Go pak go!
http://www.fieldgulls.com/2015/1/15/7553527/bandwagon-seahawk-fans
So maybe you’re a Niner fan, or a Steeler fan, or a Cowboy fan, or fan of some other storied franchise that has championships and likes to rub your good fortune into the #havenots fans faces. Good for you.
Alright, so maybe your hometown doesn’t have a team and you are left to your own devices to choose from the menagerie of mascots, players, colors, or yes, teams that win the most. Maybe your uncle buys you a Packers hat every Christmas. Or your school mascot was the Edgar Allen Poe Middle School Writing Stallions so you had an affinity for the Broncos. Or maybe, you had just seen Madagascar and decided that the New York Giants was the team for you.Whatever the reason, you’re an NFL fan. Good for you.
Or perhaps you were born into one of the sports meccas where sports success just came easy to you. I’m looking at you Boston. How many titles does your whole city have over the last decade plus, spread out over all of your major teams? More than ten right? How fortunate for you. And don’t even tell me how lean the ‘90s were. If that’s all you have to complain about, then good for you.
I was born in Utah in 1979. Didn’t like it there, so I moved to Renton, Wa. when I was 3 and then to Snohomish when I was 4. I was immersed into Dave Krieg country and fully indoctrinated into the Rick Mirer awesomeness that was my impressionable early teens. I’m sure you can’t relate to that. Good for you.
All I knew was that I am a hometown fan, dyed in the wool through and through.
So by your logic, an NFL fan is either a bandwagon lovin’ emotional sychophant who is into sports for the sheer thrill of the moment. Or one blessed by the Grid Iron gods on Mt. Canton to be beholden to the spectacles of the team-you-root-for’s greatness. That's some high level thinkin' there, good for you.
So to further this existential sports argument, I was not born into the circumstances that have afforded me the right to celebrate as much as you. The amount of emotion invested has not until recently equated to the elation received for my efforts. So with all your chirping, what you’re basically telling me is that the place where you’re from has more championships than the place where I’m from. Or even worse, the team that you’re rooting for, from places unknown, has more championships than my team. Or is it even worse than that? Do fans not actually exist to teams that don't have a long history of championships? You egotistical son of a . . .
So is that the lesson I should learn? Should I only root for teams that have championships? Should I have grilled more Quinoa burgers or something? What more can I do to be like the fans who have more championships? Wait, isn’t that bandwaggoning?
The joy you’ve received from sports should be enjoyed, savored even, but leave your troll laden vitriol about how every Seahawks fan has only been around circa 2012 in your pants. My pants however are nowhere to be found. I’m not all of a sudden an obnoxious wannabe because my team is suddenly winning. I’m enjoying the moment for what it is—sheer unadulterated championship basking after decades of shadow lurking. Fairweathered? Not even close. You just haven't been hearing my screaming in the national media until recently.
Are there bandwagon Seahawk fans? – Yes
Am I one of them? – No
Are millions of other 12s – NO
Get used to it. We aren’t going anywhere, and it's only going to get louder.
