In Other (Hawks-related) News...

On Sunday I had the opportunity to attend my first ever regular season Seahawks game. I know, it's a little weird that a sports fan such as myself waited until I was 28 to experience this particular display of athleticism, but it's true. While I watched football growing up, we just hadn't the gumption to go to any games. Frankly, I suppose it's mostly because it's so much more expensive than a baseball game, but whatever. So when my dad asked me if I'd like to go, I was more than happy to oblige.

Pre-Game Notes:
Now I can't say I was overly emotive (the truth is I have been to a pre-season 'Hawks game before), but I was still looking forward to it. I knew that Sunday's game wouldn't be drastically different from my previous experience, but in the same way that spring training for the M's is fun yet meaningless, so was that pre-season game. This time is was real. This time something was legitimately on the line. The fans know it. The team knows it. The city knows it. And I'm here to tell you, it makes a difference.

Now since I've been faithfully following the M's and keeping an eye on the post-season, I hadn't been paying one lick of attention to the Seahawks. Actually, that's not completely true: I watched the first game of the season in Cle Elum during a faux grape stomp event when the 'Hawks shut-out the Rams on opening day. So I guess technically I've paid exactly one lick of attention. But you get my point - I hadn't really been following their season. I was doing the equivalent of walking into the living room 20 minutes into a movie. I'd seen the preview and knew the basic plot, but I was missing the details needed to understand the current scene in context.

So Dad brought me up to speed by indicating that the Seahawks had gone 1-1 in their first two games, wherein Matt Hasselbeck (the quarterback) went down with a broken rib. He'd been out for a couple games and in that time the 'Hawks hadn't pulled a win (yikes). But today was his first game back (yay!) but if we didn't win, Seattle could pretty much say good-bye to the post-season already (eke!). Today we were playing the Jags, who were supposedly pretty good and picked to win. A grim start to Seattle's story this year, I must say. But I was along for the ride, win or lose. For the next three hours, the 'Hawks were my team and I'd give 'em all I've got as a fan, cheering and booing with the best of 'em.

Game Time:
You'd think that being a sports fan is a pretty straight forward task. Cheer for your team, boo crappy calls, high-five your neighbor in a display of general good will when the team scores...straight forward, right? Turns out that being a football fan is a whole different animal. In fact, it felt so drastically different to me, that for a split-second I considered going back to school to be a psych major just so I could study the phenomenon of different sports cultures (but then I remembered that I'd actually hate that and was free to just wonder about it on my own, so I'll commence doing that now.)

To start with, football fans are not kidding around about their fandom. In fact, I felt pretty lame since I was about the only person in the stadium (or within a quarter-mile radius, for that matter) that wasn't wearing a jersey, hadn't painted my face and/or facial hair, or had at least two pieces of other Seahawks paraphernalia (scarves, gloves, ponchos, pom-poms...you name it). To me this implies that the fans are more committed in general. You simply don't see this for baseball games. People wear M's gear, but...this was a whole other realm than simply "wearing gear." People were tail-gaiting in the parking lots, screaming "go hawks!" every few seconds, and shoving each other around in that way jocks do as part of the ritualistic preparation for competition. These people were invested in and had a real passion for their team. I get that. In fact, I love that.

Once we were inside I saw even more unspoken rules of Seahawk fandom. For one, people sat in their seats and stayed there. There was no up-and-down-every-five-seconds-is-that-the-peanut-man-I-need-a-shish-ka-berry-what-just-happened? attitude here. People set up camp in their seats and they pay attention. In fact, fans pay such rapt attention, they consider it their duty to participate in the game. They do so by cheering as loud as possible and as long as possible whenever the visiting team is preparing to snap the ball. The idea being that by creating so much noise, they can induce an off-sides penalty by preventing the visiting team from hearing the quarterback count clearly and accidentally take off too early - muahhahha! I know it sounds a little silly, but it totally works. I am proud to say I partook in the noise that resulted in the 85th visiting team off-sides penalty at Qwest Field. (Which is the MOST visiting team off-sides calls in the NFL, by the way.) Go 12th man!! What gets me about the whole thing though is not that fans do it, but that the players on the field beckon for it. In baseball, it takes an extraordinary play and a standing ovation curtain call before a player usually acknowledges the crowd. In football, the fans and the players have a regular relationship. The 12th man in no joke, my friend.

Now granted, football is a much faster paced game, so it is by definition necessary/easier for fans to pay closer attention, but even so, should something NOT be happening - the NFL doesn't leave the fan to fend for his or her own entertainment. Between the big screen replays, the booming overhead voice recapping every play, and the bountiful cheerleaders (which are extremely distracting, by the way. I learned from my pre-season experience not to even glance at them otherwise the entire game had gone by and all I could tell you about it was that the cheerleaders wore three different outfits (but the same shoes!), they rotate corners of the stadium every quarter, and they don't actually do a lot of dancing....Seriously, they're mesmerizing), a football fan is never left wanting for entertainment. In this capacity, it is the perfect game for Americans and our every decreasing attention spans. (Which is actually kind of sad, in my opinion. But that's neither here nor there.)

Post-Game Analysis:
Even with nonstop action/entertainment (2 field goals, 4 touch downs, and 2 fumble-recovery-TDs, six 3rd down conversions, and 2 QB sacks) and a 41-0 Seahawks win (yahooooo!), as an educated baseball fan, I found myself craving more stats. The team offense and defense numbers are posted around the stadium (basic team yardage, pass completions, sacks, etc.) but the more I learned about our team, the more I wanted to know. Where are the real stats??

Apparently we've suffered quite a few injuries this year, so we have some second-stringers getting significant playing time. Well, how good are they? And I don't just mean, Mr. So-and-so's opinion, or how they ranked in college. How do they compare to the hurt player? Are they better or worse than a typical league average replacement player? By how much? Where the heck are my Win Above Replacement values?! Are players over-performing or playing to their true talent level? Will players regress to the mean, or can they simply not cut it at this level of play? What about our offense - what plays have been statistically the most successful? How about sucky? Stats, stats, stats, stats, stats, stats, stats, stats! I want real, meaningful, analytical stats!! Are there any Seahawks football bloggers out there...?? Can I get a what-what? Anyone...? Bueller...?

Okay, so I might be trying to eke some of my baseball enjoyment out of football, but regardless, I still had a really great time. In fact just before half-time, I leaned over and said to my dad, "I'd be a much better 'Hawks fan if their season didn't start during the M's season. It forces me to come late to the party. Someone should really look into that." :)

I may be late, but I'm here and I'm ready to party. There are 11 games left in the regular season: Seahawks, you've just earned yourself one more fan, baby!