my superbowl recollections

as your probably know, i am primarily an nba hoops fan. but i do enjoy football american style. yesterday’s superbowl game did not interest me so much– although i do cheer against tom brady. but it got me thinking about previous SBs. here are my random musings…

the first superbowl that i really remember was the 1972 game when the dolphins won it all. they were undefeated that season.

back thn, the oakland raiders were my chosen team. kenny stabler became the quarterback– maybe around 1973. and i loved the toughness of the safeties– atkinson and tatum. when they won the superbowl over the vikings in 1976, i was ecstatic. when we got the seahawks that year, my loyalties shifted– although i still cheer for the raiders to this day.

to this day, i tell people that i have two favorite teams: the seattle seahawks and whoever plays the dallas cowboys. it never hit me right that they were the self proclaimed “america’s team.” so i was always happy to see them lose– especially in the superbowl. it only intensified when we could have had tony dorsett in the draft and he came out saying that he would never play for the seattle seahawks. so we traded the pick to dallas. i still shake my head when i think of those cowpies.

during my first year in college, we had a fun superbowl party in the dorm– january 1982. i liked icky woods and his touchdown shuffle that year. but the 49ers were better that day. san fran would end up dominating the whole decade of the 80s. i still cheer against them too!

for many years the seahawks had played like seagulls but we loved them. when we went to our first superbowl in 2006, i was so happy. i was in fresno at the time and did not know any other seahawk fans there. the priests had an open invitation to watch the game at the cathedral. it was mostly a social event but i planted myself in front of the big screen. thankfully, no one was from pittsburgh was present! i am sure that it surprised these guys that i barely knew how passionately i was cheering that day. so they jumped on board and cheered for the seahawks too. let’s not get into the questionable calls that turned the momentum in that game. enough to say the ref from that day later publicly apologized for the bad calls. oh to have the challenge flag in 2006…

when the hawks played in superbowl 48, i was at a series of claretian meetings near barcelona spain. kickoff was to be around 1:00am. no one cared about american football; everything was closed. i finally found the game on the internet and with my earphones on, quietly cheered (so as not to wake up whoever was in the next room.) thankfully, someone started a superbowl facebook thread so i typed in my cheering and critical comments throughout the game. i was so happy then the hawk won it all. ahh, russell wilson, marshon lynch and the legion of boom will forever warm my football heart. i watched the celebration until about 4:40. needless to say, i was useless at the next day’s meetings.

when we returned to the big game the next year, i was so excited that the seahawks might repeat their championship. i was in back-of-the-yards in chicago and determined not to watch it alone. so i made plans to go to our formation house in hyde park and watch it with the claretians there along fellow seattleite steve niskanen. it snowed close to a foot of snow that day and they were warning people to stay off the roads. for me, no way! thankfully most of the drive was on main streets and chicago’s snow plowers paved my way as i followed the bus routes there. but my van got stuck on the side street to my final destination. so, i just left the van where it was (since i couldn’t move it any further!) great game– terrible ending. we could have won it in the last minute if not for the most memorable interception in seahawk history. so i went away sad AND had to dig my car out of the snow afterwards to get back home. talk about adding insult to superbowl injury.

my favorite halftime performances, in no particular order are: prince, michael jackson, gloria estefan, lady gaga, bruno mars and justin timberlake. yesterday’s show was the inevitable result of cutting music programs from schools.

so, enough of superbowls for now– let’s get back to full time nba action– go clippers!!