I value my membership in the 38 Club. Not because I feel it makes me a better fan or better 12 than you, but because I know the years I have spent screaming at my television, hoping, PRAYING that the Seahawks would somehow win the game.
Count me in as one 12 that could care less if you are a 38 year long 12 or a brand new 12. All that matters to me is that you have found your way and your heart to this team and that makes you family to me.
We all have our reasons for following this team. For me? It was a JC Penney's christmas catalog in 1976. That was when I first realized that there was a new NFL team in my city! I was 7 years old and boy you would never believe it but I had a thick blonde covering of hair to go with my new-found excitement!
I never really gave much thought about my loyalty to the Seahawks growing up. I kind of became used to the idea that I rooted for a team that would never really amount to much. Sure, there were mini sparks of glory with the 83-84 team, and the late 80's team...But ultimately, it just seemed like the Seattle Seahawks were doomed to eternal mediocrity on a good day.
If I had one dollar for every "Seahawks? Why do you like those losers?" comments through the years, I swear I could buy a pretty sweet 60+ inch flat screen TV.
Still, I endured. Not because I am a hero or anything over-dramatic like that...But because I felt that it was my duty, to stick with the team I called my own in that moment, many years earlier, when I realized that was my hometown team.
Besides, even then, I thought they had the coolest looking logo, colors and helmet in the NFL.
That is one thing I have never wavered on.
So here we are, fast forward 38 years later.
Somehow, inexplicably, I've turned into a middle-aged, bald, paunchy husband and father. I still don't know where the time went. (If you are in your teens or twenties reading this, trust me, you won't either soon enough). I think, more alarming than my good looks stock diving like an Olympic swimmer when the horn blows is how many people have suddenly embraced the magic of being a 12.
In my neighborhood, a lovely middle/upper class neighborhood in Maple Valley, I can't drive by a street at night without many homes illuminating my way in blue and green lights. 12 flags, Seahawks flags, everywhere. I can't walk into any establishment without employees wearing Seahawks jerseys or shouting "Go Hawks!".
I feel like I am stuck in this really cool dream. When NYCoug sat next to me in the NFCCG a couple weeks back, it felt precisely the same way. If I am dreaming, like I said last year when we won the Super Bowl, don't wake me.
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. - Jesse Owens
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real. - Tupac Shakur
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? - Robert Kennedy
Count me in as one 12 that could care less if you are a 38 year long 12 or a brand new 12. All that matters to me is that you have found your way and your heart to this team and that makes you family to me.
We all have our reasons for following this team. For me? It was a JC Penney's christmas catalog in 1976. That was when I first realized that there was a new NFL team in my city! I was 7 years old and boy you would never believe it but I had a thick blonde covering of hair to go with my new-found excitement!
I never really gave much thought about my loyalty to the Seahawks growing up. I kind of became used to the idea that I rooted for a team that would never really amount to much. Sure, there were mini sparks of glory with the 83-84 team, and the late 80's team...But ultimately, it just seemed like the Seattle Seahawks were doomed to eternal mediocrity on a good day.
If I had one dollar for every "Seahawks? Why do you like those losers?" comments through the years, I swear I could buy a pretty sweet 60+ inch flat screen TV.
Still, I endured. Not because I am a hero or anything over-dramatic like that...But because I felt that it was my duty, to stick with the team I called my own in that moment, many years earlier, when I realized that was my hometown team.
Besides, even then, I thought they had the coolest looking logo, colors and helmet in the NFL.
That is one thing I have never wavered on.
So here we are, fast forward 38 years later.
Somehow, inexplicably, I've turned into a middle-aged, bald, paunchy husband and father. I still don't know where the time went. (If you are in your teens or twenties reading this, trust me, you won't either soon enough). I think, more alarming than my good looks stock diving like an Olympic swimmer when the horn blows is how many people have suddenly embraced the magic of being a 12.
In my neighborhood, a lovely middle/upper class neighborhood in Maple Valley, I can't drive by a street at night without many homes illuminating my way in blue and green lights. 12 flags, Seahawks flags, everywhere. I can't walk into any establishment without employees wearing Seahawks jerseys or shouting "Go Hawks!".
I feel like I am stuck in this really cool dream. When NYCoug sat next to me in the NFCCG a couple weeks back, it felt precisely the same way. If I am dreaming, like I said last year when we won the Super Bowl, don't wake me.
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. - Jesse Owens
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real. - Tupac Shakur
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? - Robert Kennedy
