Comments

1
There's going to be a riot. If the Seahawks win, fans will riot. Conversely, if the Seahawks lose, then the fans will riot.

Cars will be burnt. People will get beaten. Maybe somebody will even die.

After the riot, we will act shocked that there was a riot. Especially since we won! Or, conversely, especially since we lost! Seattle will be unwilling to believe that this is who we really are.

Sometime later, somebody will calculate the economic benefit of going to the Super Bowl and we'll act shocked to learn we lost money on the deal. Not even counting the riot damage.
2
In NJ?
3
Stay indoors. It's probably the most dangerous day to be outside at night for women, queers, immigrants, and others. I've never been as frightened walking down Pike as I was last weekend after whatever football game.
4
John McCain is a mediocre Senator. Mediocre. And when you try the best corner in the game with a mediocre Senator, that's what happens.
5
@1 So its like when Vancouver Looses the Stanley Cup?
6
@Dom, those Seahawks fans are also from seattle. Sounders crowds get crazy too. You just never hung out with us before.
ALSO you get a big Richard Sherman middle finger for calling Seattle a "shitty fishing village"! Why would you talk shit about our hometown?!? I dont think you get this whole thing at all! The "Seattle" you seem to think is inferior is just YOU. So STOP IT!
@1 thanks for the predictions. Im sure they will all come true. Can I contact you for money advice?
7
That link has an extra character at the end, which somehow makes it redirect here.

(Correct link.)
8
You're young, you'll grow out of it. Meanwhile, in what hole have you been hiding? There are a legion of Seattle shouters and braggarts preceeding Sherman; you're just badly uninformed about that and real Seattle - read through the daily police reports if you think this is a timid culture (although the one you live in just may be). But your amateur standing as a junior high journalist remains intact. A shitty fishing village, or just a shitty writer fishing for attention?
9
"willing to brag about what we're good at"? Oh, my, are "we" good at football now? Christ.
10
Thanks for the post, Dom. And thank you 1 for that fine example of 'reticent, timid culture of Seattle.' We wouldn't want people celebrating in the streets, now, would we? They might do bad things, like walk in the middle of the streets, cheering.
11
I thought this was a good post.
12
@6

I know some who have found the path to wealth and security also happened to be in the habit turning off the internet and doing work while they were at work. Coincidence? Perhaps.
13
What fucking planet is this? After years of heaping scorn on pro sports (except the gender-normative white-male-heterosexual privilege having Goldy), suddenly The stranger is showing some love? I Really don't know what has gotten into you guys. I thought I was the only progressive/liberal in town who also likes sports.
14
Congratulations Dom (and The Stranger), you saw a large gathering of typical football fans.

See how much fun we have over this silly little game?

@3: Despite how many women, immigrants and queers were part of the loud groups of people you were afraid of? I hate to break it to you, but everyone likes football, not just the Platonic frat bro who lives in your head, and who you are afraid of.
15
@12
Good advice! glad its my day off.
17
Christ, I'm so glad I outgrew the disdain and generalized "otherism" I had as a teenage theater kid about sports and sports fans. It's sad to read comments from adults that never got over it.

Sports are fun because competition is exciting and community pride and celebration is the fucking best. Distrusting the whole because of a few ignorant assholes is sad. Hope your grinchy hearts grow three sizes on February 2nd.

Oh, and great post, Dom.
18
Yeah, this is such a NEW thing, I guess, if you just forget the celebrations after the '79 Sonics NBA Championship win, or even the '94 & '00 Mariners AL Division Series victories, or the innumerable Husky Rose Bowl wins, or the 2004 & 2010 Seattle Storm WNBA Championship wins, or the Sounders 2009, 2010 & 2011 U.S. Open Cup wins.

