12th Man

I love it when they lift the 12th man flag in Seattle and the stadium goes nuts.

The connection between fans and team is most passionate in football. Hockey comes in at a close second.

Baseball fans snore. Basketball fans just want to be seen.

Football fans are psycho hose beasts. Myself included. I have been neutered since my boys left the house because I don't have them around anymore to ratchet up the intensity and because 99% of the time when I am watching a game I have a cat in my lap.

I love these little beasts so much that I refuse to disturb their peace by jumping up and screaming. So I sit and cheer with muted passion.

But it ain't easy. And I do lose control once in a while. When I do, whoever is nestled in my lap becomes a rocket ship, leaping out and down to the floor. And staring back in sleepy wide eyed wonder at the lunatic who ejected them.

Sorry girls.

When that flag goes up, that stadium rocks. Absolutely rocks. Thunder. Vibration. Rolling echoes and passion reverberated.

At that moment the connection between fans and the sport they love is perfectly defined. A chance to yell, scream, roar and rumble and let everything inside of you out.

Football allows you to take everything good in your life and everything bad in your life, mix it all up in a bowl of emotion, heat it up with intensity and express it with maximum passion.

If you are not physically spent at the end of a football game you are not a true fan.

Even when I sit quietly with Cat#1 or Cat#2 in my lap, my body is tense. Wrapped up, wound up, reacting to the ebb and flow of the game.

Relaxed in sweet vindication after a win; limp with disbelief after a loss.

I love the fact that Seattle has made the 12th man a thing. That they actually raise a flag. It is a great testimony to the loyalty and the love of the fans. It intensifies the connection, recognizes and celebrates it and makes it a little more special.

PATS/broncos will be my entire focus early on, on Sunday. I am exuberantly excited about this game and feeling pretty good about it.

I am hoping I can carry relaxation into the Seattle/9'ers game, if you catch my drift. But I ain't making any predictions. I refuse to mess with the vibe.

But if I do carry relaxation into the Seattle game, when they raise that 12th man flag, I might just rocket up out of the recliner, through the ceiling and the roof and wind up with my ass sticky with sap.

Because sometimes it just feels so damn good to be a fan that nothing else matters.