HATE ME NOW: THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS AND WHY IT'S STILL GOOD TO BE BAD

I'm in Old Town...  

A place where boutique shops, yoga studios and high-priced condos occupy what was once the hood in the eighties and nineties.

Before that, the center of the city's hippie movement in the sixties.

The bar is crowded, yet silent...minus the three dozen or so high-def TVs adorning it's walls and of course, me.

I'm gassed up.  There's a look in my eye...half excitement, half defiant.  People are staring, some in shock, some smiling, many scowling, some curious as to why this dude has been reserved all afternoon only to suddenly lose his shit.

The reason? 

 Beast Mode is standing in the end zone with a message to the Packers, their fans, the media, his own fans who walked out early trying to beat traffic and people like me, who prematurely posted about his team's demise this afternoon...

For the last three hours, I've been surrounded by happy faces clad in green and gold.  Up until this point, I had been in hell.  This is still Chicago but tons of transplants from up north call the city home for no major reason other then the fact that one is Chicago and the other is well...Wisconsin. 

I'm here because a friend, a Saints fan from Chicago with New England ties of all things asked if I wanted to join. 

She's been going for Green Bay too because she finds the Seahawks to be "vicious," a comment I can only respond to with a nod and a smile..

40 minutes earlier it seemed this day belonged to the Packers and their fans.  Better yet, this day belongs to basic, normal, America.

After all, Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady is what they wanted...well the Patriots wouldn't play until later but seriously, did anyone who watched the Colts this season really think they had a chance?

Never mind Brady is 37 making hall of fame hand offs and Rodgers hasn't been himself in weeks thanks to a gimpy leg.  Hell, I'll admit it would have been a semi-interesting matchup.  Those names have star-power, ratings, publicity. 

The game was wrapped up.  it was over. Green Bay was heading to the Super Bowl. 

But then they got too comfortable...

And then it happened...after being mediocre all afternoon Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch suddenly morphed into fucking Wyatt Earp & Co. in Tombstone...

15 points.  44 seconds.  Green Bay follows with a field goal to tie, but the damage is done. It's over, you can see it every Packer fans eyes.

Two plays into overtime and it actually is a wrap.  

All hell has broken loose at CenturyLink Field; Wilson is sobbing, Michael Bennett is riding a police bike around the field like Debo from Friday,  Doug Baldwin is clowning NFL Network Analyst Deion Sanders for calling him an average, mediocre receiver (never mind that Deion is right).

Beast Mode is somewhere...probably ghost riding a golf cart because that's what Beast Mode does... 

Meanwhile, I'm strutting out of Old Town Pour House with my fist in the air.  

Instead of the match up people wanted, the stage is set for the heavyweight title fight the game of football deserves and the big, bad, evil, Seahawks have once again dropped in and fucked your whole plans up. 

The 70's had the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Flyers.

 The 80's had the Miami Hurricanes, New York Mets and Detroit Pistons.

 The 90's had the NWO and Dennis Rodman...

The Seattle Seahawks aren't anything new.  There's always been player or team that's played the role of villain.  As far as the game itself goes, they're the personification of violence.  A throwback to how the NFL used to be played with a grind you into the dust run game and as my friend earlier commented, a vicious, swarming, take your head off defense.

They have an edge, a chip on their shoulder that they play with.  More importantly, they seem to relish the us-against-the world mentality.

I can't really put my finger on what about this team makes them so loathsome to many others...

Maybe it's because they boast, or are truculent with the media.

But in an age of brands, PR-laced soundbites and efforts to suppress individualism, they're a breath of fresh air and there's nothing people hate more than a breath of fresh air.

They're spitting in the face of authority and having a good time in the process...

They're going to date Instagram models who just go by name "Snowphat"

They're going to keep cutting WWE-style promos when you put cameras in their faces...

And in a couple weeks they may just wreck one of your favorite QBs for the second Super Bowl in a row...

Seahawks are here.  Get down or lay down.

-WST