Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Stunned in Seattle

If you allow yourself to love a team the way I love the Green Bay Packers, heartbreak is part of the deal. You can't enjoy the success without the pain. And let me tell ya, last night was painful. The never-seen-anything-like-it kind of pain. The Packers lost on the last play of the game, and if you haven't seen it, here it is (the audio stinks, but you get a bunch of angles).


If you're a Packers' fan, you will go to your grave swearing our guy intercepted that ball. The Stunner in Seattle will go down in Green Bay lore. Future generations will be forced to listen to gloriously detailed accounts of the injustice perpetrated by replacement referees on our beloved GBPs.

I spent a good two hours after the game venting and commiserating with friends who I have watched football with since I was a boy. It's all you can do after something like that.

At the end of the night, I found myself sitting in my backyard, drinking a beer in the light of the moon. My thoughts turned to my dad, and despite the pain, I had to laugh. That was one hell of a game Pop.

12 comments:

  1. Clearly that was a stretch to call a touchdown. All I can say as a Hawks fan is that I would have liked to see the WHOLE game officiated by the regular refs. The officiating throughout was a joke.

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    1. I hate to be the guy who complains about the officiating, BUT, it's hard to think the calls in the 4th quarter didn't cost GB a win. Now having said that, as a Badger, I love Russell Wilson, and the Seahawks should be excited about what they have going.

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  2. I was watching the game on my laptop here in Manila and couldn't believe the play and the call. I am certainly no GB fan, but you guys were definitely robbed.

    I believe that within the next week or so the NFL will give in and bring back the real refs. But mark my words here, the first real ref to blow a call is going to catch hell. lol

    Also, hide and watch how many people 10 years from now will claim to have been at the game. They will number over 500,000. lol

    Cheers!

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    1. I wonder how long of a honeymoon the regular refs will have when they come back?

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  3. My brother-in-law who is from Milwaukee and a huge Pack fan is still venting about the play, or at least he still was late last night. It was the craziest I've seen, no question.

    The end of your post made me get choked up. I've been thinking about my dad a lot with the start of the new season, it's so strange to not have him here with us.

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    1. There's really something about Dads and football. My girls don't particularly care for the game-YET-but I'm sure many of their memories of me will involve football.

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  4. I watched this game. Seems to me like this whole ref thing has become a big cluster f*ck. Even president Obama weighed in urging a speedy resolution. Everyone is fed up with incompetence.

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    1. Even ol' Scott Walker, Mr. Union-buster himself, is calling for the union refs to come back. Oh, the irony.

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  5. I flew to Seattle from Alaska to see the game with my 4 year-old son who likes the Packers because his mother is from Wisconsin and her father is a Packers fan. Full disclosure is that he likes all football and all teams except the Rams. It was his first NFL game. I have been a Seahawks fan since my birth which coincides with the Seahawks birth-1976. I love football.

    Facts:
    1. The officiating was bad for both teams.
    2. Aaron Rogers was sacked 8 times in the first half.
    3. The offensive pass interference before the catch was missed. This is the undeniably the missed call of THE play.
    4. Players on that field are paid millions to play a game.

    If players are that concerned about the integrity of the game they should take a cut in pay to get the Real Referees back. Who can fault the referees for asking more of the $9 Billion dollar pile of money that is the NFL? Put your money where your mouth is because no one likes a whiny millionaire that cannot get their "job" done.

    Play the game, protect your quarterback if you don't want the last play to sink you, and stop blaming someone else!

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  6. Clarification on point #3. Ahh proofreading...there is a good lesson here kidos!

    3. There was offensive pass interference before the catch was made. This is the undeniably the missed call of THE play.

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    1. Wow! What a game to see live. I'm sure the place was going crazy. I hope your son enjoyed the game.

      You make a good point about the sacks. GB can feel robbed all they want, and the fans, well, we're always going to feel robbed about this one. But it's over, Seattle won, and it's time to move on. Either learn from the experience and grow, or more bad things will certainly be on the way.

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  7. Great attitude Tim. Now on to NFL week 4 without the Referees to blame for the outcome of games!

    My son was in very good company as 1/3 of the stadium seemed to be Packers fans. He had many shout outs, bumps, and high fives from the Cheese people!

    We both had a great experience together!

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