When I was younger I was an Eagles fan. Vicious D, Randall Cunningham, it was a fun team to watch. Then after Reggie White went to Green Bay I had to find a new team to root for. Seattle was on the tube all the time so they became my team. Now I live in Seattle. It's not hard to support them. I don't know how anyone can support a team coached by Jim Harbaugh.
Cause not everyone has the little brother syndrome that is so prevalent in Portland. You don't have to hate all things Seattle if you're from Portland. Rooting for a Seattle team (in a league where there is no Portland counterpart) makes much more sense than rooting for a team from SF (or NY or anywhere else). Of course, living through 4 SB wins probably makes the 49s a little easier to root for growing up than the Seahawks of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.
Imma have to throw this one back to you (on behalf of Nate).... I don't know how anyone can support a team coached by Pete Carroll.
This is only partially true. Rooting for SF teams makes a lot of sense for Portlanders. The Giants have a pretty damn big following in Portland. Why? Because until the Mariners were enfranchised in 1977, SF was the closest MLB team to Portland. So, there's been a natural following here. My dad and a lot of his friends and family grew up Giants fans, and I was entrenched in that (as were other kids). Plus, a lot of Californians moved here (and they naturally support their original teams). It wasn't until the M's were decent in the 1990's and the Giants years of sucking that you saw a lot of growth in Mariners support here in Portland. Similar situation with the Seattle Seahawks. The 49ers were as much Portland's NFL team as the Seahawks were, if not more so. I don't recall anyone in my youth being a Seahawks fan. Now, there's quite a few in town (that what happens when you start winning some games and become respectable). So, as I see it, the Seattle sports teams are mostly comprised of bandwagoners (but we all are in one way or another, I suppose). I never encountered fans of their teams until they started winning. Hell, everyone loved Griffey, Jr. He was the player everyone wanted to be in my youth. But I never heard people say they were M's fans.
None of that explains why someone has so much hate for the city of Seattle that the idea of rooting for any Seattle based team is incomprehensible. And, I'm not just talking about sports, but the city in its entirety. It seems to be a fairly common sentiment in Portland, which is what makes no sense to me. To me, Seattle is just a bigger Portland. Of course they have their differences (both good and bad), but fundamentally they are very similar. But back to the Seahawks vs 49ers, people like winners and I'm guessing that a lot of those Portland based 49ers fans (at least ones under 40) are so because of their success in the 80s and 90s (and the Seahawks lack of success). About the M's, I have no clue where you are coming from there. I'm a year younger than you and EVERYONE in my little league loved the M's, even when they sucked. Of course there were a few Yankees fans, but most of my friends/teammates loved the Mariners (and not just Griffey).
Oh, just wanted to add, I'm not even a big Seahawks or Mariners fan. I grew up an A's fan (wanted to be like my older cousin and was duped by the roided out bash bros), but never really hated the M's. I don't follow MLB enough to really care about any teams, but when the M's do well I'm happy. Same goes for the Seahawks. I never followed NFL all that closely growing up, but when I moved to Seattle in 02 I started paying more attention to them. I still wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan of them, but if they are on I'll always root for them.
I'm a Vikings fan and I saw this coming a mile away. Percy demanded a trade just before training camp. It sounded like they worked through it. Then, when he injured his ankle they immediately put him on IR and he was a ghost. Not on the sidelines, in the media, just gone. As someone who's watched nearly all of his games, he is going to make that Seattle offense even more dangerous. He's not much of a down field threat, but he's a beast over the middle and in the flat. His production when matched up with a good QB is fantastic (just look at his 2009 season with Favre). I think he wanted out because McNabb and Ponder were hurting his career. Hard to blame him.
Cool. I guess it was a different experience for you growing up in the Metro Area than it was for me. I knew maybe one or two people who were M's fans. I knew people that followed them, but they followed MLB in general, and were otherwise bigger fans of other teams (like myself - I followed the M's with Griffey and through some good years, but I wasn't a big enough fan to follow them through the garbage years, since I'm a Giants fan). I'm sure there are Niners fans that hopped on the Niners bandwagon because they were good. But the Niners were also one of Portland's teams. Because my parents grew up in Portland, and the Niners were the closest team, they were Niners fans and I grew up in a Niners household. I imagine there are several people who grew up the same. Until Seattle moved to the NFC, the Niners were on TV every week. Hell, as I remember it, even the Niners got more press in the Oregonian than other teams not from Seattle. So, the Niners were just kinda thrown down people's throats. I'm sure that their success as one of the best franchises in the NFL for years, and the fact that they're on the West Coast helps with that. Still to this day, I don't know that many people who are Hawks or M's fans that, one, are either bigger fans of other teams, or two, jumped on the bandwagon when their own team sucked and those franchises started succeeding. The proximity to Portland probably then helped them stay on those bandwagons. As I said in my earlier post, we're all bandwagoners in one way or another. As for the City of Seattle.... It's always reminded me of a cross between Portland and San Francisco. I visit Seattle and SF 3-4 times/year, and I've broken it down, and that's my overall conclusion, but I'll spare you the details and analysis, as it gets a bit mundane. As for Seattle hatred.... does Nate hate Seattle? I mean, I get not liking the teams. I suppose some people hate Seattle because of the "Portland is Seattle's little brother" mentality that gets thrown our way sometimes. But I don't run across a lot of people holding disdain for Seattle, just people tired of the "Portland is just a smaller Seattle" attitude.