Yep, totally a new, never-before-seen thing in this here "shitty little fishing village"...
19
Fuck John McCain, man. This is the one time I want to know what sounds come out of Sarah Palin's cephalic rectum.
20
.. wait.. somebody said 'rioting' ?.. in SEATTLE ?
* guffaws*
....*chortles*..
*GUFFAWS *
21
@1 - NFL fans tend to be more working class when compared to other major American sports, especially college sports. There could fights sure, but car-flipping and bus torching in recent history has been the domain of the those with either privilege, or nothing at all to lose. Nothing's impossible, but it certainly isn't a given. If you can think of a recent example where I'm wrong; remember, Seattle isn't Baltimore.

I like the attention this forgotten element of my hometown is getting, where even the legacies of talented dead junkies has been eclipsed by Starbucks, software, and top-10 places to live lists.
22
@15

When did this become about you? Please.
24
Good post. My thoughts exactly. This town could use some goddamn swagger.
25
@3: i always picture your reaction when i see the "whatever it takes" bud lite commercials featuring a dude cooking quinoa burgers at a tailgate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcQmBCM3J…

humans are apes. apes like to jump up and down and yell. nothing bad happened to you, so deal.
26
Astonishing how defensive Slog readers get when Dom refers to SeaTown as a shitty little fishing village. Have you never heard of hyperbole? Exaggeration? Self-deprecation? In your hurry to defend Richard Sherman's rhetorical extravagance, how about a chuckle for Dominic? [Note to self: pitch magazine article, "A Finger for Sherman, A Chuckle for Dominic," to Crosscut.)
27
@1 Yes, who can forget the deadly riots that ensued after the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl in 2006?
28
Seattle bears little resemblance to a fishing village. Want to see a "shitty little fishing village"? Visit Sand Point, Alaska.
29
@ 18, of the stuff you list, I think only the Sonics championship or Rose Bowl victories compare to a potential Seahawks championship. Despite the Sounders popularity, I've seen nothing to indicate that they have as much as 10% of the fanbase of a Big Four sports team like the M's and hawks. And divisional playoff victories have never prompted any kind of major celebration.

Also, the riot celebration is a relatively recent development, one that spreads because every troublemaker in the region knows that others will have the same idea. And although it's been a decade or so, the WTO and Mardi Gras riots basically showed everyone that SPD weren't prepared to handle them. I hope they learned their lesson in the interim.
30
I hate to break it to you, but everyone likes football, not just the Platonic frat bro who lives in your head, and who you are afraid of.


Everyone seems to turn into the platonic frat bro when they're so invested in being a part of a sport that is only OK with one type of person. Non-whites, women, even the queers at the Wildrose (although not nearly as bad).

Move to the burbs if you find crowds scary.

I don't find crowds scary. I'm not scared at protests with tear gas on pine, or a crowded show. What I am scared of is unpredictable drunk dudes twice my size who are full of hate for the other, and enjoy yelling and bashing things. There's random violence after every big sport whatever.
31
@1 others beat me to it, but yeah, didn't happen when we lost in 2006 and it won't happen this time. The only truly bad thing that is likely to happen is more drunk drivers on the roads than usual (so consider not driving, be safe if you have to, and please please please don't drive drunk).

@3 I guess you could join the women and queers at my Super Bowl party if you're worried about being out on the streets. I don't think any immigrants have RSVP'd yet, though.
33
There's not going to be a riot. We're not San Francisco or Chicago or anyplace else. Seattle doesn't riot over sports, so stop creating problems where there are already enough of them! Win or lose, we already got this. And they will remember our name. (stole that from my son) Obviously, it will be a lot more fun if we win because (1) Pete will be vindicated, (2) the team will be happy, (3) the fans will be happy and proud, and best of all (4) Ted Nugent and his racist sychophants will be most unhappy.
34
@30: Not that you ever make much sense, but this one is particularly silly.
35
@ 34, since her assertion that sports should be banned because they're obviously bad and worthless for society went over like a lead balloon, I think raku has realized that she needs reasons. And like many things, if there are no real reasons (other than she just doesn't like sports - some internalized trauma from high school jocks, perhaps?), she makes up some high-sounding ones, such as the one where sports crowds are entirely made up of violent teabaggers and everyone better look out because they're starting a race/rape/gay bashing riot.
38
My favorite part of your post, Dom, is "the balls-out suburban culture." Are you thinking Lynnwood? Gig Harbor? Redmond?
39
@26 - That's cute, Daddy coming to his boy's defense. If your son is going to troll the Internet, then let him fight his own battles.

