State of the Seahawks: The 12th Man Stands Alone
Whenever a franchise enjoys major success for the first time, their fans invariably get branded with the dreaded “bandwagon” label. Others around the country – typically those who support teams that don’t make recurrent playoff appearances – notice that suddenly, these “bandwagon” fans are not only more present at games and on social media, they’re louder and (admittedly) more obnoxious than ever before…mostly because they finally have something to shout about.
Over the last four years, outside of Patriots Nation – who everyone hates – no group has been accused of jumping on the wagon with as much fervor or frequency as the Seattle Seahawks’ fanbase, also known as “The 12th Man.” I should know, because I’m a part of that group.
I’ve seen and felt the hatred people have for my team and our fans, and I fucking love it. Hatred is a million times better than pity, which was the primary the emotional response this franchise elicited before Pete Carroll crashed the pros for good in 2010. That’s if they even felt anything at all; it’s not a stretch to say most football fans were apathetic about the Seahawks, thanks to the team’s geographic isolation and the fact we were usually not good enough to get noticed.
My first memories of rooting for the Seahawks came during the Dennis Erickson era, a time of middling mediocrity in the mid-Nineties when nobody would accuse you of being a bandwagon fan. As a teenager I was drawn in by the natural inclination to support my local teams, but also amazed by the incredible open-field stylings of Joey Galloway and a Pro Bowl invitation for our 41-year-old quarterback Warren Moon.
That was about all you could look forward to from a team that finished at or around .500 so often you’d think they were coached by Jeff Fisher, but it could have been much worse. My father – who was a season ticket holder during their original season in 1976 – has told me about the lowest points, like how he once witnessed a co-worker pin two free Seahawks tickets to the office bulletin board at the beginning of the day. By 5 p.m., not only had no one claimed them, someone else had tacked two more tickets on top of them.
State of the Seahawks: The 12th Man Stands Alone, Page 1 of 2