The Seahawks Unlikely Win!

Seahawks!

Ever since I was a kid, the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks have been my favorite NFL teams. I cheered for the Cowboys for obvious reasons. I was born the day the Cowboys won Super Bowl VI, and I grew up in Texas. The Seahawks were a less likely choice. Ever since 3rd grade, my other favorite team became the Seahawks because they had the coolest looking pencil. Yes, I used to collect pencils with the NFL teams on them.

The only problem for cheering for both was that one team was great and the other terrible. Until last year the Seahawks had not won one playoff game while I have been a fan whereas the Cowboys had won 4 Super Bowls and seemed to be competitive every year. The good part of the disparity meant I never really had to choose between them.

Even after living in Seattle and now moving to Los Angeles, a city which has no team of its own, meant I could cheer for both teams.

Last year, the Seahawks were robbed in the Super Bowl with some terrible officiating. Even still, the Seahawks had finally arrived. I put a Seahawks banner on my laptop computer’s desktop. I bought a 2nd Seahawks hat. I was ready for the Seahawks to make a run for the championship this year – no one, not even the officials could stop us!

Then the Seahawks and Cowboys began playing poorly and both backed their way into the playoffs. As a result, the two teams which had never played each other in the playoffs were to play on Saturday in Seattle.

Since my wife grew up almost walking distance from Texas Stadium, the same house in Irving for the first 22 years of her life, she chose to cheer for the Cowboys. I chose the Seahawks. They have never won a Super Bowl and have an incredibly likeable cast of characters – unlike the Cowboys. Caleb chose to cheer for the Seahawks like a good son should. Trevi, as always, announced her allegiance to “whoever wins.”

As Caleb and I booed the Cowboys throughout the game, Debbie seemed to get more and more upset. Finally, she begged us to stop. Eventually, Caleb even switched on me. All alone, I cheered for the Seahawks.

With the game going back and forth, it all came down to an easy field goal attempt. Remarkably, Tony Romo dropped the ball and ran just missing the first down by inches and a touchdown by one yard. What an incredible ending to an incredible game!

By the way, I know why Tony Romo dropped that ball. Near the end of the 3rd quarter, Caleb confided in me privately, “I am not really cheering for both teams. I just didn’t want Mom to be sad anymore. I really want the Seahawks to win.” Had Caleb truly switched his allegiance to the Cowboys, the Cowboys would have surely won, but since my son remained loyal to the Seahawks in spite of the pressure he may have felt from his lovely Mom, the ball slipped and the Seahawks advanced. We can all thank my 7 year old for one of the greatest endings in NFL playoffs history.