hawksfansinceday1
Active member
Well now, here it is 2013 and I find myself in what feels like familiar territory this evening/today. I'm having serious flashbacks to January of 1984 watching Dave Kreig throw a horrible pick six to Lester Hayes early in the AFC Championship game, the beginning of a 30-14 (IIRC) drubbing by a team my Hawks had beaten twice in the regular season. I'm also flashing back to 1986 as I watch the Seahawks absolutely demolish the Denver Broncos in the last regular season game of the year after earlier beating the NY Giants only to inevitably watch those two teams battle it out for the championship in the Super Bowl while the Hawks sat at home despite being unquestionably the best team in all of football by the end of that year due to a mid-season swoon they were unable to recover from. And of course I see Jeremmy Stevens and horrid officiating wreak havoc on my team in Super Bowl XL as they lose 21-10mdespite being the obviously better team.
There are of course other games, other frustrations over the years, but these represent a kind of microcosm of SOME of the bitter disappointments we lifelong Hawk fans have suffered in my mind.
But this year was going to be different, this was the year that all of that was finally going to be put to rest. "We" had a defense akin to those mid-80s Easley led juggernauts while having an offense well beyond anything from that era led by the 'chosen one', the QB us long suffering as well as newer fans have been waiting for since well, day one. Yet here I sit feeling that old Seahawks feeling all over again as I've watched this year's "different" team lose 2 of their last 3 games and now sit on the verge of letting what I had hoped was finally a championship season slip through their grasp.
There are plenty of reasons for what has happened the last 3 games, and most of you are good enough and smart enough football fans to see this with your own eyes....the endless untimely penalties, the poor o-line play, the mediocre to poor play of Russell Wilson since the NO game, the kickoff return "situation", the defense playing lights out until they're seemingly out of gas and give up the last drive when they are most needed for just one more stop, the lack of WR separation, the continued absence of Percy Harvin when he might be the guy that does get that separation, etc., etc., etc.
Sadly, I sit here and now accept what I as a lifelong Seahawks fan have come to expect, the apparently inevitable meltdown of a season once filled with such promise just 3 short weeks ago after the Saints game. I sit here ready to watch fate seemingly unfold yet again this year and feel like it will start with the loss of HFA next week followed by a playoff loss in either the Wildcard round or the Divisional round. But it's OK, I've worked through the anger from today and from the game vs. the 49ers two weeks ago and like I said, have now accepted that this year yet again won't be that one year I and many lifelong Hawks fans have always dreamed of, just that one stinking year we all crave so much because for yet another season it feels like there will be no championship. That's 38 and counting. But hey, I suppose this way I can get more of those 'honey do' projects done around the house so I am ready when motorcycling season arrives!
Unfortunately, working through the anger doesn't make the hurt any easier to deal with. I won't be able to bear turning ESPN or NFLN on this week and I dread talking to my two friends at work that are 49er fans (really they're good guys except for that one flaw). It's just a game, just entertainment and doesn't define who I am and I know all of that on an intellectual level. But on the level of the heart, where the true fan lives, man does it hurt.
I'll likely get blasted by some folks for this post, for being a "we'll never make it" Debbie Downer but really, I don't give a flying you know what. I had to get this off my chest in an attempt to work through such bitter, bitter disappointment on a sports fan level of life. And who knows, maybe by the grace of the football Gods, this team will be different, will overcome this and will finally get it done. It's just really, really tough to have that hope today.
There are of course other games, other frustrations over the years, but these represent a kind of microcosm of SOME of the bitter disappointments we lifelong Hawk fans have suffered in my mind.
But this year was going to be different, this was the year that all of that was finally going to be put to rest. "We" had a defense akin to those mid-80s Easley led juggernauts while having an offense well beyond anything from that era led by the 'chosen one', the QB us long suffering as well as newer fans have been waiting for since well, day one. Yet here I sit feeling that old Seahawks feeling all over again as I've watched this year's "different" team lose 2 of their last 3 games and now sit on the verge of letting what I had hoped was finally a championship season slip through their grasp.
There are plenty of reasons for what has happened the last 3 games, and most of you are good enough and smart enough football fans to see this with your own eyes....the endless untimely penalties, the poor o-line play, the mediocre to poor play of Russell Wilson since the NO game, the kickoff return "situation", the defense playing lights out until they're seemingly out of gas and give up the last drive when they are most needed for just one more stop, the lack of WR separation, the continued absence of Percy Harvin when he might be the guy that does get that separation, etc., etc., etc.
Sadly, I sit here and now accept what I as a lifelong Seahawks fan have come to expect, the apparently inevitable meltdown of a season once filled with such promise just 3 short weeks ago after the Saints game. I sit here ready to watch fate seemingly unfold yet again this year and feel like it will start with the loss of HFA next week followed by a playoff loss in either the Wildcard round or the Divisional round. But it's OK, I've worked through the anger from today and from the game vs. the 49ers two weeks ago and like I said, have now accepted that this year yet again won't be that one year I and many lifelong Hawks fans have always dreamed of, just that one stinking year we all crave so much because for yet another season it feels like there will be no championship. That's 38 and counting. But hey, I suppose this way I can get more of those 'honey do' projects done around the house so I am ready when motorcycling season arrives!
Unfortunately, working through the anger doesn't make the hurt any easier to deal with. I won't be able to bear turning ESPN or NFLN on this week and I dread talking to my two friends at work that are 49er fans (really they're good guys except for that one flaw). It's just a game, just entertainment and doesn't define who I am and I know all of that on an intellectual level. But on the level of the heart, where the true fan lives, man does it hurt.
I'll likely get blasted by some folks for this post, for being a "we'll never make it" Debbie Downer but really, I don't give a flying you know what. I had to get this off my chest in an attempt to work through such bitter, bitter disappointment on a sports fan level of life. And who knows, maybe by the grace of the football Gods, this team will be different, will overcome this and will finally get it done. It's just really, really tough to have that hope today.
