In Seattle, it's one big fan club
seattletimes.nwsource.com
By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter
Saturday, February 4, 2006
If the Seahawks win big Sunday, the Las Vegas oddsmakers who tagged the Steelers as four-point favorites might want to get their future Super Bowl picks from 14-year-old Matt Vale.
Matt, of Suquamish, Kitsap County, and his father, Bill, 46, painted their faces blue and green to join a sea of more than 1,000 Seahawks fans at a noontime "Go Hawks Day" rally at Westlake Center on Friday.
"I had a dream," Matt Vale confided, "that it was going to be 20-6, Seahawks."
Confidence oozed from the blue-and-green faithful at the half-hour rally, opened by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in a Seahawks jersey telling the crowd, "Pittsburgh is a great city with a great past. Seattle is about the future."
Nickels mentioned other golden sports moments in Seattle, including the Seattle Storm's 2004 WNBA championship, the Seattle SuperSonics' 1979 NBA championship, even the 1917 Seattle Metropolitans' victory in hockey's Stanley Cup.
"Now it's time to show the city of Pittsburgh what Blue Thunder means," Nickels said.
King County Executive Ron Sims also played the cheerleader role, exhorting half the crowd to chant "Go," and the other half to respond, "Seahawks!" When the fans' first effort proved insufficient, Sims pumped up the volume by saying, "My son makes more noise."
Despite the day's focus on football, the crowd gave a particularly warm welcome to three guests from the glory years of the SuperSonics: coach Lenny Wilkens and guards "Downtown" Fred Brown and Slick Watts.
Former Seahawks kicker Norm Johnson, who later played for the Steelers but now lives in the Puget Sound area, said his loyalty is completely with Seattle. "Pittsburgh may outnumber us in fans, but nobody has the heart and soul that a Seahawks fan has."
One of the day's biggest cheers was triggered by Lorenzo Romar, University of Washington men's basketball coach, who said, "I'm so confident in our Seahawks, I don't think we're just going to win, I think we're going to win by double digits." Romar-watchers may note that's more optimistic than his earlier prediction of a 24-17 Seattle victory, but it's a coach's prerogative to change his forecast.
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Mayor Nickels asked area football fans, when they stock up on supplies for the big game, to make a donation to local food banks. And he said if he wins his bet against Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor, the oversized meal will be donated to Northwest Harvest.
Under terms of that wager, O'Connor would deliver a "Taste of Pittsburgh" smorgasbord including sausages, Heinz ketchup and fries; Iron City beer; and a famous Pittsburgh sandwich of grilled meat, a fried egg and french fries between two slabs of Italian bread.
If the Steelers win, Nickels must supply Starbucks coffee, Larry's Smokehouse salmon, a local microbrew, Pagliacci Pizza, Dilettante Chocolates, dinner for two at the Space Needle and two bottles of Washington wine.
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If you like your literature heavy — and pricey — check out the mega-book being produced by a British publisher and the NFL. The "Super Bowl XL Opus" will weigh in at about 90 pounds, so anyone considering it a coffee-table book better have a pretty sturdy coffee table.
The leather-bound volume, covering all 40 Super Bowls, will come in a white "silk-bound clamshell presentation box" and will be about 20 inches square with some 950 glossy pages, said Karl Fowler, founder of Kraken Sports & Media Limited.
Only 20,000 of the books will be printed. The first 400, priced at $40,000 each, will feature a single page bearing the autographs of all living players who have been designated Most Valuable Player in a Super Bowl. The rest of the run will sell for a more manageable $4,000 apiece.
Fowler promises the book will have charts depicting each play of every Super Bowl game. See krakenopus.com .
Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com |
