Super Bowl XLVIII Champions, Seattle Seahawks

I’m still amazed by by team’s flawless performance. Our 43-8 victory over the Denver Broncos has finally, I think, given the Seahawks the recognition they deserve on the national stage. I won’t rehash what you’ve already heard on every news outlet, but will give you my version of history.

The week leading up to the Super Bowl was pretty full so I didn’t make it out to Super Bowl Boulevard until Saturday. I met up with another Seattleite, Azure, and we braved the ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS from 34th to 47th. We started a Macy’s NFL shop to get some new gear, and it was packed but moving. We got some tees, sweatshirts, and hats, all while a DJ was hyping the crowd. Poor Denver fans were outnumbered for sure. The DJ obviously loved the 12th Man crowd energy, shouting out “SEA” for the given crowd response of “HAWKS”. (It was pretty cool, I must say, how you could be anywhere in the city and hear “SEA” and the 12th Man’s Pavlovian response would echo back. Without a conscious thought “HAWKS” would burst forth, louder each time.)

After leaving Macy’s, Azure and I headed north, very slowly, not waiting in any of the loooonnng lines for the experiences, but taking it all in. There were sport in Broadway where we didn’t move. At all. For minutes. Luckily we were in it with the right attitudes and not in a hurry so just enjoyed ourselves.

Afterward we headed to Carlow East (a.k.a. the Seahawks Bar) and while in line ran into my cousin (rather, they ran into us), we hung out for awhile and by then I was ready to head back home.

Sunday I headed back to Carlow East to meet a couple of friends who I found out were going to be in town for the game (thank you, fb!). It was my prom date and his beset friends, who’d done the calks and realized the we hadn’t seen each other in almost 20 years. Well, that makes me feel old. It was just like no time had passed, though. Those two are just as awesome now as they were then. Guess which one was my prom date. 🙂

The boys and I met up with my cousin and his friend near Penn Station and began our 3-hour journey to get inside the stadium. Transportation was a logistical nightmare – MetLife is much less than three hours from Manhattan – but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post and the part of the day that I try to block out, because once we were in the stadium…

It. Was. AMAZING. Metlife is much bigger than the Clink; CenturyLink holds 67k while Metlife is closer to 83k. Per Wikipedia is the 2nd largest NFL stadium in total seating (FedEx Field is slightly larger for total capacity; CenturyLink is 21st).

There was a good amount of orange in the stands, but the 12th Man definitely came to represent. Personally, I had a super sexy hoarse voice for two days following the game. Flags were everywhere, and many bonds were made instantly. And thank goodness for that – a guy from Tacoma got me some pizza and saved me about 30 minutes of waiting in line! Good looking out.

We were also fortunate to be 70% surrounded by Seahawks fans, 20% neutral and 10% Broncos. My foursome sat in front of six folks who’d gone to the game in 2005 and made a pact to come back together when we made it back to the championship. One guy in the group looked really familiar. Finally, before halftime we figured out that we used to play flag football together! And to make it even funnier is that he was on the plane next to a girl we used to play ball with and it took them half of the flight to figure out that they knew each other from football, too! Again with the feeling old.

The halftime show was great! Bruno Mars is such a great performer and watching his crew with the Red Hot Chili Peppers… they were having FUN. Which is fun to watch.

I did wonder what the second half would bring, though. Sometimes teams some out after halftime and something has shifted – for better or worse – so was anxious to see which Broncos would emerge. Honestly, even if they came out renewed, we were playing so well that I believe we would have shut them down regardless.

As you know (unless you have turned off all media sources for the last three weeks) that we can out of the gate in spectacular fashion – which caused the already amped 12s to go completely crazy! As we continued to dominate the fans met the energy level – I’ve never hugged so many strangers in such a short period of time. And I have to say I called Malcolm Smith as MVP. Everyone around me said no, but I stuck to my pick. We played so well as a team that it was hard to pick one, but he was so consistent and solid throughout the game that once you added in the pick that did it for me.

I can’t express how good it felt to see my team win on a national stage; to win in such a dominate fashion that there was no other option for any of the doubters to eat crow. So sweet. And a bit emotional – my family has been so invested in this team for so long that I felt a huge swell of pride. It was bittersweet to not be home celebrating with everyone, but I am so glad I went to the game. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, and one that I will always remember vividly. If not the details of the event, the emotion that went along with it.