I think he's spot on. It's true. It's part of the history of who we are.
"Ha ha, Seattle is an expansion team with a bunch of losers on it."
- What's the retort here? Absolutely true. We didn't get the luxury of later expansion teams who were able to stack a decent team to compete right away. The Seahawks and Buccaneers were the little sisters of the NFL for years because of the way our franchises started out. But of course, that has no effect on those doing the criticizing.
"Ha ha, Seahawks are moving to L.A. because nobody cares about football in that remote outpost of South Alaska full of latte-sipping lumberjacks."
- Again, we have no real retort because it's true. Or at least mostly true. We die-hards wept and fought it tooth and nail, while the rest of the country sat back with the latte-sipping lumberjacks and counted down the days to when a "real" city could have football once again.
"Ha ha, the Seahawks suck suck suck!"
- This was the mockery that stemmed first from our humble beginnings, and then after a short time where we finally put together a great team in a then-tough AFC West, when we slumped back into mediocrity. Of course, that mediocrity stemmed from the same origins that caused people to deride our impending move to L.A., because Behring decided to "Suck for L.A." over the course of almost the entire 1990s.
"Ha ha, you have no history, no Super Bowl rings!"
- And of course, with a past like that, there's no wonder we have no history. That's like mocking a little kid for getting adopted by poor parents. Totally his fault, and totally something he could control, right? But it doesn't matter to those franchises whose history extends back to before the Louisiana Purchase. Adding to that, for years we were a franchise in "Egypt" and "South Alaska" that nobody - and I mean nobody - wanted to play for. Think you're going to do much with a team nobody really wants to be on?
"Ha ha, you think you got screwed in the Super Bowl! Get over it you whiners."
- While most of the rest of the United States agrees we got screwed there, it doesn't completely counterbalance accusations that we whined about it. We finally make it to the big dance and get screwed, but shut up and take it, Seattle, because Bettis and America's Team North got a ring. And the more it gets brought up, no matter what anyone says, the reaction is always "stop whining and get over it." And of course that just adds fuel to the flames and more criticism.
"You're a bunch of cheating thugs."
- While we have had a few players pop for illegal substances, and not a whole lot more than many other teams, the accusations are there. And any rebuttal, even when bringing up stuff like the fact Sherman's case was thrown out completely is only going to feed the haters' mentality. We're upstarts with no history, and that intrudes on everybody's preconceived notions that we're undeserving to be in the same league as them, and should relegate our play to the remote northern latitudes of the CFL.
So yea, we're die-hard fans with little history to hold on to, and a whole lot of criticism and ridicule to overcome. Are we thin-skinned? Absolutely. And with damned good reason. Not that it matters one bit to those doing the criticizing. But hey, flame on, ya window lickers. For the first time in history we have a team that everybody wants to be and nobody wants to play. And that's gonna change history!
