Is This Real?

I'm still sitting here 223 days after our first ever Super Bowl Championship in a state that bounces between shock and bliss.

I realize not every 12 has waited as long as I have for that day to arrive, and honestly I don't feel I am anymore deserving of the moment than someone who decided to start loving the Hawks a year ago. Too much energy is spent on fans proving who has the most loyalty or "tenure" now that the Seahawks are on top of the NFL world. Not so much in these walls, but it's out there for sure. Hell, I have my Android phone's desktop wallpaper a photo of myself as a 10-year-old (with hair!!) wearing a t-shirt that says "Property of the Seattle Seahawks" just to prove I'm no bandwaggoner to those inevitable ding dongs who will taunt me with the question of my tenure when I am in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar faces.

Many of you have shared your stories of wearing your Seahawks flare years ago only to be met with laughter or apathy, now being met with high fives, respect or shockingly rude and hate-filled commentary from fans that are clearly pissed off that the Seattle Seahawks (The Seahawks?!?!?) are unquestionably the most bad ass team in the NFL. This fact has A LOT of NFL fans around the world in a tailspin of hilarious proportions.

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of my life. I've seen this town go from apathetic to hysteria when it comes to the Seahawks. Proudly I can say that from the beginning, there was always a core base of true 12's that were there through it all. The hard seasons to watch, the Flores/Behring Era we would all love to erase from our memories, and so on. Momma Blue may be the most well known, but there are tens of thousands of other diehard 12's that have been representing before it was cool to represent. I salute them all.

And now I live in this new world of glee and bliss that I cannot fathom. For years it was my inevitable right to be pissed off at this team for their imminent failures and let downs. As much as I wanted them to win every game, I was lucky if they won half of them in a season. Media coverage nationally was laughable by the very level of absence displayed. It was like the Seahawks didn't even play in the same league as the NFL.

Whenever a pundit would actually, shockingly, mention the Seahawks, it was almost always in a patronizing, mocking tone which lit my fire ever brighter.

So here I sit. Sunday, September 7th, 2014. The rest of the NFL kicks their season off today. And yet, every single team in the NFL is chasing the Seattle Seahawks. Trying to emulate the greatest team in football today.

Wait, did I actually type those words? Let me make sure:

The rest of the NFL kicks their season off today. And yet, every single team in the NFL is chasing the Seattle Seahawks. Trying to emulate the greatest team in football today.

I truly never thought I would see this day. The day that the Seattle Seahawks are BY FAR the most talented and feared team in the NFL without question. Respect is rampant, you can see it in droves no matter where you look. Oh, those fans that HATE us? Respect.

On this dawn of the 2014 season (where we are already 1-0, beating a team convincingly that many consider a contender in the NFC) I am still stuck in this blissful state of awe and wonder. How can it be that this team that was so average, so mediocre for so many years, can now be the template that all other teams aspire to be?

I don't know man, but whatever you do, if I'm dreaming, please don't pinch me.

Truth is, if it was just a dream... we'd be owning the 49ers in California.

If it was a nightmare, Ken Behring would be owning us in California.

Its real and were definitely King of The Grid Iron for the level of respect we know get from the Classy fans, down to the level of detest and hatred we receive from the less classy ones.

Before you could walk down a street with Seahawks gear and be invisible. Now someone always has to say something to you good or bad.

Precisely. Apathy has always been the death blow to a fanbase. When you incite reaction - good or bad - that is your natural indicator that your team is relevant. And boy are we ever.

Through it all we have always been a team that has been the good guys in how we approach things, the only time we deviated was a short stint under Erickson where our guys were having fun but lacked the discipline to execute and the talent thanks to the ownership at the time. Where our guys have shown to be very good in our community and as teammates they are anything but the good guys of old on the field were nasty.

As the Wrestler Ric Flair used to say.

To be the man you have to beat the man.

Men that were the man we have beat.

Tom Brady
Tony Romo
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Cam Newton
Carson Palmer
Matt Ryan
Eli Manning
Colin Kaepernick
Jay Cutler
RG III

And then Man amongst the men.

Peyton Manning

There are others and while a QB isn't the whole team they associate a team with yes the QB. These are some of the most celebrated in the league, we not only have beat we have demolished these teams.

We are now feared, only watch our opener to certify that with Green Bay, the Staff was truly scared of what we could do to put that kind of defensive game plan together.

We are hated. Those fans that have teams that have been long suffering hate what they don't have and hate seeing us rolling, those other fans hate that were as good as we are when their team is peaking maybe for the first time in a long time. 49ers, some Packers, definitely the Broncos, the Redskins. The Vikings dislike us because we have taken players from a team that were unhappy, misused or badly coached and they have helped us win a Super Bowl, something that has eluded the Vikings, something they have had 4 chances to win.

