Close your eyes and remember the NFCCG against the Packers. Remember where you were sitting, what you were drinking, where your family and loved ones were... how you felt that day. Down 12, 4 minutes left and not a single thing had gone right all game. Did you believe that somehow, someway, we were NOT going to lose that game? Did you call it?
I know did! I talked to hundreds of Hawks fans after that game and ALL of us thought Russell and Co. would pull it out! We knew we were going to win that game... with every fiber of our collective being, something was going to happen, something big. We were going to win, no doubt in our minds.
It was exactly 267 days ago that game happened.
Fast forward to today, after we failed to score on the drive before and the Panthers got the ball back down 23-20 with 2:20 left, now everyone is saying they called the loss. They saw it coming. They KNEW we were going to lose it. Even at home, with our D on the field, with the 12s roaring, and against a piss poor offense like the Panthers... Seahawks fans called the loss. And when it happened, they were numb. We all knew it, right? We called it. Something crappy was going to happen—and when Sherm passed off Olsen to Earl and Earl passed him off to Sherm...that something really crappy happened.
Congrats, we called it! We knew it would happen.
Pete says winning is a mindset. Can a group of people not playing the game—not actually on the field calling plays, running around, hitting people—believe, without a doubt in their minds, hard enough and strong enough to make something magical (or disastrous) happen, just by thinking it's going to happen?
... .....?
But what about XLIX? If belief powers wins, how did that loss happen? We ALL thought the Seahawks were going to win that game, even after the INT at the 1, there was still a chance... we all believed in our core we were going to win that game... up until the final knee by Brady, the clock hit :00, and the confetti streamed. It was all over.
I remember thinking that if I thought about it hard enough and long enough, I would blink backwards in time, to a different universe, and open my eyes and see that pass getting caught and the game ending with a victory.
Well, tough s#!t, that didn't happen. Now, instead of expecting us to win, we all expect something bad to happen...our psyches have been burned with the image replayed thousands of times of Malcom Butler stealing our Super Bowl. Stealing our belief in this team, our coaches, our players. Our Seahawks Soul.
Doubt and pain like that lasts a lifetime if you let it. If you let it creep in. If you change your mindset from believing in winning to believing in losing. Cubs fans have it. Lions fans have it. Historically bad teams who are always bad have it... their fans, their players, their coaches, all the way to the top. "Something bad is going to happen because we're the Cubs or the Lions, or the Minnesota Timberwolves." You hear that all the time...
After XLIX, it's hard to believe we can fix it. People have to change... Bevell, Lockette, some even calling for Russell's head. Those who we saw blow the play and kill our souls HAVE to go, or there is no hope. I get that.
But, if you've stayed with me this far, stay with me a little more...
We can make a difference, we CAN BELIEVE in this team as it is. As it's been built. Now.
We must STOP believing we're going to blow it. We must STOP believing we're going to lose.
Believe is a strong word and it can be used both ways. If you believe we're going to blow it in every 4th quarter, well.... ... believe it will happen. And you'll be right. You'll have called it. Congrats to you.
I have been believing in loses lately too. I found myself thinking we were going to blow it in STL, in GB, in CIN, and yesterday, I believe with Bevell at the helm, we were going to blow it. Congratulations to me. I was right.
I'm done with that. This loss. This numb loss. This "well, I called it." loss.
NO MORE!
FROM NOW ON WE WIN!
WE ARE THE GODDAMN SEAHAWKS! WE STOMP ON TEAMS! OUR QB WINS US GAMES DESPITE WHAT PLAY THE OC CALLS! OUR DEFENSE MAKES PLAYS! PICKS OFF PASSES! FORCES TURNOVERS! WINS GAMES!
WE ARE GOING TO MAKE HISTORY! WE ARE MAKING THE PLAYOFFS AND WE ARE WINNING THIS THING! ALL OF IT!! WE WIN!
GET THE F@$# IN OR GET THE F#@$ OUT! DOESN'T MATTER TO ME! I'M IN!
I'M IN!
I'M SO DAMN IN IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY!
AAGGGGGGHHHHH NO MORE LOSSES! NO MORE COLLAPSES! WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN
FOREVER! WIN!
GO HAWKS!
