Even though the new ownership group currently has a small stake in that team south of Seattle, I highly doubt their allegiances stay with that team very long.
When I was in high school, my family moved to a new town before my sophomore year, to a town that was in the same league as the town I grew up in. Both of them are small towns so eventually you know pretty much everyone. I played every sport offered as a kid along with most of my peers. We grew up together, sweated on fields and busted our asses in lots of games and practices over the years. In the town that I grew up in, our house was about two blocks from the football field. I have memories of an early age sneaking into games simply by knowing the best spots to climb the fence or crawl under. If I didn’t go to a game I could hear it from my back porch. That town, that field and those coaches and players were in my blood.
We moved to the new town at the beginning of the summer. I got to know a few of the kids as I became “the new kid”. Once football season started, I quickly became acquainted with my new teammates. I knew virtually nothing about them but learned and got to know them during hot two a days in sweltering August heat.
As luck had it, our first game was a road game at, yep, my hometown against kids I’d known most of my life. I was a sophomore and didn’t play all that much. I remember distinctly standing on that opposite sideline seeing most of my childhood on the other side. Some of the seniors took it upon themselves to trash talk to me about what losers the other team was. Sure. Haha. I had just moved from a town where our freshman team went undefeated. The HS team was essentially a regular playoff team contender. Not so much the new town and team.
Even though I was now part of this new school and team, my allegiances were still tied to my old school. Maybe because I wasn’t playing much as a sophomore or maybe because I had just moved, I found myself quietly rooting for my old team and friends. They kicked our ass btw, which was no surprise to me but our coach wasn’t too happy about.
Anyway that was the only time I ever felt that way in any sport against my old school. Every chance I got to play against my old school and friends I brought everything I had. After that very first game I wanted to beat them so bad. It never did happen in football but it never really surprised me just pissed me off.
My point is, these new owners may have been whiner fans for a long time and bought a stake in the team, but clearly they will be Seahawks fans like the rest of us and absolutely cherish destroying their old favorite team as much as possible.
Probably the biggest difference between my story and that of the new owners is that I didn’t have to pay almost 10 billion dollars to change allegiances.