We are envied because we have been put together with a mindset of many seasons of winning instead of just one, we have the talk, we have the swag, we have the wins, we have the Handsome underrated QB that is the leagues next poster boy for wholesome and playing the game the right way, he is surrounded by sheer speed and intimidation in his RB, his teams defense and special teams. We have a coach that has re invented the game on defense and how to run and build a team, one that was considered a bust because of his style at the NFL level, now teams that can't beat us want to take what we know and apply it to their teams. Yes I'm talking to you Jerry Jones, I think he will pull out the stops to get Quinn after this season, he has leveraged the competition committee to try to slow us down but really wants what were taking away from him, headlines, the swag, the style.

We have arrived, those of us that have been here the long haul, from conception to inception to the bumps and bruises of infancy and the harshness of dealing with being a adolescent franchise finding there way to the growth aspect of the Holmgren years. We have matured as a franchise. We have a history, we have the banner, the trophy and the ring to legitimize it to all doubters. Most of all to satisfy the belief in the fan base in the Seahawks.

We have as a fan base made an impact that none other can claim at this juncture, we can change a game, home we are a devastating weapon that this team knows how to use to an advantage, we also shown that we can travel, the Meadowlands and our ability to shaken the foundations of the league with the first snap showed the world what the 12th man is all about. Other teams, other fans, and the league are trying to figure out how to capture our passion and bond with our team.

The media, the league and the experts don't know how to deal with us, they seem to try to control and manipulate the conditions yet we prevail.We can't be figured out, we frustrate them with our success because they don't have the vision that this front office has. We make them look like idiots for their statements about players and strategies. We are not afraid to let them know they are wrong and call them to task after we prove them so.

Be proud, be loud, be a Seahawks Fan, old or new we are all enjoying this.

We all are seeing history really. The Seattle Seahawks are the Next Evolution of Football in the NFL.

Great post Aros, great topic and timing.

Long winded I know and sorry, but I get the satisfaction that Roland will now have more work to do to spell check me and grammar Nazi what I wrote

Fantastic read, both of you.

I, too, long suffering yet enjoyed it all. Not the wins and losses, not the heroics or injuries, not the acquisitions or departures or busts...but ALL OF IT...together, as an experience. The camaraderie of fans of all the different teams, not just the Seahawks. The early years of drinking too much and not paying enough attention... The middle years of wanting, waiting, hoping this was the year and seeing other fans getting to brag on their favorite team.
Even the wagon jumpers make it fun. Either way they go. Now they root for someone else and want what the 12s have now. Maybe they jumped back. Maybe they jumped over for the first time.
I'm not good at soliloquies, so I won't try. I love watching the Seahawks play and will continue as long as I can.
Maybe I should just post one of these---------> :13:

Aros, I am. Currently sitting in the Portland airport waiting my flight back to Alabama. Of cousre I am killing time by reading .NET. Thinking back to my past few days. Getting a chance to meet you and the other Net family before the game was for me as good as the game. My voice still hasn't fully recovered.

I rep the seahawks every where I go all the time. I like you always dreamed but never really thought it could be. I am so very in the now of all of this. While taking a long terms fan approach to this season. I am talking smack but never over the top. Always pointing out what the other teams potential is. Cause for so long that was the seahawks.

Loving the moment!!!!!

In the spirit of Todd's "proof of fanship", I too will provide proof of being a fan from a young age; I believe this is from about 1990, when I was eight years old. Perhaps 1991.

I am glad you mentioned Flores Behring era

Will never forget the night of Nov 30, 1992 when one win Seahawks played Denver on MNF.

It was the Cortez Kennedy show that night.

Two things stand out

1. Steve Largent, Jim Zorn, and Dave Brown having to prop up Pete Gross three days before he passed away as he was inducted into Ring of Honor

2. An emotional Tom Flores giving game ball to Pete Gross after a very boring game that was won on field goal.

Now 22 years later to see Largent, Kennedy, and Walter Jones(who in 1992 no one in the kingdome had ever heard of) raise the 12 flag when FIRST championship banner is unfolded shows what some of us have been through.

Enjoy the ride with this young talented team as long as it lasts.

Tl;dr.

There is no team in the NFL that is talked about these days more than the Seattle Seahawks, either by the pundits or fans online. Go to any team's fan forum and I guarantee you there is at least one thread talking about the Hawks and usually more than that. The 49ers webzone has a 204 page thread devoted to inventing new ways to call the Seahawks cheaters and frauds and have spent six pages on another thread calling Pete Carroll a cheater and the NFL complicit in our crimes because they thought our center was slightly too far past the line of scrimmage on a pass play in a 20 point win that the Hawks dominated in every respect. And it seems like you can't turn on the TV anymore without seeing a Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, or some Seahawks related commercial.

