We aint the cool kids...

If the NFL nation was a High School, the Seahawks and all us Twelves would be amongst the wastoids, dweebies, and dickheads of Rozelle High. We don't get asked to prom, and most of us are either in band, Knowledge Bowl or working for the school paper. The Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots, Giants, and Colts fans mock us mercilessly while wearing their letterman jackets, and the latest tsunami of Seahawks mockery is centered around our bright green alternate jerseys.

Unfortunately our team has been the butt of jokes for my entire life. I even have a vague memory of a joke on Taxi about "Seattle winning the Super Bowl" before something else happened, and that was probably 1980 or 1981... Then there was The Boz, the overall crappiness of the '90s, "We Want the Ball and We're Gonna Score," and so on... When we aren't being ignored, we're being ridiculed/marginalized. That DEFINITELY sounds like my high school experience. Jesus Christ, I fucking hated high school.

Since our team is from strange, exotic Seattle, we're always working at a disadvantage with the national media and other NFL fans. We're perpetually the "new kid," no matter how many new teams join the league, evidently. When you add in the fact that we haven't really played an overtly physical "smash-mouth" style of football since the days of Chuck Knox, the rest of the league sees us as Poindextery little wusses. If you want to really get down to it, there's probably some around the country that mix all this info in with the fact that Seattle is politically liberal and LGBT friendly and conclude: The Seahawks are gay.

See, I have no problem with this. I'd rather Seattle outsmart other teams than play caveman ball, and yeah, the Seahawks are probably up there with the Niners among teams with the biggest LGBT fan bases. Since I'm a big fat lib-rul, I say Huzzah to that, but I think that's a dirty little secret component to national disrespect/mockery of the Hawks. A lot of people find Seattle scary/weird/gay in the midwest and on the east coast, so they take that out on our Seahawks.

I don't think we should change. I like our bright green jerseys. They're unique and colorful in a largely drab league. Of course any NFL team needs to be physically tough, but I like that our philosophy is descended from Bill Walsh and his ability to outwit opposing teams. I want the Seahawks to win, but I also want them to win the right way, if possible.

Becoming the popular kids? Pfft. That's a long wait for a train don't come, plus, we all know the nerds end up running things when they grow up anyway.

Facing Stupid Reality Again UPDATED

First of all, I call bullshit on Mora's anti-Mare rant. Frankly it was lazy and classless of him to single out one player for yesterday's loss, but it's a long-standing trope of football: When all else fails, blame the "idiot kicker."

If it was just an emotional rant, so be it. Maybe it will kick Mare in the ass a bit (you really can't be missing 34-yarders in the league, bro), and it shows the team that their coach has some fire in his belly. If he actually cuts Mare? That's just DUMB. He's too good at kickoffs to fire him after a day where he made 4 of 6 field goal attempts. UPDATE: Mora retracted his post-game comments and said no changes at kicker this week...

It's also worth pointing out that if the offense had displayed better execution, and the coaches called better plays, we would have been scoring TDs instead of trying FGs.

Enough with yesterday: What does the future hold for this team? First of all, if you are writing off next Sunday as a loss already, you're not welcome around here. There's farrrr too many Seahawks "fans" who immediately fall into fatalistic, negative, defeatist thinking at the first sign of trouble. Kindly fuck off so we are not infected with your poison. The Seahawks CAN win at Indianapolis. UPDATE: Unconfirmed reports that Dwight Freeney is OUT for Sunday's game... stay tuned.

The longer view is this: I still believe a 9-7 record will win the NFC West, which means the Seahawks need to go 8-5 over the remaining 13 games. Specifically, two things MUST happen:

A) The Seahawks MUST win their last 4 divisional games. A 5-1 mark in the division means a split with SF, giving the Niners, at best, a 5-1 mark in the division as well. I think the Niners can and will finish 9-7, but Seattle has to win the RIGHT nine games to be in a position to beat them out on tiebreakers for the division title. This means a sweep of Arizona, who so far looks vulnerable.

B) The Seahawks MUST win their six remaining home games. Jacksonville. Arizona. Detroit. San Fransisco. Tampa Bay. Tennessee. The combined record of these teams right now? 5-13. Things will evolve as the season progresses, but that is a SOFT remaining home schedule. 7-1 at home, plus two road wins = 9-7.

These things aren't crazy impossibilities. Seattle has the talent to get this done, and if we reach the bye at 3-3, we should all be pretty happy with that. Beat Indy? We could be 4-2 and in much better shape. As my 2004 Red Sox used to say: "Why Not Us?"

Bears 25, Seahawks 19

I've got no words of comfort or solace for the Twelve Army tonight. That was a brutal, knee-to-the-groin loss. We saw a Seattle team that fought until and after it started spitting up blood, but couldn't overcome a rancid stew of mistakes, injuries, and blown calls by the officials. The rest of this season will be an agonizing week-to-week war of attrition. The wins won't be pretty, and the losses could be downright horrific.

A relatively favorable schedule gives the Seahawks a shot at clawing into the playoffs, but their margin for error shrinks every week. Next week at Indy isn't a must win (particularly as a non-conference game), but it's close.

There is hope, but it's clouded by reality: This is a wounded team, and we can't wait for the wins to come until everyone is healthy. Seneca Wallace once again showed that he can be effective in short stretches, but he also reminded us of his limitations... Matt Hasselbeck gives Seattle the best chance to win (if he is healthy).

This team is going to end the season between 7-9 and 9-7. Nine wins will probably get the Seahawks in the playoffs, but those nine victories will be won only with blood. Nothing will come easy for this Seattle team, but it can survive and still prevail in the end.

I hope you're ready for a fight, Twelves. We will be mocked and ridiculed until the moment we stand victorious over a playoff opponent. They will laugh at our uniforms, and they will deride our team as gutless failures. We know the truth, but it's up for this team to go out there on the field and shut those mother fuckers up.

Are they up to the task? I honestly don't know.

It's official! New UNIFORMS for Seahawks! UPDATED with better pic...

Yup. It's not just a new jersey, but new dark blue pants that I think compliment the bright green well. A lot of people hate this look, but it's our look now. I think the whole package looks pretty sweet, and I urge all you Twelves out there to support this move. Get a shirt or hat in the bright green... Perhaps from the DKSB Amazon store? :-]

Dreams they compliment my life... Get Up! Get Up!

Will the Seahawks wear green? Will Seneca Wallace lead us to victory? Will I be able to endure three hours surrounded by Bill Bratzky and the other "Superfans?" Find out the answers to these questions and much much more by following my twitter feed tomorrow!

Go Seahawks!!!!