My parents weren't Seahawks fans, but they supported me being one. I needed that support, because since we lived in southern Maine when I was growing up, I was the only Seahawks fan I knew.
When I was a kid, I had a Seahawks "varsity" jacket, a Seahawks trucker cap, a Seahawks winter hat, a numberless royal-blue Seahawks jersey that I used a million times in neighborhood games, a number-and-letter kit for the jersey that I never got around to using, a silver Seahawks helmet that also got used a million times, and a subscription to a weekly Seahawks newspaper. My dad took me down to Foxborough to see the Seahawks games in 1984 and '86, and after both games, we waited around to ask players for autographs.
Pretty much always, my dad kept up on as much Seahawks-related news as possible and related it all to me in our weekly long phone conversation. There were some times when it was very hard for me to follow the Seahawks, like in my first two years in college in the late '80s and, much later, the first few years I lived in Brazil in the early aughts. During those years, Dad ended up being by far my best source of info about the Seahawks.
Dad died in 2011, so he missed XLVIII. Even though I'm pretty sure Dad still wouldn't have called himself a Seahawks fan, he did develop a certain fondness for them because of me, and I'm sure he would have loved XLVIII. Dad liked good defense. I remember us geeking out about the '85 Bears during the '85 season and playoffs. And Dad shared my dislike for the Broncos and especially The Teeth, so Dad would have enjoyed (as I did) those images of The Teeth during XLVIII after it was clear that The Teeth's team was not only going to lose, but was getting a historic shellacking before an enormous audience.
My mom was heavily into the NFL. A very good friend of my mom had a daughter born in early February, and my mom reminded her friend every year not to hold the daughter's birthday party on the day of the Super Bowl, because my mom would miss the party if that happened. On at least one occasion, my mom's friend scheduled the party for what was basically the one day out of the year when my mom wouldn't be able to go, and so my mom missed the party, and her friend got a little salty about it, but eventually had to admit that my mom had warned her repeatedly.
In 2013, I was living near the University of São Paulo, where I was in graduate school at the time. My mom was in the same house in southern Maine where I grew up. That season, I found myself with the perfect combination of access to internet streams of NFL games, my life sufficiently organized that I could take the time to watch a game or four each week, and wanting a way to stay close to my mom despite the large geographical distance between us.
My mom wasn't really a fan of any one NFL team. She was a "fan of the game." Each season, she would choose an AFC team and an NFC team to follow more closely. In 2013, Mom chose the Seahawks as the NFC team. Each week, she'd check the schedules of what games she would get on her cable TV and tell me which ones she planned to watch. Based on that, I'd choose a game she was going to watch and watch it myself so we could talk about it. So for the first time... well, ever... I watched almost every Seahawks game that season (I think the first time I ever watched
every Seahawks game in a season was 2018, and I don't think I've missed any Seahawks games since the start of the 2018 season). I also watched a lot of other games in the 2013 season. The Gods of Sport and the Seahawks rewarded me for my dedicated viewing, almost 100% through "alternative" means (pirate streams), with a really great season for Seahawks fans.
On a few occasions during the season, especially prime-time games, and then through the playoffs, because my mom and I were both watching, and each knew the other was watching, it was natural to start chatting during the game, make some comment about the on-the-field action or something stupid one of the announcers said. I was usually watching on a MacBook, and it was easy to open the Messages application and exchange written messages with my mom, who was watching on her TV, but with her iPad and possibly her phone with her on the couch.
So for XLVIII, we planned to do some text chatting and also some real-time VOIP talking. And even though I was living in a building full of students, many of which were streaming at the time of the big game, it went great. My video was of acceptable quality, with few glitches or freezes, and our voice conversations were perfect. I wished my dad had made it to see the Seahawks win a Super Bowl, and I was sad because I couldn't talk to him that day, but it was nice to be sharing that moment with my mom, who already loved the Super Bowl pretty much no matter who was playing, and who had been following the Seahawks a little closer that season.
It was also nice that it was very clear that Mom was 100% rooting for the Seahawks in that game. And pretty much after that. Mom may or may not have become a Seahawks fan. She said she wasn't, but she started acting like a Seahawks fan quite a bit.
Back to XLVIII, I remember that my mom and I were talking just before the second half was going to start, and we were still on when Harvin ran the kickoff back, scoring 12 seconds into the half (of course it was 12!). At that point, it was 29-0, and I realized this was really going to happen. After over 37 years being a loyal Seahawks fan, almost all that time the only Seahawks fan I knew, my team was finally going to win a Super Bowl. And uh... it got real dusty in my room.
Mom and I exchanged a bunch of text messages through the rest of the game. We talked about the season, about the cute video of three-year-old Kalee Buetow schooling John Clayton and everyone else on the Seahawks roster - names, positions, and uni numbers. We talked about the Seahawks defense and running attack (Mom loved "old-school" NFL football). We exchanged Super Bowl-related meme pics.
I think this one was my mom's favorite:
(Washington and Colorado had just recently voted to legalize recreational cannabis)
We talked about the game itself - who should be MVP? I started talking about which players' contracts I thought the Seahawks should extend.
When the game was over, we had another voice conversation. I am so happy I got to share that moment with my mom.