Cool story. What's ignorant? That I don't know hardly any Seahawks fans? Not quite sure how that's ignorant? Please, do tell. I'm not big into FB, but during the playoffs (and even regular season), I would might check FB on my phone during games. I constantly saw comments about all sorts of teams and players throughout the season. I saw the Seahawks mentioned maybe four times (aside from mentions when they were the opponent of a game). (I know that'll cue the "You must have 4-5 friends" jokes.) Admittedly, I'm not at sports bars watching football most Sundays, but I don't see a lot of Seahawks fans wherever I am or hanging out. And I don't know but maybe 1-2 people whose favorite team is the Seahawks. Don't hate cuz we live 3 hours from Seattle, and your team still is not the most popular NFL team in Portland.
His statement pretty much means "how could someone from Portland every support anything from Seattle". It isn't a sports comment. Its a comment about Portland vs Seattle and it's one that is repeated quite a lot (not saying it is a majority of Portlanders who hold this view, but it is strong enough to be a recurring theme/topic). I'm not questioning his or your fandom of the 49ers. I don't doubt you grew up in a family full of SF fans. I just don't get the blanket hate for Seattle and its teams.
If he's like me, he hates Seattle teams because they're force-fed to us and take time away from our teams, or other teams that are relevant (granted, the Seahawks are relevant again now, but the feeling doesn't just disappear with one season). I mean, when I was growing up, both teams sucked. Pretty much every single year. I grew up hating them because they sucked, AND they were forced down our throats. I grew up wondering why I was stuck watching such terrible teams at the expense of the quality teams out there. I mean, I get why the Blazers are forced on everyone here, through good and bad, thick and thin. This IS Portland, home of the Blazers. But we're just having Seattle sports thrown on us because major sports have grouped Portland as Seattle territory for the major sports where we don't have our own franchise. Personally, since I'm not a fan of the teams being dumped on me, it just kind of becomes irritating/annoying. This isn't Seattle, it's Portland. I'm all for people rooting for whichever team(s) they want to root for, but I don't like us being lumped into Seattle. I know I want to tell media (the Oregonian, TV) to quit forcing the M's on us! They suck. And ownership hasn't done much to fix them. They rode Ichiro for everything he was, and did little else. They don't deserve the Portland market's support.
This probably isn't going to make me too many friends here, but I lived in Portland for 35 years and have now lived in Seattle for a few. I have to say that Portland does seem to me to be just a smaller Seattle. A few differences to be sure, but very, very similar cities. You may hate it. You may resent it. But it's true.
Little brother syndrome? That's exactly why a lot of us hate Seattle. It's that attitude. How can someone from this city pick and choose which teams he hates from up north? We hate the Huskies, but not the Seahawks. We hate the Sounders, but not the Mariners. We hated the Sonics.... but now they're gone so it's okay. Sorry, but I generally dislike all the teams who represent that city as a point of principle. Same with NY and LA. Don't like the teams, don't like the fans. They are our rivals. And if you want to call me a front runner, so be it. I had no idea at all who the Niners were when I started watching them. I knew nothing about football actually. I was 11, the Niners were on TV, and I really liked Jerry Rice. I had no concept of their history or the NFL for that matter. That was when the Cowboys were dominating the league. My grandparents were huge into every sport at that time, and on one visit they were watching a Niners game. I don't know why I decided that I was going to start watching football, but that was the moment in time when I started.
Fuck. Yes. I didn't really start hating the Seahawks until they moved to the NFC West and bumped the Niners off the regular Fox rotation. They were just a team from up north that I didn't care for, same as the M's.
Personally I love the city of Seattle. I hate Seattle teams when they are competing against us, but I love the city.
But we aren't talking about the geographic region of Seattle. We're talking about the teams and the fans from that city. They are our rivals. They have been for a long time. I've been to both San Francisco and Seattle. I liked San Francisco better.
That's exactly what I'm saying, though. If Portlanders have any sort of disdain for Seattle, it's the being called a smaller Seattle. I mean, I get it the comparison, but on some levels, I don't. It rains. It's temperate. The landscape and vegetation are very similar. Lots of goofy people. But they're two very distinct cities. That being said, even though I don't totally agree with being called a "smaller Seattle," I don't really care. It doesn't bother me or effect me in any way. So I don't understand why people get up in arms about it.