(For those that don't know: "Cornichon" is Dominic's actual dad. Seriously).
40
@38: Mercer Island. Definitely.
41
@30
Why do you get to tell people what things they are allowed to like? Your privilege is showing.

Personal story: growing up, my mom was the screaming, jumping football fanatic. My father and, white males both, retired to other rooms to read books.
42
@39) Where do you think I learned to troll the internet? PS -- He got ya.
43
Woohoo, Dom! Damn straight. Lets enjoy the hell out of these two weeks! Go SEAHAWKS!!
44
Love this post. I'm a Niners fan, but after last Sunday's tragic loss, I can't help but enjoy the palpable excitement in my friends, coworkers and adopted city as they look forward to the Super Bowl. Plus, though I have no rational explanation, I've always hated that dolphin-faced Manning.
(Even as a Niners fan, I had kind of always admired the Seahawks, so was surprised by all the "fuck you"s and "Niners suck!"s that began just this last season. Hopefully once the Hawks win, their fans will learn to root FOR their team instead of AGAINST the other. That said, I hope they crush bitch-baby Peyton)
45
I'm with Dominic. This is awesome! We are good at dumping money into somebody's giant entertainment business and great at convincing ourselves there's something to be hometown-proud about the people that business hired to toss their balls around in a facility we were forced to fund. SeeHAWKS!
46
#41: I'm not trying to tell people what to like, sorry if I came off that way. I was saying the atmosphere around these big sports events is threatening and dangerous for people not involved in them. Most of the football fans I know are white women, but it's very clear even being around sports as minimally as possible that the culture is dominated by loud white men who are hostile if you don't care their sports.
47
Damn, now I want my dad to join this thread and talk some smack.
48
@46: Do you have anything to back up your claims that the "atmosphere around these big sports events is threatening and dangerous," or is it just your feels we are going off of here?
49
@48: I work in a building next to the football stadium parking lot. The only time I remember feeling threatened on the streets of Seattle by someone other than a police officer, federal agent, or federal building rentacop, was a time last year when I was walking north on 1st avenue after work to the bus stop. Drunken sportsball fans filled the sidewalk in front of New Orleans Café. When I stopped, blocked by them, and politely said, "excuse me, please," some meathead in a football jersey stepped up to me very aggressively before a few people near him pulled him away.

I'm male, able-bodied, and able to move quickly. I suspect the situation would feel threatening and dangerous to plenty of other people.
50
@46 I'm queer, female, and an immigrant, and I actually left my partner's downtown apartment to watch people celebrating in the streets. People of every gender, race, orientation and nationality, were out on 1st Ave having a goddamn blast.

The reason you feel safe in a protest is that you make yourself part of that group. The reason you feel unsafe with sports fans is because you perceive them as other. Protestors are just as likely to get violent as football fans. And do, just as often. Some people are assholes, period. It has nothing to do with their interests, gender, race, or country of origin.

The world is a pretty shitty place, and it gets a lot shittier when people spread fear.
51
@30

I'm a queer female and walked all the way up Pike st with the crowds on Sunday. It was fun, not scary. Those big drunk guys mostly wanted to exchange high-fives and cry "Go Hawks!" You are stereotyping them to fit your biases.
52
That McCrusty open his fat craw and decided to wink/nudge the base into robotic, blind support for anyone named Manning is reason enough to pull for the Hawks and Sherm from now on.

This is from a dyed-in-the-wool Packer fan and shareholder (and 20 yr SEA resident now jumping on the bandwagon).
53
Dumb sport. Dumb team. Dumb bandwagon sheep fans.
54
@39 and daddy ain't doing the little shit any favors, just sayin'

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