I say ragtag proudly. There's this weird spin some of the national media has put on the Seahawks like the Northwest suddenly became the evil empire.
The Beats by Dre Kaepernick commercial, for instance, portrays almost a poor downtrodden underdog like Kaepernick bravely walking into the belly of an evil beast:
[youtube]4Ttsx5squWg[/youtube]
Bay Area championships: 14
Northwest: 2
Just San Francisco NFL: 5
Just Seattle NFL: 0
...And they hate us. They proudly hate us. The San Francisco Gate, in fairness, had
an editorial in which the author was baffled by this, but it's still true.
The same thing is nationwide. Seattle is good this year, even amazing. But we're hardly the dynasty that people pretend we are when spitting their venom. The playoff contenders this year and their Super Bowl appearances:
Broncos (played 7 times)
49rs (played 6 times)
Packers (played 5 times)
Colts (played 4 times)
Chargers (played twice)
Bengals (played twice)
Eagles (twice)
Saints (once)
Seahawks (once)
We're tied with the least amount of victories and appearances.
And this isn't just a San Francisco deciding that they hate us. Where there was relevant information available, even the deep South found themselves suddenly all-in with the Sodom that is San Francisco so long as they beat Seattle:
The Northwest is small market. It's a relatively common fear from Sacramento on up that the bigger market teams will get a few refs on their side by the league because there's so much more money to be made by a Lakers beating out the Blazers of Kings (two of the most notorious examples there are). This is NBA to NFL, but there's always that fear, especially when the rest of the country apparently believes your a monster to be put down with your all of no rings.
Added to that, Pete Carroll is pretty well known for taking the problem players and giving them a home. For all the positions, including the 12th man.
So yes. We're a great team this year. I've always been a Seahawks fan. It's nice to see our day in the sun. It's baffling to see the hatred thrown our way (though maybe this has to do with finally doing well? But then why not hate on San Francisco?), but I can deal with it. I'm ready to go.
Alis Volat Propriis; Tiocfaidh ár lá; Proletarier Aller Länder, Vereinigt Euch!