Know Hope

Five and a half years ago, I went to the Seahawks-Saints regular season opener in New Orleans. The Hawks won, and I had a blast, but I wasn't impressed with the Saints or their fans.

The stadium was perhaps 2/3rds full, and the crowd barely seemed to notice the game going on down below between taking swigs of beer... The team was talented but undisciplined, and there was nothing to indicate they'd contend anytime soon.

A year later, Katrina.

Not only did it look even more hopeless for the Saints on the field... It also looked like they'd flee New Orleans at the first opportunity. In NFL history, there has probably never been a more hopeless moment for an entire fanbase.

Five years later, they are World Champions. Forty years of (mostly) futility have been erased, and they will raise that Lombardi Trophy skyward on a loop until the end of time. Drew Brees, Sean Payton and Darren Sharper will be talking heads on America's Game, and the 2010 season will kickoff in the raucous din of the Superdome.

If the Saints can be Champions, ANY TEAM can be Champions. If we've entered a brave new world of head coaches taking bold risks, I'm glad we have a coach whose nickname is "Big Balls Pete." If the Saints can beat three hall-of-fame-bound QBs to win a world title, the Seahawks can claw out of this valley of suck.

Enjoy this offseason, Twelves. It is the beginning. Someday, we'll say we were there when the first parts of a World Championship team were constructed.

Congrats, Saints. As of now, we're on your six. :)

Tweeting XLIV

If you want to follow my tweets during the Super Bowl, here's the link... Hope to see you over there!

Defending Your Life

I've never fit neatly into groups. The high school clique system eldued me, and I have even had a hard time relating to most other football fans. My wife, back when we were dating, even noticed it... "You're weird. You don't drink while you watch football, and you don't really get interested in the cheerleaders. You make it all nerdy and intellectual." Guilty as charged.

I'm a college professor, and... big shock... I don't really fit in with the other folks there either. This got shoved in my face yesterday when I happened to mention the Super Bowl in the computer lab. This other professor started in on how football was a meaningless spectacle, and how she couldn't fathom how people get so emotionally invested in it... blah blah blah.

As you readers obviously know, it means something to me. If you are here, it means something to you too. When I think about where I come closest to fitting in, it's with my fellow Twelves. I'm not an idiot. I know that it's just a game. I know that I don't have any control over the results. I know it's irrational as fuck.

I know this, and I don't care. WE give it meaning. Plenty of people don't care about football, but they care about something else (I hope). If I waved my hand in dismissal and deemed those passions meaningless, I'd be... hmm... how does one put this? A huge fucking dickbasket.

But that's what this supposedly enlightened, open-minded academic said about the NFL, about the Super Bowl, about our thing. I laid into her verbally and exposed her hypocrisy, finally getting her to admit that she simply hated the sport. She was reduced to making the kind of anecdotal arguments to explain larger social trends that we'd NEVER accept in a student's research paper.

I think in part she was surprised that someone who was another flaming lib-rul academic was interested in such a barbaric, non-PBS pursuit... I was certainly surprised by her smug arrogance, and it's obvious we parted both thinking far less of the other.

But I'm out there, hoisting the standard of our passion, fellow Twelves. She can go all Squidward this Sunday. We'll be enjoying our Bread and Circuses, and with gusto.

By the way, I'll say Saints 34, Colts 31.

Come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it!

Less than a month ago, the future of the Seattle Seahawks seemed like a wind-blasted, irradiated death-scape.

Things have changed a bit, huh?

From Mora's firing to Carroll's hiring to today's retirement of Kurt Warner, January 2010 has been a sheet cake of victory for the Seahawks. Sure, everything could go all crap sandwich for the Hawks, Matt Leinart could morph into a latter-day Neil Lomax, and the Niners could finally live up to the rediculous pile of hype accumulated around them... but every year some bug-fuck crazy shit happens in the NFL, doesn't it? Jets in the AFC Championship game... Saints in the Super Bowl...

Why not Seattle back in the playoffs next year?

Even after Hasselbeck's awful season, he might be the best quarterback in the division now. The Seahawks have the money to lure free agents and the arsenal of draft picks needed to make an immediate leap forward. A mere 4-win improvement would get Seattle to 9-7, which has been good enough for a division crown four times in franchise history.

You know that scene in Magnolia where the frogs start dropping from the sky, and the quiz kid just starts repeating, "This happens.... This happens!" We've seen quick turnarounds over and over in today's NFL, and a 4-win leap is something we've seen our guys do more than once.

Heck, we've seen a new coach get the Hawks to 9-7 and a playoff berth twice before in franchise history. Knox in '83... Holmgren in '99... Carroll in '10?

This Happens... This Happens.

When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around

From the personal to the political, things look pretty bleak these days. I found a part-time teaching job, but it's two hours away from where I live, which means a 4-hour round trip two days a week. Did I mention that I live in my Mother-in-Law's basement? And my wife, my two kids, and I are all crammed into her parents' house?

Oh, and my wife's health insurance from Starbucks is so crappy that I can't afford to see a therapist to treat my various.. ahem.. mental issues. So, just suck it up, skippy!

On top of that, I'm a political science professor, and it's getting REALLY hard to not just flat-out tell my students that the political system is this country is pretty well fucked... We have one party populated by spineless pussies, and another dominated by batshit-crazy nihilistic sociopaths. Hooray for America!

So as I try to tread water in my personal life, and I see things get worse and worse in my own "profession," one thing gives me hope. One thing makes me think "hey, better days are ahead, brah."

The Seattle Seahawks.

Yeah, part of this is just my knee-jerk need to believe in SOMETHING, even if it's just a pro football team that probably doesn't deserve this level of devotion. Since I'm an agnostic leaning ever further towards atheism (thanks, Haitian earthquake), I have few things that I make leaps of faith about. The Seahawks are one of them.

I honestly love the moves the team is making... Not that I know fuck-all about whether these moves will actually succeed, but at least I see an organization striving to win, and making bold decisions. Just think how bleak things would look if you were a Bills fan, not only staring down a couple of years of Chan-ball, but also the real possibility that your beloved team might move far, far away.

We've been there, but then Paul Allen rode in on Captain Kirk's Chair and saved our Seahawks, then the most important figure in team history went out and hired the 2nd most important: Mike Holmgren. Allen is clearly hoping Pete Carroll repeats The Big Show's success, and while we won't know about that for a while, at least we aren't dreading the possibility of Jim Mora bringing Mike Vick in to be our starting QB (shudder).

The last 24 months or so, starting with that divisional round beating at Lambeau, have royally, regally SUCKED. But at least we have leadership at the top that recognized what was being done WASN'T WORKING. From Oakland to Buffalo, there are a lot of fanbases who just aren't that damn lucky.

So enjoy the playoffs, Twelve Army... and ask yourself this: Can the Seahawks improve by 4 wins next year? Probably not, but it's possible, and it's happened before. Can a 9-7 team win the West? Go to the Super Bowl? Hell yes to both, my friends.

No matter what other shit we might be dealing with in our lives, the Seahawks are there to distract us, to buoy our spirits, and bind us together. Take comfort in that.