Dad proves to be good luck charm
By Dan Viens
The View From Section 114 welcomes a new guest today, and he just may have been a good luck charm as the Seahawks beat the Steelers 39-30.
It’s been so long since I’ve taken my Dad to a Seahawks game I can barely even remember. Was Holmgren the coach? Or Tom Flores? Chuck Knox?!?!?!
Growing up, it was the norm for us to attend together. I have vivid memories, mostly tinted with Kingdome grey, of doing the wave and even drinking beers with the old man. We saw playoff teams together, and not-so-playoff teams. We saw a lot of good players, many great ones, and also Dan McGuire. But then this real-life thing came along, I went to college, moved around, and at a certain point probably felt I was too cool to take my Dad anymore. I went through a period where I was more interested in how my buddies and I were going to sneak alcohol into the game than I was with the bonding that can occur between a father and son.
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And then his body started breaking down. It was harder for him to get up and down all the stadium stairs, or even get from the parking lot into the venue. Around 2003 I took over the family tickets and have treated them as my own ever since. He stopped asking if he could go, and I guess I thought we had seen our last pro sporting event together. But this year we moved our seats down lower, near the field. Not as many stairs. And he asked. He wanted to go to one game. I didn’t know how we would pull it off, but it immediately sounded like something I had to do. I looked at the schedule and it made sense……. the Pittsburgh game. That would be the one.
And so today, I brought my father to Section 114. I had to walk slower and let him use my arm to steady himself, and at the end of the game our rookie use of Uber as a means to get out of the stadium turned into a mini nightmare. It was too congested around the stadium, not enough movement, no where for the driver to meet us. And so we had to walk…. and walk. Four, five blocks maybe. Far too many steps for a man who relies on a cane. He asked to stop and rest a few times, all the while trying to be positive. “I’m getting my exercise!” he quipped. But I knew he had to be hurting. What a stud for trying to make the best out of a tough situation.
But the bottom line is, we went. And what we saw was awesome. A Seahawk team we needed to see step up and show us they still had some of that swag, showed us that and more. The defense was flying around making plays. Unsung heros were singing (Jeremy Lane!), and Russell………. well, Russell was on a planet all his own. For all those Wilson haters and doubters, all the “he’s not elite” nonsense, those people need to watch this tape over… and over. In fact “they” should be duct taped to a chair and forced to watch what happened today because Wilson won from inside the pocket and out, with his arm, his feet and his head. Every time the Steelers punched, Wilson came right back with another uppercut to their chin.
Today, this Seahawks team made us believe again.
And I got to share it with the one man who allowed me to love football, who embraced my love of sports when he saw it begin to blossom as a fifth grader. He wasn’t quite as thrilled when I wanted to actually play the sport, but he relented, because he could see in my eyes how badly I wanted to do it.
I think he needed today, Hell I know he did. He hasn’t seen much of his son the last couple years. I’ve been too self-absorbed. But life today isn’t what it was even a couple weeks ago. The world turns, things change, and you wake up to find yourself going through a divorce. You question everything. Every choice, every thought. So I needed today too. I needed to let my Dad take my arm and shuffle his way into CenturyLink Field with me. And I needed the Seahawks to do what they did today.
Because if that’s the last time my Dad and I see a game together, we will always have this memory. I can’t imagine how it might have been any better than it was today.
Go Hawks.