Seahawks Win... and Lose
I don't know what it is about the Seahawks, but they seem to be a magnet for bad calls. And I mean BAD calls that resonate for years to come.
1998: Vinny Testaverde does a QB sneak with 20 seconds left on 4th down against the Seahawks in the last game of the regular season. His helmet crosses the plane of the endzone as he's tackled, but somehow the refs see the white helmet as a brown football and rule it a TD, putting the Jets in the playoffs and making the Seahawks fall one game short of the playoffs. This play is the final push to bring instant replay back to the NFL.
2005: Seahawks face the Steelers in the Super Bowl, a Super Bowl that's remembered as one of the worst officiated games in NFL history, which makes the loss all the more bitter to Seahawks fans, especially when everyone else comes up to you who have no horse in the race and tell you how jobbed the 'Hawks got.
Tonight: Monday Night Football, Packers at Seahawks. Replacement refs have had a really bad week, culminating in a last gasp, time-expiring pass into the endzone. Two Packers and two Seahawks go up for the ball. Two come down with it at the same time, though instant replay shows that the Packer appears to have control. Instead, it's ruled a game-winning TD for Seattle and sets off a firestorm of controversy in the media. Though benefiting from the bad call (for once), the tremendous defensive effort of the Seahawks is completely ignored as the Twitterverse, social media and television programs issue outcries over how jobbed the Packers were in the game.
Though the 'Hawks benefited, I feel like we lost. When it went to review, I was totally convinced that the TD would be reversed and Seattle would lose, but I was extremely proud of the effort my team made in the game. I was hoping for a low-scoring, competitive loss to a solid offensive team like the Packers if we didn't outright win it. Had the call gone as it should've, I could go to work holding my head up high and point to the smothering defense as something to crow about and a young offense that still needed to grow. Instead, I get the immediate, albeit stunning, gratification of unexpected victory followed by guilt over having obtained it through ill-gotten means. No one will talk about the moxie of the Seahawks defense. Instead, it'll be constant chatter about ref incompetence.
I can't smile about the fortune when I go to work. I have to endure constant reminders about the false victory, even more so should the Seahawks squeak into the playoffs. Maybe the league finally bends and concedes some points to the locked out refs so they come back sooner. It still won't change the fact that the 'Hawks' record this year is blighted.
I honestly prefer that we had lost.
1998: Vinny Testaverde does a QB sneak with 20 seconds left on 4th down against the Seahawks in the last game of the regular season. His helmet crosses the plane of the endzone as he's tackled, but somehow the refs see the white helmet as a brown football and rule it a TD, putting the Jets in the playoffs and making the Seahawks fall one game short of the playoffs. This play is the final push to bring instant replay back to the NFL.
2005: Seahawks face the Steelers in the Super Bowl, a Super Bowl that's remembered as one of the worst officiated games in NFL history, which makes the loss all the more bitter to Seahawks fans, especially when everyone else comes up to you who have no horse in the race and tell you how jobbed the 'Hawks got.
Tonight: Monday Night Football, Packers at Seahawks. Replacement refs have had a really bad week, culminating in a last gasp, time-expiring pass into the endzone. Two Packers and two Seahawks go up for the ball. Two come down with it at the same time, though instant replay shows that the Packer appears to have control. Instead, it's ruled a game-winning TD for Seattle and sets off a firestorm of controversy in the media. Though benefiting from the bad call (for once), the tremendous defensive effort of the Seahawks is completely ignored as the Twitterverse, social media and television programs issue outcries over how jobbed the Packers were in the game.
Though the 'Hawks benefited, I feel like we lost. When it went to review, I was totally convinced that the TD would be reversed and Seattle would lose, but I was extremely proud of the effort my team made in the game. I was hoping for a low-scoring, competitive loss to a solid offensive team like the Packers if we didn't outright win it. Had the call gone as it should've, I could go to work holding my head up high and point to the smothering defense as something to crow about and a young offense that still needed to grow. Instead, I get the immediate, albeit stunning, gratification of unexpected victory followed by guilt over having obtained it through ill-gotten means. No one will talk about the moxie of the Seahawks defense. Instead, it'll be constant chatter about ref incompetence.
I can't smile about the fortune when I go to work. I have to endure constant reminders about the false victory, even more so should the Seahawks squeak into the playoffs. Maybe the league finally bends and concedes some points to the locked out refs so they come back sooner. It still won't change the fact that the 'Hawks' record this year is blighted.
I honestly prefer that we had lost.