The Upside of the Seattle Seahawks Going Down

We were so close to glory.

Just think if the Seahawks had beaten the Bears last weekend. Hosting the Packers at Qwest Field, sixty thousand blue-clad Seattle fans screaming their heads off, winner goes to the Super Bowl? This town would have gone nuts. Biggest thing since…well, the last time the Hawks were in the Super Bowl. Maybe bigger, because this team came out of nowhere. Cinderella story, as Chicago native Bill Murray would say.

But it didn’t happen. Pete Carroll apparently decided that we weren’t even going to try running the ball, and then despite Matt Hasselback’s best efforts, our receivers played like Betty White. Talk about hands of stone—a Pop Warner team could have caught the ball better than the Hawks did on Sunday (not to mention our linebackers).

It was enough to drive a fan to drink. And I did.

But when I woke up groggily on Monday morning, I was over it. OK, almost over it. And one of the main reasons I could recover was that the Packers were going to play the Bears in the NFC championship. Wow.

Even if I had no connection to either team—and until a few years ago, I didn’t—this would still be a pretty big deal. Despite a rich history as bitter rivals, for some odd reason the Bears and the Packers haven’t played in the postseason since 1941. For a little perspective, that game came a week after Pearl Harbor and a quarter of a century before the first Super Bowl (won by Green Bay, incidentally).

I’m still a dyed-in-the-wool Hawks fan (I was attending games in the Kingdome while most of you were still a wee child), but I have developed a fondness for the Pack. This comes from the fact that my sister moved to Milwaukee in the mid-1990s and then married a native who lives and breathes Green Bay football. He and his fellow Cheeseheads are insane; the Packers are to the Seahawks as the Yankees are to the Mariners. It’s a whole ’nother level.

This game is huge. To make another baseball comparison, it’s like the Yankees playing the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Two teams with rich histories that are geographically close and really don’t like each other. Perhaps the only difference is that while the Yankees have traditionally dominated the rivalry with the Red Sox, the Bears and Packers are almost even-steven (Chicago holds a 92-83-6 edge).

Even though my sister and her husband recently moved to Florida (have you ever experienced a winter in Milwaukee?), they will be at the game in spirit and on the edges of their seats on Sunday, agonizing over each play. I’ll be watching in Seattle. During the last Packer playoff game, Michele and I were chatting up a storm on IM, rejoicing in each high point and groaning with each low. Although she didn’t grow up a football fan, my sister has gotten religion. Living in Packer Country for a decade will do that to you. Just one more example of how sports bonds people together and creates lasting memories.

I don’t care if the Bears are Barack Obama’s team. Go Packers, baby.