Last night we received confirmation that Walter Jones will be a first-ballot member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining fellow Seahawks Steve Largent and Cortez Kennedy. Big Walt was not only the greatest Seahawk in team history, he was the best offensive tackle ever to play the game. .
Tonight, Seattle faces Denver in the Super Bowl.
Thanks to the appeal of Peyton Manning and the notoriety of Richard Sherman, the Broncos appear to be America's sentimental favorite to win this game. According to a survey of social media, Denver fans outnumber Seattle fans 4-to-1.
On the other hand, more people seem to be shopping for Seahawks gear...
Source: http://www.sli-systems.com/blog/2014/01/denver-or-seattle-online-shopping-behavior-shows-fan-popularity-for-super-bowl-2014.html
These results may seem contradictory, but they are actually reconcilable: Seattle supporters are probably genuine fans who would be more motivated to buy team merchandise. The Broncos have genuine fans, too, but most of their support is probably soft--that is, people rooting for Denver because they want to see Richard Sherman receive his comeuppance, or because Peyton Manning is a charming pitchman with a comeback story that tugs at the heartstrings. Soft supporters typically don't buy team merchandise.
Fortunately, fan opinion doesn't decide football games. Most of the country was rooting for San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game, but it was the athletes on the field and the 12th Man in the stands who determined the outcome, from Beast Mode to Doug Baldwin's superclutchness to our suffocating defense causing Colin Kaepernick to melt down and choke the game away in the 4th quarter.
Fan opinion won't decide the Super Bowl tonight, either. It was sweet to stab a figurative talon in the eyes of all of those Niner fans two weeks ago, and it will be equally sweet to do the same to all of the misguided Bronco fans today.
Everyone seems to think this will be a close game, and they may be right. This battle pits not just the best offense versus the best defense in 2013, but possibly the best offense and defense in the history of the National Football League.
But this should not be close. Denver deserves nothing less than total humiliation tonight.
That may seem harsh. Peyton seems like a good guy, but he neither needs nor deserves this win, neither to secure his legacy nor for any other reason.
The fact is that Manning has a history of working for evil men.
In Indianapolis, he served the Irsays, the clan of scoundrels who stole the Colts from Baltimore in the dark of night. It wasn't his fault that Indianapolis drafted him, but he didn't have to stay with that tainted franchise as long as he did.
When the Colts jettisoned him, Manning had an opportunity to be a Seahawk.
Instead, he chose to work for this odious villain:
Latecomers to the Seattle bandwagon may find this hard to understand, but John Elway is our nemesis.
The Seahawks shared a division with Denver from 1977-2001. As the Bronco's quarterback for most of that span (1983-99), Elway was the equine face of that rivalry.
When Chuck Knox and Dave Krieg led the team, it was a real rivalry. The Seahawks split the series with the Broncos in those years, tormenting Elway as much as he tormented us. However, when Ken Behring wrecked the team, Denver dominated us, and we wasted a misspent decade watching his hideous horseface grin with gloating glee twice a year after the Broncos trampled our hapless Hawks.
Elway is now the Broncos executive credited with reviving the team's fortunes.
We will never have an opportunity to sack or intercept him on the field, but we can begin to exact karmic equivalence by treating Manning as if he were an Elway voodoo doll.
I want the 12th Man to take over the stadium.
I want the Legion of Boom to brutalize the Bronco receiving corps and set a Super Bowl record for pick sixes.
I want our front seven to blow through their vaunted offensive line to flatten Manning and school Knowshon Moreno.
I want our O-Line to step up and take over the game.
I want Beast Mode cranked up to maximum Skittles.
I want Percy Harvin to earn a year's pay in one day.
I want the rest of our reviled receiving corps to show that they are legitimate NFL starters.
I want DangeRuss to shred the Denver D with his fleet feet and his big arm.
Send the Broncos to the glue factory.
Go, Hawks!
No comments:
Post a Comment