifelong dream come true.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

+1, nothing can ever take away 48. Shoot, I was in the stands for 49, great game til the end. But it doesn't take away the Championship luster at all.