“Set Obomanu. Goes in motion right to left, turn and hand off to Lynch left side, finds a little bit of a hole! Keeps his legs moving! He’s across the 40! Midfield! 45, he’s on the run, Lynch! 40! Boom! Pushes a man down, 35, look at him go, he is down to the 20! 15! He could go! He is going to go! TOUCHDOWN SEAHAWKS! OH, MY WORD! A 67-YARD RUN!” (Beast Quake) Steve Raible.

I remember watching that play in real time. It was my aunts 50th birthday party at my house and I was down watching the game because my cousin (a Packers fan) was mocking the "Sea chickens," so I went to watch in peace. But that play, I couldn’t help but scream in excitement as I watched Marshawn Lynch plow through the Saints defense. The next week, the Seahawks lost to the Chicago Bears and that ended an era for Hawks football. Matt Hasselbeck would never take a snap for the Hawks ever again. Finally!, I exclaimed to a good friend of mine, because I never was the biggest fan of ‘Hasselbum’ because he could never win big games and struggled against the then St. Louis Rams, which was my dad’s team. I was always a Donovan McNabb fan growing up and modeled my throwing motion behind him. I wanted a mobile QB for my team and I was elated when Seattle signed Tavaris Jackson because he could scramble. Well, he was mediocre at best and we ended up signing this gem Matt Flynn, the second coming of Hasselbeck (backup from Green Bay) and then Pete Carroll drafted this small QB out of Wisconsin, and the rest is history.

I have to make a confession; I haven’t followed the Hawks as closely since the Super Bowl 48 win. So, why is it? Well, it is a combination of things. Nothing annoys me more than when fans jump bandwagons (looking at you, kids in Cubs hats who don’t even know who Darwin Barney is or that he played 2B in the down years for the Cubbies). I also have had to work on Sundays, so my exposure has lessened, and honestly, the game of football is just boring now. I can barely watch the games anymore because it seems like every three plays a player is grabbing his torn-up knee, we watch very watered-down play-calling, and oh my word, can you just scrape fingernails on a chalkboard rather than make me listen to the likes of Joe Buck, Chris Collinsowrth, Phil Simms, and other boring/annoying broadcasters? It would be incredible to have football be like baseball where local broadcasters commentate -- then I would be all in. Steve Raible is an amazing and passionate broadcaster. Let me make this clear, there is an infestation of bandwagoners in the recent years that wasn’t present when the Seahawks were good just 10 years ago.

Look, no one is a perfect sports fan. I do not hate on people that like local teams and just don’t know a lot about the sport. I love people like that because it is a shared interest. But if you were calling the team the "Sea chickens" seven years ago and now are sporting a Russell Wilson jersey, I ask you, really? Look at all those 49er fans we had in our area, and where are they now? I myself have been called a bandwagon fan because I like teams such as the Oakland Raiders (because I loved Jerry Rice and Randy Moss), Miami Heat (I’ve watched Dwayne Wade since he was drafted in 2003), Los Angeles Lakers (because my dad was always a fan of LA teams and I admired Kobe Bryant since he wore number 8), and the Cubs (my aunt loves the Cubs and I learned to love them because I mimicked Alfonso Soriano and Matt Garza). So, come at me about my bandwagoning because I still follow all teams that I have admired. So, to those new ‘12’s’ that have become the ‘biggest Seahawks fan,’ go ahead and live in that false reality. I will still follow the Hawks if they suddenly become the Cleveland Browns, because I already have (anyone remember Jim Mora Jr.?).

My second point is that football is just boring to me now. When I was a kid, I always got the newest Madden for Christmas and would spend just hours upon hours learning the rosters and learning the depth chart so I could build my favorite player repertoire. My friends used to ask me, “who is the backup for the Dallas Cowboys?” I would reply “Jon Kitna, who used to play for the Seahawks.” I would look for former Seahawks players on different teams and would sort of build an affinity for them. I was always angry when my favorite player (D.J. Hackett) was not included in the game (this was before roster updates, folks). I would rent up a copy of NCAA football just to play through the year to make accurate draft classes and try to put the right rookies on the right teams until the new Madden came out. I would spend my Sundays watching that amazing offensive line carrying Shaun Alexander to the end zone. Scream at the T.V. when Mike Holmgren called a run play when it was 3rd and 7. My first jersey was a Marcus Trufant jersey because he went to Washington State University. I loved the Hawks and would always pick them to win the Super Bowl every year, and when they made it in 2005, I cried when I watched them lose to the Steelers, and to this day, I still hate that team. Turns out one of my friends I had met in middle school was a huge Steelers and Cardinals fan. How I befriended such a harsh rival is odd to me, but sometimes differences are what brings us together.

Since graduating high school, I have moved on to baseball as my new passion and just admire the Seahawks from afar. To my fellow true fans, congratulations on the long road to winning Super Bowl 48; 49 still stings, and hopefully we continue to win in the near future. To the bandwagon fans that used to refer to us as "Seachickens," I would rather be that than a fan without a true team. Go Hawks.