Was it real?

It's been close to a month since the Seahawks pulled off the biggest upset in NFL playoff history, and I have to admit the reality of that event still hasn't sunk in for me. Maybe it's because I wasn't at this one like I was at the NFC Championship, the Romo game, or the wild card win over DC... Maybe it's because after the big win my wife ended up in the hospital for a week, distracting me from processing the upset victory... I'm not sure.

But I was watching snippets of the Pro Bowl the other night, and every time a New Orleans Saint was on the TV, I thought: "Fuck! We actually BEAT those guys! Wow!" It still is hard for my mind to grasp this blissful news, even though I was one of the few people openly predicting a Seattle victory in the days leading up to the game.

They were the defending world champs, and if they had escaped Qwest Field with a victory, who is to say that they wouldn't be playing the Steelers this Sunday in XLV? I can certainly imagine them beating the Bears on the road, then returning home to the Superdome and winning a shootout with the Packers in the NFC title game, can't you? But they didn't- and it wasn't just because they played like shit that Saturday afternoon in Seattle.

No, the Seahawks brought it all together for one glorious performance. They were relatively healthy compared to earlier in the season, and executed the gameplan almost flawlessly. They were not a team with a lot of depth, but they showed that if their front-line players were healthy, they were a dangerous crew (especially in front of 67,000 crazy-eyed, howling, rabid Twelves). That is why those Saints were playing in the Pro Bowl instead of, quite possibly, playing to repeat as Super Bowl Champions.

So our Seahawks might have severely altered NFL history by knocking off the Saints- How differently does history treat Drew Brees, Sean Payton, etc if they win consecutive Super Bowls? Sure, they may win again at some future point, but the chain has been broken (and don't try to laugh off the idea of the Saints having a chance to win XLV- before the Wild Card game MANY folks out there thought New Orleans would emerge as NFC Champs again).

The larger significance of the win is unknown right now- Will it be just a weird outlying upward blip as the Seahawks return to sub-mediocrity, or will it be remembered as the first chapter in the glorious Carroll era? I obviously think it's the beginning of something wonderful for Seahawks fans, but my track record as a prognosticator is worse than Smooth Jimmy Apollo's...

It shouldn't be surprising that we Seahawks fans luxuriate in this victory, even weeks later- our most hated, despicable foe is playing in XLV, Cortez Kennedy is likely going to be left out of ANOTHER Hall of Fame class this Saturday, and the league we love might be going dark for a LONG time after Sunday's Super Bowl.

We do, however, have this- which we can watch on a loop until our eyes bleed: