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Looking for Super Bowl fever, in a city that has never felt it before …
(Only in Seattle: The Seahawks' flag flying on top of the Space Needle, barely visible in the morning fog.)
These are giddy days for Mama Blue.
She is 75 years old and has missed five Seahawks' home games in her life. Her husband is 74 and in a wheelchair. But he goes, too.
"I've waited 30 years," Patti Hammond said over the phone. "You've got to believe. These guys are young enough to be my kids. If you believe in your kids, you just hang in there.
"Our 57th wedding anniversary is Feb. 3. I wished for a Super Bowl for a present."
Once, while she was coming out of anesthesia for a major operation, doctors tried to figure out what she kept murmuring. Finally, it hit them: "I've got to get to the game. …"
(Only in Seattle. Hammond wears a blue and green wig to the games, but no longer with battery-powered lights. Not after that unfortunate Sunday when the inevitable Seattle rain caused a short circuit and her hair started smoking.)
Hammond had first choice of season ticket location when Qwest Field opened. Never mind the 50-yard line. She wanted to be in the end zone, by the tunnel.
"So I could see my boys coming out smiling, and going back in smiling."
She and her husband will be in Detroit for Super Bowl XL, only the second foray into a northern winter in her life. "We can't wait," she said, "another 30 years."
(Only in Seattle: At the Pike Place Market, there are Super Bowl signs everywhere among the offerings. "Bring on Big Ben," shouts at you from the king salmon on ice. "Go Seahawks!" is the plea from atop the potato bread.)
It is the fight all the teams in distant Seattle must wage. The battle to be recognized nationally. The price to be paid for geography, time zone, and never having sent a team to the World Series, Super Bowl or Final Four. The one NBA title came 27 years ago.
Anyone notice, for example, that the University of Washington is 16-2 and ranked in the top 10 in basketball? "It's something we've been going through our whole lives," said guard Brandon Roy, a native son and one of the country's best players. "At the same time, it's keeping us humble and it's keeping us hungry."
Seattle feels on the fringe of the map, whether it be ESPN's or Rand McNally's. But what is more center stage than a Super Bowl? "I don't think people really give the Northwest a lot of respect," Seahawks receiver Darrell Jackson said. "But they're going to have to start thinking about us a lot more up in this corner."
(Only in Seattle. Across the street from Qwest Field is an art gallery.)
The reality of a Super Bowl came in Monday with the morning catch. At Pike Place Fish, Jaison Scott was in his working boots: "Watching my grandfather watch the games since I was a kid, seeing him looking at the screen yesterday and not say, 'Damn Seahawks,' that was real different.
"All the damn money we spent on those stadiums, we ought to get something out of it."
And down at City Fish Company, Arne Wespestad was rearranging crustaceans.
"We've waited a long time. Every single person in here today has talked about it.
"Football and salmon. That's all we need."
(Only in Seattle. There are more than 600 coffee shops in town. At the Cinnamon Works, a bleary-eyed Mary Kay appeared at the counter Monday morning and signed, "I was up all night listening to the radio." Sympathized Amy behind the counter, "You really need your coffee then.")
At F.X. McRory's, a restaurant across the street from the stadium, owner Mick McHugh has seen disappointments come and go for decades.
"You know how many damn days in a row it rains here? The NFL brings life to this dreary winter.
"The people here have tasted it now. They know what other cities have enjoyed. We're a little late to the party, but we're going to enjoy it. It's our turn."
And what do the snooty folks back East who have had their turns long ago, think of Seattle? Piped in McRory's general manager Kathleen Carie: "They think we're in Alaska."
No wonder the noise is so thunderous at Seahawks games. The locals - normally a laid-back lot - have felt deliverance from being unsung and underestimated. A release Pittsburgh could never know. The players can appreciate it, even if they don't truly understand it.
"We really don't know what it's all about," defensive end Grant Wistrom said. "We haven't experienced it, the letdowns and heartbreaks."
"You can sense," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said, "this is a big deal to a lot of people."
Wow. Good thing us poor, caffeinated, drenched Seattle folk have something to live for.....