Simply. Amazing. (you’re welcome)

Football fans are superstitious.  Especially this Seahawks fan, who has experienced heartwrenching, emotional ups and downs over a lifetime of football seasons:  the emptiness of too many vacuous losing seasons, then the joy of making and winning playoff games, then the devastation of playoff games lost in the final seconds, then a Superbowl disappointment that strikes at the very heart, then FINALLY an intoxicating Superbowl victory.

So it is that over all these years, I have come to believe that something as simple as my decision to either watch or not watch a game can, and has, affected the outcome.  It’s just a superstition that I must live with.  It’s a burden.

I have a friend who sits in the same blue recliner to watch every game, and if he’s not able to do that, he carries a picture of the blue recliner with him… all because once when he didn’t the Seahawks lost.

So, this morning when I found that my mylar Seahawks balloon, which I bought for Superbowl XL and have reinflated since then, had lost its helium and was dragging on the ground, I felt the first twinge of superstition:   if i don’t refill it and we lose, it could be my fault.  Sooo, we refilled it before the game.

Then, after experiencing those 55 tortuous minutes of highs and lows during the NFC championship game and the Hawks down 19-7, my emotions took me back to that helpless, superstitious place….   I couldn’t take it anymore.  They could lose, and it would be my fault! 

So with a little over 3 minutes left in the game, I left.  I went for a walk.  I took my iphone/earbuds and listened to the NFL.com audiocast of the game instead.  And then magic happened.  I was less than a football field’s length away from the house when we scored.   And i kept walking.  Then the beautiful onside kick happened.  And i kept walking.  Then we scored again to take the lead!  ohmigod.  I started running.   Then we made the 2 point conversion to force a tie if we could hold Greenbay to only a fieldgoal – and we did.  I kept running.  Then we won the coin toss in overtime.  Then the TOUCHDOWN for the win!  OHMIGOD!  I ran all the way back to the house and celebrated with Monte.

I’m so happy for my team.  And I can’t help thinking, just a little, that this 12th man in Austin made it all happen 🙂

GO HAWKS!