I've been a fan of this team since '76 and I never thought I would see this day come. We might as well have been in Siberia as far as the national media and other fanbases were concerned for most of those years. Even when we were a Super Bowl team in 2005 it was never like this. Nowhere close. In 2005 we were a feel good story about a hard luck franchise that had finally made the Super Bowl with a team that was considered a finesse team (aka soft).

In 2014 no one is calling the Seahawks soft. This team is feared and hated. They not only won the Super Bowl but they dominated the greatest offense the league has ever seen and that came as a shock to a lot of people, including NFL insiders. They are a fast, aggressive team that plays with swagger and will smash you in the mouth and then yap at you all the way back to the huddle. They have a defense that makes elite quarterbacks look average, a quarterback who sounds like a choir boy off the field but has the soul of an assassin on it, a running back that NFL defenders are afraid to tackle, and a cornerback that NFL quarterbacks are afraid to throw at. The NFL devoted the offseason to changing how officials call the game just to try to stop them.

They are the most interesting team in the world. Stay thirsty, my friends.

5 minutes AFTER the super bowl.

It's such a great feeling to finally now be 'THAT team' that most everyone else envies or fears. The "Same Old Seahawks" stigma is a thing of the past with this team. I'm loving every minute and riding this high!

Here's something so weird I've noticed in the past few months living in Calgary, Alberta. I've been a Seahawks fan living in Calgary for the past 30 years, and a Seahawks shirt or hat sighting has always been a rare, rare sight. Now I can't go out in public without noticing some other guy walking down the street with a Seahawks hat, shirt, or jersey. The number of Seahawk gear sightings has increased about a thousand percent here.

A few weeks ago I saw a guy wearing an Aaron Curry No. 59 jersey walking along a Calgary street. I stopped and said "Hey, that's Korey Toomer's number now." He had no idea what I was talking about, and probably didn't even know what an embarrassment Curry was for the Seahawks, but it goes to show the bandwagon jumping that is going on up here for the Hawks that someone would non-ironically be wearing a Seahawks Aaron Curry jersey in public.

Todd- funny you bring this up. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island on Friday and I was wearing a Hawks hat and SB Champs t-shirt.. I had at least 10 people on the ferry or on the island say "Go Hawks".. one was a lady dressed for business heading to the ferry as I got off.. My dad and I kinda chuckled about the fervor now compared to apathy that was present for some much of the 90s and early 2000s

RolandDeschain":2mz20lvp said:

In the spirit of Todd's "proof of fanship", I too will provide proof of being a fan from a young age; I believe this is from about 1990, when I was eight years old. Perhaps 1991.

Click to expand...

I didn't know you wore glasses, Roland.

At the end of last year, I felt like I was dreaming. LIke a lot of other Hawks fans, I've been waiting for this for years. It was surreal that we actually won the SB after the mid 80's when were very good but the Raiders were better (biggest reason I disliked them for so long), then the Behring years (where I honestly lost interest for a while), it seemed like we might get lucky and win one eventually, but I never dreamed we'd have the most dominating team in the NFL, with a historically good defense and a good young core of players locked up for the long term.

This year seemed a bit weird. I was almost disinterested in the draft, TC, etc. I kept track of who we kept, but it's almost like we've arrived, so now it's not a shock and I expect us to make the playoffs, make a deep run and probably get to, and win the Super Bowl.

It feels odd to expect to win a Super Bowl.

A dream year...... Born here in 1968.
I even played for the Redmond Hawks.

Not sure if I have any pictures but my folks probably have one of my old Steve Largent jerseys floating around somewhere.

I'll admit, I'm not nearly as long-suffering as some of you guys who've been around for all of it. But, to be fair, I wasn't born until 1984, so that limited me in some ways

I started really rooting for the 'Hawks in around '93-'94. Rick Mirer was our QB the first time I decided I, like me dad before me, was a Seahawks fan.

Anyway, I love this ride we're all on. It's been the most fun, and through it, I've been able to convert several new Hawks fans with my enthusiasm for the team.

This morning, as I watch week one football, I'm literally sipping champagne and nonchalantly musing such gems as "hm, the jaguars might start 1-0 against a playoff team from last season. Good for them. (sip)."

It's great to be the champs.

Some great comments my fellow 12's, and a great thread. I've had the same thought since about mid-year last year. This definitely is not the Seahawks of old. All those years of frustration, and knowing the team will find a way to lose the game, is...poof....gone. Now all I can think of is watching them win, and knowing they can win every game, even coming from behind. With zero doubts.
The comment Irvin made about the Packers center almost had me thinking that the Hawks are starting to get too cocky. But I checked myself, and thought, hell, if we can back it up, then say what you want.

The Seahawks are at the center of the football universe, and it feels damn good. DAMN good! I really do believe (yes, I believe!) that we are witnessing just the beginning of much greater things to come. And I'm going to enjoy the ride.