The Day All of Seattle Suffered a Simultaneous Heart Attack
I gotta tell you, living in Seattle yesterday when the Seahawks surprised the crap out of everyone by winning an improbable victory against the Green Bay Packers during what looked to be a no-scoring shut-out loss was…singular. The kind of thing I doubt many of us will live to see again.
While not every single person in Washington state was tuned in to the game, when I looked at my Facebook feed it seemed like that was the case. And for the first half, everyone I knew was livid. Where were the Seahawks? they asked. How could this be happening?
I’m sure this guy, who Google has told me is named Clay Mathews, is a super nice guy.
I was fairly busy chasing my children around Wes’s parents house, and even I (normally not prone to getting swept up emotionally by sporting events) was getting pretty irked by how good of a time those Packers seemed to be having while they stomped all over CenturyLink Field. There was one guy in particular who kept grinning and tossing his long blond hair behind his shoulders and I just couldn’t help but wish he’d stop smiling so dang much and also that he’d cut his hair already, my GOSH.
Half time began on a dejected note. Wes came upstairs to where I was playing with the kids and started tossing our daughter into the air because he needed her giggles to allay the stress he was feeling. When I asked how he was doing, he replied, “We’ve come back from worse.”
I will say this for my husband and his father: They never once considered turning the game off, even when the third quarter passed and a victory was looking more and more impossible.
I put the kids down for naps and joined them, resolved to experience whatever came with my husband so at the very least he wouldn’t have to re-live it later when I asked him what happened. We watched, rapt, as the impossible began to happen.
The Seahawks scored! And then they scored again! And all kinds of other football-y stuff happened and we all cringed and growled simultaneously in frustration when the Packers used the last few seconds to even the score. Over time?! How could we have to go into over time? We just scored oodles of points in, like, five minutes!
And so we all gripped blankets, arm rests, or, in Wes’s case, his own head, and held our breath until the Seahawks scored that last touch down and we knew, but couldn’t believe, the game was over. And WE HAD WON.
The game that seemed doomed to end poorly was turned on its head and all of Seattle (or, at least, the grand majority of us who were watching) had a collective heart attack. All of us who were watching at my in law’s house just looked around, dazed, as we struggled to comprehend the incredible truth that, despite a terribly disappointing first half, we were going to the Super Bowl.
Amazing. And now I have to bring a blood pressure cuff to watch the Super Bowl with Wes because I’m fairly certain if I don’t he might end up suffering a stroke or something. I’ve never seen him get so red in the face about something before.
If, on the very slim chance that one of you readers happens to be a Seahawk, will you please think of my poor husband and crush the Patriots outright in a couple weeks? The game yesterday was a hoot in retrospect, but I’m worried about what will happen to my husband if that kid of thing happens again. Also? Good luck!
My goodness, you guys. My goodness.
