Winless In Seattle
Steve Sauro
Elliott SmithThe end of Seattle's run
January 17th 2011 21:12
:
Disappointing Weekend or Not?
Last Sunday, after our Seahawks pulled off an impossible upset over the Saints, I went to see "The Tourist"with a girl I had known for years. The movie was terrible, but the company was nice, and the night ended with a kiss on my cheek. I am not against kisses on the cheek, quite the opposite, I enjoy budding romance. However, this was a girl I had dated a few years back and, although I spent the previous 18 months in Montana, the spark that was there before seemed to still exist. I was naturally inquisitive and was told that she wanted to "take it slow" this time. I was ok with that and asked her when she wanted to go out again. "Saturday", she said, "And I will make it worth your while".
Her birthday was that coming Friday and her favorite comic was playing in Hollywood the next night. She had mentioned this a few times before and made no mystery of the fact that she wanted me to take her there on Saturday. I'm a sucker for birthdays. If it's your birthday, and you want to go out, I will go with you. It's really that simple. If she had wanted to go to a Pittsburgh Stealer rally for her birthday, I probably would have taken her. So throwing in a comment like "I will make it worth your while" pretty much cements the date. The rest of the week, I received many texts and picture texts (where were those when I was in college? Such a waste of technology) promising a plethora of things following the comedy club. I was quite looking forward to the weekend.
Come Saturday night, the texts were continuing. I was privy to pictures that should no longer excite a 31 year old, yet somehow do. She answered her door looking quite fetching in a tight fitting dress. I had coffee waiting for her in the car and we drove the hour to Melrose Place off of the 101. I'm only human; I had the Packers-Falcons game on the radio. She inquired why and I explained to her that if the Packers were to win then the Seahawks would host the next playoff game if they could somehow win on Sunday. By the time I gave the valet my car, Green Bay was ahead 35-14. We ended up in the front row (Dumb luck, but still, very cool) and Jay Mohr killed it. For a guy I wasn't that excited to see, I could not have been more surprised. I've watched a lot of standup comedy in my lifetime, and he was easily in the top ten. She had a couple of drinks, chatted with Jay during his set, and the whole night went great. Well, almost.
It started on the drive home. "My friends kept me up all night, boy am I tired". "Let's pick up my kid on the way home so I don't have to pick her up myself later". "My leg hurts; I may have to go to the doctor tomorrow". The leg thing was legit; it seems that she might have pulled a muscle. However, I was still optimistic that she wouldn't be like Hasselbeck and possibly "play through the injury". Nope. I even mentioned that the babysitter was good till 11:30, and that we had another 90 minutes before she had to pick up her kid in case she wanted to sit back and unwind at home for a bit. Nope. The kid was picked up. I parked illegally to unload the kid and her belongings (when I crash at a friend's house, I bring a bag slightly bigger than a Playstation. Why do the necessary items for a baby take up my entire backseat? ) and in the 3 minutes it took for me to park my car correctly and walk back in her front door, she was already out of the dress , into jeans and a shirt, and my night was done.
I know you have little interest in my ability to fail at dating (and even less interest in my random success), but I tell you all of that to tell you this. After a week of getting excited, after a week of thinking about what could happen during the weekend, on my drive home from her place all I could think about were the Seahawks. This was for two reasons. One, obviously, was that they played in less than 10 hours. I had received roughly a thousand texts about the Packers, so it was no mystery that they ended up winning. As good as Rodgers looked, if Seattle won, he would have to come to us. Qwest field saw an upset of the SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS last week. Clearly, on any given day, the Seahawks could beat anyone there. Number two, I was petrified. I had a sure thing Saturday night. Not because I'm some Casanova or because I was married and that was our weekend of the month to be affectionate. I was promised numerous times that I would be entirely impressed and I had no reason to think otherwise. So, it that fell through, how would Sunday go? Sadly, it went the same way.
I looked forward to Sunday more than I have looked forward to any Sunday since the Super Bowl a few years back. I couldn't sleep. Like the weekend before, I dreamt about the playoff game. I dreamt that we were down 30-10 before I woke up and saw that I still had 4 hours till kickoff. I dreamt that we were down by 7 in the 4th, woke up and saw that I still had 2 hours till kickoff. I had plans to write a running diary for the game so I wrote the intro and then waited for the game to start. My last two entries were:
10:10 Seahawks punt. Here's our first look at the Bears offense. I hope we get the Cutler that throws into quadruple coverage and then yells at all his teammates afterwards.
