NO JOY IN TITLETOWN OVER SEATTLE LOSS TO PATRIOTS IN SUPER BOWL XLIX
I am a Green Bay Packer fan. At times, I claim to be the biggest, greatest, most loyal Green Bay Packer fan of all time, even though I know that I’m not. I don’t have time to be anyone’s biggest fan. Having been born in 1970, the year the Packers went on a thirty-year hiatus from greatness, I endured the worst years in Packer history, save the 1950’s, and bonded with a team that could seldom finish better than 8-8. I loved them anyway.
I am a Packer owner. I own one share of Green Bay Packer stock… an investment which shall never earn me a dividend, unless you count bragging about owning a piece of my team as a dividend. In this aspect, the purchase has made me rich. Yes, monetarily, it is a worthless piece of paper. But Packer owners don’t buy stock in our team for personal financial reasons. We buy stock in our team because the team has asked us to do so, and because our investment has helped the team survive extinction, bankruptcy, and being forced to disband because our small town market couldn’t keep up with the big market teams. We buy stock in our team because we love our team. Most of us will do it again the next time the Packers come calling.
THE PACKER ROOM, MY HOUSE
The NFC championship game that the Packers lost to the Seahawks on January 18, 2015 is still sitting in the bowels of Packer fans like a bad batch of pinto beans. To have watched your team hold the lead for the entire game, only to give up 15 points in 44 seconds, plunging the game into overtime and then to lose that game in overtime is painful beyond belief. But that pain isn’t just from the loss. It isn’t ONLY because that loss kept your team from the Super Bowl and a possible 14th world championship. The real pain is in the realization that such a loss shall go down in your opponents annals as their greatest win of all time, and that we Packer fans will have to endure the media discussing the game and its miracle outcome for the rest of our lives, much like Cowboy fans have had to endure the endless discussions of the infamous “Ice Bowl.”
Even so, many of the Packer fans I know were pulling for Seattle in the Super Bowl last week, largely because most of them are tired of the Patriots and their decade of success. That said, a general neutrality fell over the state of Wisconsin during Super Bowl week, and many Packer fans refused to watch the game at all, as the pain was still far too intense to even get close to a football game.
We all know how the Super Bowl ended. There needs to be no discussion here about play calling or blah, blah, blah. But in the week since the Seahawks blew their chance at a second straight championship there has been a lot of talk and discussion — especially on social media pages — about karma.
The Cowboys shouldn’t have beaten the Lions; the Packers shouldn’t have beaten the Cowboys; the Seahawks shouldn’t have beaten the Packers; the Patriots shouldn’t have beaten the Seahawks.
Karma was responsible for all of it, evidently.
I’m not much of a “Karma” guy. Generally, I treat people like I want to be treated, not because I think karma’s gonna get me if I’m an ass.
For a good example of the karma pitch, have a look at this link:
I find no comfort, no solace, no endearing emotions whatsoever in Seattle’s Super Bowl loss. I’m not smirking, feeling smug, or resisting an urge to yell, “In your face!” to the Seattle faithful. Likewise, I feel no sympathy, no remorse, and certainly no empathy for the Seahawks’ fans. What is, simply is.
For a true fan of any team of any sport, there is never any real joy in the demise of another team. Real happiness always comes from your team’s success, not another’s failure.
If there is ANY possible good that comes from the outcome of this football season, it’s that there’s a slight possibility that Packer Nation won’t have to endure Seattle’s version of the “Ice Bowl” quite as often as we would have if they’d have beaten the Patriots.
I doubt it, though.
Eric Schlehlein, Author 
Go lions
Wow, I’m impressed by your passion and dedication. Look at the wall!
Eric, Thanks for taking the time to visit, read and like my blog. Sincere gratitude!
I’m also a long-term Packers fan, though I came around to it in kind of a different way. I’m an Arizona native born in 1965. Growing up, there was no AZ team and in my very early days I only knew that I didn’t like the Cowboys as we were pretty much force fed them here. I read a book about Bart Starr in middle school and my love of the Pack was born. That was about in 1976 and, well, I don’t have to tell you how miserable the next 16 or so years were. I remember how eagerly I waited every year for the Sports Illustrated NFL preview issue and how one year their preview of the Packers started with: The Pack is back…to the wall. The man with the baton is handing out the blindfolds and saying, Ready, Aim…
Anyway, enough rambling. My younger son, who has become quite the rabid Packers fan, and I suffered through that game and were both miserable for days. Not because we lost, because most seasons end with a loss, but the manner of it. Unfortunately, I cannot claim to be as generous as you (darn it, now I have to try harder!). When the Seahawks also lost a great deal of the pain went away. Now we mostly talk about how excited we are for next year instead of wallowing in last year.
PS I also own a share of the team and look forward to buying one for my son when they next offer them.
My family was living in Loveland Ohio when I joined the USAF in 1967. I can remember the buzz about the Bengals forming (although unnamed at the time) and I decided to become a Bengals fan. I have been a Bengals fan ever since, through good times and bad. The wonderful days of Kenny Anderson and the horrible days of the “Bungles” when I suggested to the team management, at least twice, that they put the secretarial staff in uniform and play them as that might result in more games won.
Now I am glad again and have just one wish for now, stop with the “One and done” for the playoffs.
Respect from overseas… Like you I was born in 1970; ditto I own a stake of my fan-owned football (soccer) team: AFC Wimbledon.
My club has had quite a journey – founded 1889 as Wimbledon FC but sold off by soul-less/money mad owners 2001 – franchised, in the American style, and sold to a town about 80 miles (130 km) away from Wimbledon.
The fans started our own club in 2002 – resurrection as ‘AFC Wimbledon… (AFC is a nondescript acronym but everyone close to the club agrees that it stands for “A Fan’s Club…”).
Since 2002, it’s the best story in English football, perhaps in world sports: AFC Wimbledon has risen through several tiers of football leagues (hierarchy/pyramid of non-professional leagues).
The club holds the record of the longest unbeaten run of league matches in English senior football, having played 78 consecutive league games without a defeat…
I finally watched the club make it back into the pro leagues with a play-off/championship win in 2011.
P.s. As a kid in the UK I used to watch highlights of the NFL on British TV – they used to broadcast it late at night as there was no audience. I always respected the Green Bay story.
I salute you bro! Cheers ~
Hi! I’m a Packer fan as well. I live in Seattle but spent three years as a kid in Waukesha (hope I spelled that right, been a long time). So the loss was disheartening, to say the least. Was a pretty nice payback when Seattle lost at the SB. I couldn’t help but LOL (in private). 😉 Hey thanks for stopping by – I’ll be back.
The only solace I have from that loss was watching the Seahawks lose the Superbowl in the last seconds of the game. And still that’s not enough. The shame will live on and on.
“What is, simply is.”
Huh.
Sounds a little like “It is what it is.”?
Damn. Busted.