Its been a long time since we rock and rolled
Yesterday was a good day. Even though im still sick as a dog something happened that made me forget about it for at least a little while.
Its been awhile since ive felt this way, the Sonics had some success last year and the Mariners had a memorable season in 2001 but neither of those have the same type of feeling as the Seahawks first big victory in 20 years had. When the M’s were on the way to winning 116 games, 9/11 happened and it seem to knock the sails right out of the season. No one was really rooting for the M’s to beat the Yanks in the ALCS and it seemed the actual players felt the same way. But rarely on the Seattle sports scene has a team had a dominant year and followed it up with dominant playoff run. Sure the M’s in ‘95 was amazing but mostly because they had never had any success before. It was new, it was fresh and the hip thing in the area was to jump on the bandwagon. Its always more fun when its a collective mass of people that are rooting along with you.
The strange thing is that the Seahawks actually were a model sports franchise in the 70’s and 80’s. They hired good people to run the team, drafted well and were smart enough not to fall into the trap if thinking it would be awhile before they could win. In the early 80’s is when the team really started to take off and they were one of the more exciting teams even if they didnt win all their games. They were fun to watch and thats all that any fan wants. I remember on Sundays how the town had a lot less cars on the roads and a lot less people in gorcery stores around game time. Strangers even talked about the team in public as if it was a bond that everyone in the community had. I remember many a Sunday being in the living room of my Grampa’s house and all my uncles were sitting around cheering on every high and low. Even the women seem to enjoy the commraderie that was the by-product of a day of male bonding. When Largent would catch a TD or Curt Warner would bust a long run the whole room would burst in celebration and laughter. It was a time of innocence for me and it always made me feel a part of something, like I was in a private club that only certain people could belong to. It seemed life started and stopped around football and Sundays.
But then a strange thing happened, the Seahawks were sold by the Nordstrom family to a California business man named Ken Behring. He bought a team that had a waiting list of 65 thousand people for season tickets and that captured the hearts of the entire community. His plan wasnt to build on the success but to run the team so far into the ground that he could move the team to Los Angeles. The teams record nose dived and was soon a laughing stock of the league. After 7 years his plan had worked and they were barely filling up half of the Kingdome on Sundays.
So he put his plan into action and thought he would get little resistance, he was wrong. The city, county and state fought him all the way and at that time Slade Gordon was one the most powerful senators in DC. He was used his influence to stop Mr Behring and the city rejoiced. Then in the middle of the off season he moved the team anyway. He loaded up the trucks in the middle of the night and moved the offices and workout facilities to LA. He had seen this done with the Indianapolis Colts leaving St. Louis and figured he would get away with it. The NFL had other ideas and ordered him to move back, soon thereafter he was forced to sell the team and leave the city for good.
It took over 10 years for the team to recover from his mis-management but they still couldnt produce a consistent winner until Paul Allen stepped in and rescued it from its beleagured owners. He then used his clout to build a state of the art stadium that would guarantee a solid revenue stream and fan base. Still it took him hiring Mike Holmgren to add some legitimacy back to the franchise and to rekindle some of that old faith the local fans had abondened. But even with a few playoff appearances it didnt seem to take hold until this year. As they reeled off win after win they seemed to capture the hearts of the Northwest once again.
Still, some were aprehensive about the Hawks and thier tendency to lose the big game but after yesterday’s victory in which they lost the NFL MVP in the 1st quarter and then 3 fumbles, it seems that all has been forgiven and that what at one point was a model franchise has returned once again.