10:12 Fuck
After that, I closed my laptop and watched the debacle that would soon unfold. The game was over by halftime and by the end of the 3rd quarter I had went off to shoot hoops at a nearby park. In retrospect, I can't really be mad at her just like I can't really be mad at the Seahawks. I watched nearly every minute they play this year, and nearly every minute they played last year. I've watched nearly every minute they have played for the last 15 years. I don't know everything about that team, but I know more than most. I spent all of the regular season cracking jokes with my Dad about how bad they were. I spent all of the regular season waiting to watch them lose and then on occasion having them surprise me with a win. Not TWO WEEKS AGO I debated if beating the Rams was good or not. I actually debated, legitimately, if going to the playoffs was good or not. A discussion actually existed about whether the playoffs were a good thing.
In retrospect, how can I be upset? That team, that team without a running game, that team with a quarterback that could get injured moving a couch, that team that couldn't stop 3rd and long with 15 guys on defense, that team WON THEIR DIVISION. That team not only made the playoffs, but won a playoff game! That team made my phone blow up last week with calls ranging from my parents to random Saints fans saying congrats. I went into this weekend expecting great things, but how can I be upset? This team overachieved. Going into week 1, they were the underdogs and they continued that way going into Chicago. Can you really be mad at a team for only winning SOME of the games they were expected to lose?
I'm a huge baseball fan, which means I'm a huge Mariners fan. They have been terrible for many years, and I don't just mean consecutively. I want the Mariners to win. I want to see them win a championship in my lifetime. I felt the same way about the Sonics, but they are no longer here, so in my lifetime I want to see Clay Bennett sent adrift on an ice floe. And, of course, I want to see the Seahawks win a Super Bowl. All Hawk fans feel the same way. But a feeling that is underrated, the feeling I had all last week, was the feeling of hope. I haven't looked forward to a Seahawk game as much as I looked forward to today's game in years. And, at its most simplistic form, I don't know what more a football team can offer than hope. The Patriots lost a few hours after Seattle did, and they were favored in every game they played this season. Wouldn't that be worse for a fan? To expect your team to win every week and end up not even making the AFC Championship? Would that be better for Seattle fans?
I entered the week with a woman I had dated years before and a football team I had watched many years before both promising great things. At first, both endings were disappointing. Then, I realized, I was being foolish. What more, in either situation, can you ask for than hope? Do you want a guaranteed win every time? What's the fun in that? Would you like the best player at every position? How, then, would you ever get a chance to root for a player like Mike Williams? He would never get the chance. Last week a Seattle team left me slightly teary eyed and then, this week, played for a chance to host an NFC Championship game. This came less than 14 hours after Jay Mohr brought the house down 5 feet from me. The more I think about it, what else could this weekend offer? What else could the Seahawks offer? They gave me hope for a week (or 2 weeks, depending on your confidence level), and I'm pretty sure that's what a team is supposed to do. They gave us hope, they gave us a reason to cheer, and when they finally lost, they gave us something to look forward to. We all have next season. And, if at any time next season we feel like we did at 10:00 AM PST January 16th 2011, isn't that worth it?
Her birthday was that coming Friday and her favorite comic was playing in Hollywood the next night. She had mentioned this a few times before and made no mystery of the fact that she wanted me to take her there on Saturday. I'm a sucker for birthdays. If it's your birthday, and you want to go out, I will go with you. It's really that simple. If she had wanted to go to a Pittsburgh Stealer rally for her birthday, I probably would have taken her. So throwing in a comment like "I will make it worth your while" pretty much cements the date. The rest of the week, I received many texts and picture texts (where were those when I was in college? Such a waste of technology) promising a plethora of things following the comedy club. I was quite looking forward to the weekend.
Come Saturday night, the texts were continuing. I was privy to pictures that should no longer excite a 31 year old, yet somehow do. She answered her door looking quite fetching in a tight fitting dress. I had coffee waiting for her in the car and we drove the hour to Melrose Place off of the 101. I'm only human; I had the Packers-Falcons game on the radio. She inquired why and I explained to her that if the Packers were to win then the Seahawks would host the next playoff game if they could somehow win on Sunday. By the time I gave the valet my car, Green Bay was ahead 35-14. We ended up in the front row (Dumb luck, but still, very cool) and Jay Mohr killed it. For a guy I wasn't that excited to see, I could not have been more surprised. I've watched a lot of standup comedy in my lifetime, and he was easily in the top ten. She had a couple of drinks, chatted with Jay during his set, and the whole night went great. Well, almost.
It started on the drive home. "My friends kept me up all night, boy am I tired". "Let's pick up my kid on the way home so I don't have to pick her up myself later". "My leg hurts; I may have to go to the doctor tomorrow". The leg thing was legit; it seems that she might have pulled a muscle. However, I was still optimistic that she wouldn't be like Hasselbeck and possibly "play through the injury". Nope. I even mentioned that the babysitter was good till 11:30, and that we had another 90 minutes before she had to pick up her kid in case she wanted to sit back and unwind at home for a bit. Nope. The kid was picked up. I parked illegally to unload the kid and her belongings (when I crash at a friend's house, I bring a bag slightly bigger than a Playstation. Why do the necessary items for a baby take up my entire backseat? ) and in the 3 minutes it took for me to park my car correctly and walk back in her front door, she was already out of the dress , into jeans and a shirt, and my night was done.
