How It Feels

Armed with our Seahawks gear and a mountain of snacks and goodies, we bunkered down with friends tonight to watch the Super Bowl, in an incredibly loud living room somewhere along Washington's Olympic Peninsula. We celebrated what turned out to be an incredible night for Seattle sports fans. In fact, I think it is safe to say that today was the best day in Seattle sports history.

Ready to watch!

As the pregame fanfare blasted (I literally mean blasted) out of the TV, we were so nervous. So anxious. So ready to see what our team could do. We were not disappointed. We were all buzzing with energy the first quarter of the game as the Seahawks started strong and started out on top. We held our breath, afraid to hope that this was a signal about how the rest of the game would go. Everyone literally was bouncing up and down consumed by a mixture of anticipation and nerves. If bottled, this energy could put an energy drink to shame. But it was all natural. Pure adrenaline and excitement. 

For the record, these homemade pretzels were amazing. All 42 of them.

Recipe here.

There are no word to describe the chaos that ensued in that household over the next couple hours. As the Seahawks racked up the scoreboard with incredible play after incredible play, our minds were blown. It was as if the entire season's top highlights were being played out on the field in this one single game. There was little down time between the exciting plays and it was incredibly hard to remain seated (even with a 25 pound toddler in one's lap).

Each time the Broncos lined up to scrimmage, the house erupted into a unison of monosyllabic noise, as if the power of the 12th man could distract the great Peyton Manning from 3,000 miles away. With each touchdown, we rallied around a kitchen island and carried out well-rehearsed, soundbarrier shattering chant followed by a tip of a shot glass filled with Fireball. Randomly throughout the game someone would yell, "SEA!" and the rest of us would rally back, "HAWKS!" in perfect unison. Whenever our defense turned the ball over or the offense got a first down, an orchestra of noise--beautiful, chaotic, and random sounds, reflecting the raw and otherwise indescribable emotions pulsing through our bodies--lifted to the ceiling. 

Imagine how you would feel if it suddenly rained money in your living room. Well, it rained money in our living room for four straight hours. And the cheering was ceaseless. 

In the euphoria of a Seahawks win, my husband didn't even mind that I pretended to be Mrs. Russell Wilson.

We're happy that Seattle is finally on the sports map. And hopefully tonight will stifle all those jokes in the sports industry about Seattle being Southern Alaska. I'll spare everyone an even longer rant about how much I love this team and how well we played. How about some amazing facts about Seattle's domination over the top-rated offense in the NFL:

• Seattle's 2-point safety was the quickest score in super bowl history.
• In addition to the safety, our defense also scored a kick-off return touchdown (at least a 70 yard rush) and an interception touchdown.
• We turned the ball over at least 4 times.
• Russell Wilson, QB and my personal favorite player, had a strong second half and threw two decent touchdown passes.
• We are one of, if not the, youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl.
• Russell Wilson is third youngest QB's to win a Super Bowl.
• We won crushed it 43-8.
• When we played the Broncos in the pre-season, we won 40-10....I love how prophetic that is!

Sorry For Footballing

I'm not an inherently competitive person (unless we are talking motion practice, in that case, "I'm gonna to rip your case apart element by element with my freakin' bad ass motion and persuasive case law!"). For example, in football, when I see a player on the opposite team go down, my first reaction isn't "oh yeah!"... it's more like, "why isn't anyone asking if he is ok?!"

And I have this weird thing for underdogs. I ALWAYS have to root for the underdog. I think it's due to the fact that I've lived in the Seattle area pretty much my entire life. Let's face it, when it comes to sports, Seattle doesn't have the best track record. I mean, we can't even keep a basketball team. Seahawks: until recently were a joke. And the Mariners.... oh man. So, I guess my love for underdogs comes from the fact that I've been rooting for underdogs my entire life.

Anyway, I'm not a huge sports person. When I started dating my husband, he would invite me to watch football with his friends. I tolerated it, mostly enjoying the beer and pizza and secret footsie underneath the coffee (beer) table. Football was too confusing. Too much counting.

That all changed last year during pre-season football. The radio people began to talk about this rookie kid who was too small to be a quarterback. Everyone was incredulous when it was announced that this rookie would not only make the cut, but be the starting quarterback for the Seahawks. Everyone was doubtful. They thought the coach was taking crazy pills. That's when I knew I loved Russell Wilson.

The more people doubted him, the more I loved him. And as he proved himself game after game, everyone's mouth's dropped open. And I loved him even more. I took so much pride in him it was as if I was the one who discovered his talent. I loved how he blew everyone's expectations out of the water. Not to mention, he's pretty much the cutest little thing you've ever seen on an NFL field.

But there was one small problem. I still knew nothing about football. My love for him relied solely upon what the radio talk show hosts said about him. So...for Russell, I did something I had not been able to do in the seven years that I had been casually watching football with my husband: I learned football. I learned the Seahawks. And all that learning was rewarded. Russell killed it last year. He tied Payton Manning for the most touchdowns thrown by a rookie. He lead the Seahawks into the playoffs.

But, the final game last year against the Falcons was what really clinched my new love for football (Russell Wilson). The game was so riveting and so intense. The Seahawks made a huge comeback the second half (it was so crazy that I swore it could have been a movie) and then just barely lost by two points. That day, my fate as a football (Wilson) fan was sealed. I believed in him when no one else did. And he made me proud! (I'm totally naming my next kid Russell.)

And that brings us to today. The Seahawks just creamed the 49'ers tonight. And now I have a bigger problem. What am I going to do when the Hawks dominate football this year and are no longer the underdogs? Gulp.

Oops. This post was supposed to be about my trip with the kids to a local dairy farm. Guess I kind of got a teeeny bit off topic.