I know you have little interest in my ability to fail at dating (and even less interest in my random success), but I tell you all of that to tell you this. After a week of getting excited, after a week of thinking about what could happen during the weekend, on my drive home from her place all I could think about were the Seahawks. This was for two reasons. One, obviously, was that they played in less than 10 hours. I had received roughly a thousand texts about the Packers, so it was no mystery that they ended up winning. As good as Rodgers looked, if Seattle won, he would have to come to us. Qwest field saw an upset of the SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS last week. Clearly, on any given day, the Seahawks could beat anyone there. Number two, I was petrified. I had a sure thing Saturday night. Not because I'm some Casanova or because I was married and that was our weekend of the month to be affectionate. I was promised numerous times that I would be entirely impressed and I had no reason to think otherwise. So, it that fell through, how would Sunday go? Sadly, it went the same way.
I looked forward to Sunday more than I have looked forward to any Sunday since the Super Bowl a few years back. I couldn't sleep. Like the weekend before, I dreamt about the playoff game. I dreamt that we were down 30-10 before I woke up and saw that I still had 4 hours till kickoff. I dreamt that we were down by 7 in the 4th, woke up and saw that I still had 2 hours till kickoff. I had plans to write a running diary for the game so I wrote the intro and then waited for the game to start. My last two entries were:
10:10 Seahawks punt. Here's our first look at the Bears offense. I hope we get the Cutler that throws into quadruple coverage and then yells at all his teammates afterwards.
10:12 Fuck
After that, I closed my laptop and watched the debacle that would soon unfold. The game was over by halftime and by the end of the 3rd quarter I had went off to shoot hoops at a nearby park. In retrospect, I can't really be mad at her just like I can't really be mad at the Seahawks. I watched nearly every minute they play this year, and nearly every minute they played last year. I've watched nearly every minute they have played for the last 15 years. I don't know everything about that team, but I know more than most. I spent all of the regular season cracking jokes with my Dad about how bad they were. I spent all of the regular season waiting to watch them lose and then on occasion having them surprise me with a win. Not TWO WEEKS AGO I debated if beating the Rams was good or not. I actually debated, legitimately, if going to the playoffs was good or not. A discussion actually existed about whether the playoffs were a good thing.
In retrospect, how can I be upset? That team, that team without a running game, that team with a quarterback that could get injured moving a couch, that team that couldn't stop 3rd and long with 15 guys on defense, that team WON THEIR DIVISION. That team not only made the playoffs, but won a playoff game! That team made my phone blow up last week with calls ranging from my parents to random Saints fans saying congrats. I went into this weekend expecting great things, but how can I be upset? This team overachieved. Going into week 1, they were the underdogs and they continued that way going into Chicago. Can you really be mad at a team for only winning SOME of the games they were expected to lose?
I'm a huge baseball fan, which means I'm a huge Mariners fan. They have been terrible for many years, and I don't just mean consecutively. I want the Mariners to win. I want to see them win a championship in my lifetime. I felt the same way about the Sonics, but they are no longer here, so in my lifetime I want to see Clay Bennett sent adrift on an ice floe. And, of course, I want to see the Seahawks win a Super Bowl. All Hawk fans feel the same way. But a feeling that is underrated, the feeling I had all last week, was the feeling of hope. I haven't looked forward to a Seahawk game as much as I looked forward to today's game in years. And, at its most simplistic form, I don't know what more a football team can offer than hope. The Patriots lost a few hours after Seattle did, and they were favored in every game they played this season. Wouldn't that be worse for a fan? To expect your team to win every week and end up not even making the AFC Championship? Would that be better for Seattle fans?
I entered the week with a woman I had dated years before and a football team I had watched many years before both promising great things. At first, both endings were disappointing. Then, I realized, I was being foolish. What more, in either situation, can you ask for than hope? Do you want a guaranteed win every time? What's the fun in that? Would you like the best player at every position? How, then, would you ever get a chance to root for a player like Mike Williams? He would never get the chance. Last week a Seattle team left me slightly teary eyed and then, this week, played for a chance to host an NFC Championship game. This came less than 14 hours after Jay Mohr brought the house down 5 feet from me. The more I think about it, what else could this weekend offer? What else could the Seahawks offer? They gave me hope for a week (or 2 weeks, depending on your confidence level), and I'm pretty sure that's what a team is supposed to do. They gave us hope, they gave us a reason to cheer, and when they finally lost, they gave us something to look forward to. We all have next season. And, if at any time next season we feel like we did at 10:00 AM PST January 16th 2011, isn't that worth it?
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